[0:00] Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of thy word and the praising of thy name.
[0:16] I love that phrase. As my family prepared to move over here, I think maybe Phil or Wendy were the first ones to tell us about it, and it just hooked in my mind. I love the sound of it.
[0:27] I love the vision of it. I love the history of it. I love how our minister Colin prays it in his prayers. It's a beautiful thing.
[0:38] And someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this. A lot of you probably know more than I do about this, but it comes from a sermon by St. Mungo, patron saint of Glasgow, this Welsh missionary who came to the kingdom of Strathclyde to witness to the gospel.
[0:55] And he was said to have founded the city of Glasgow. So, you know, the second half gets lost, right? Get rid of the word and the praise and all that stuff, and let's just let Glasgow flourish.
[1:08] I was reading an article recently online, and it was reflecting back on COP26 that happened here last November, and the words were right there at the beginning.
[1:20] Let Glasgow flourish. Or so they say. Isn't it interesting, though? People still want things to flourish.
[1:30] It's just like common human condition, right? You want the flourishing life. You want the good life, whether it's Christianity or secularism. Maybe you could, as we get started, too.
[1:42] If you've got a piece of paper or something like that, maybe take a moment, as I'm beginning here doing this, this is going to be a little bit of a long intro as we're starting our series on the Beatitudes. But take a moment. I want you to jot down the answer to this question.
[1:53] What do you think of when you hear that word flourish? What comes to mind? Whether it's a word, a phrase, an image. What's coming to mind when you hear that?
[2:06] You can be as honest as you'd like. Nobody's checking on you. If you want to tell me later, that's fine. But there's no ruling elder looking over. I know we've got new cameras here, but I promise they're not pointed down over your shoulder.
[2:18] So over the next few times that I preach here in this pulpit, we're going to be looking at each one of the Beatitudes in the beginning of Matthew chapter 5.
[2:31] It's the beginning of what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. It's been referred to as Jesus' kingdom manifesto. And the beginning section is what we're going to walk through verse by verse.
[2:45] And from verses 3 to 11, the first word in each verse is where we get this title, Beatitudes. Okay? It's this word that you read as we're going through the, um, blessed.
[2:58] Even if you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to have them open in front of you so you could be looking at them. Blessed. Uh, the Latin for blessed is beatus. And that's how we get the, the phrase beatitudes.
[3:11] Um, the Greek word in the original text is makarios. Makarios. Can you, can you say that back to me? Makarios. Oh, very good. You guys are speaking Greek.
[3:22] Look at you. Way to go. Makarios. Uh, makarios is often translated as, sorry, I was in the wrong, I was in the wrong part of the Bible. Here we go.
[3:33] Um, it's often referred, it's often translated as blessed, blessed, or happy. That's what you'll see in a lot of translations. And, and it's really a hard word to translate, uh, because in modern English, what is used to be translated as happy a lot of times, but if you hear happy, what, what kind of comes to mind?
[3:52] It's more of a subjective, internal, emotional state. That can, that can be fleeting. It's, it's dependent more upon your circumstances. Um, but also you, you go, then you go and you pick the word blessed, or blessed, if you want to say it that way, uh, and that can be a little tricky too, if you're translating makarios, um, because what we think of, again, when we think of the word, um, blessed, usually you think of the act of blessing someone.
[4:21] Okay? The act of blessing. You're, this is happening, and I am doing this thing to you, and now you will be blessed. Uh, there's actually two words in the Old Testament for blessing, the most two popular ones, barak and asher.
[4:36] Here, you're, right, this is a little bit of language, biblical language to start here. Okay? Um, barak is what we, what I just mentioned. It's when, it's when God does something, when God's blessing comes upon his people, he is changing something.
[4:50] He is doing something to them. Okay? Uh, asher, to be blessed, is, we actually, we sang about it in Psalm 1 and Psalm 32.
[5:01] Did you hear that? It's Psalm 1, you know that one? It's describing, instead of an act being done to them, it's describing the state of a person and what they're like and why they are blessed.
[5:14] So, Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who doesn't do these things, right? He doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, sit in the seat of scoffers. But instead, what?
[5:24] He delights himself in the law of the Lord. He is not delighting himself in the law of the Lord and therefore, he's receiving this. God's like, oh look, he just delighted himself in the law of the Lord.
[5:36] Boom, zap, blessing. But rather, what it's saying is a person who is like this, who's built these habits into their life, because this is their disposition to the world, that right there is flourishing.
[5:50] It's looking and it's observing that. And did you see the image that's in Psalm 1? What is that person like? He is like a tree planted by streams of living water, bears its fruit in season.
[6:02] The winds come, the heat comes, but it goes down deeply and it's like this tree that's flourishing. Not so the wicked. What are they like? They're like chaff, right?
[6:13] Toss up the wheat to separate it from the chaff and the wind just goes. The blessed person, it's saying, is the one who's in covenantal relationship with the Lord, who's delighting in his law.
[6:24] And you look and you see that and you go, that is blessed. That right there is the good life. There's this thing called the Septuagint.
[6:35] In Jesus' time, it would be the Greek translation of the Old Testament. They're reading in Greek then, so they would translate the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. And do you know what the Greek word that they would translate, asher, from Psalm 1 into?
[6:49] Makarios. Makarios. Blessed. This beginning word in the Beatitudes. And so this is what I want to say to start. The Beatitudes, as we're going through them, they are not a list of performance advice.
[7:03] Okay? Even though we're going to be able to make application from them. It's not saying, hey, listen up. Make yourself as poor in spirit as possible.
[7:14] Then blessing is going to usher into your life. Uh-uh. Again, we can make application from it. But rather, what it is doing, it's looking, and it's looking on the state of the person who is poor in spirit.
[7:26] Seeing how they are. And it's observing it, and it's saying, that, right there. Despite what the world might say, that's the good life. That's what it means to flourish.
[7:39] There is this commentator named Jonathan Pennington. He's an American, but he got his Ph.D. in Scotland. So you can trust him. Okay? And he wrote this fantastic book on the Sermon on the Mount.
[7:51] And he actually argues that the best translation, the best English equivalent for Makarios is actually the word flourishing. Let Glasgow Makarios.
[8:05] And this is what I want us to see to start. What Jesus says, as we're going to walk through these Beatitudes, what he says is crazy.
[8:15] And you hear them, and you've probably heard them before if you've grown up in church. And they kind of sound benign, maybe, to us. They sound a little bit like, oh, yeah, oh, isn't that so nice?
[8:26] It's so spiritual. But if we really looked at them, they are earth-shaking. They flip everything upside down.
[8:37] This is the stuff that the world avoids. Poor in spirit. Meekness. Hunger. Thirst. Peacemaking. Suffering through persecution.
[8:49] That's the good life. Look at it. Now, a list of Makarios statements, it's not actually unique to Jesus' teaching. It would be a common thing that would be used by teachers, by rabbis, by sages in that time.
[9:05] It actually even had a name. To give a list of Makarios statements would be referred to as makarisms. A makarism is this makarios statement that ascribes happiness or flourishing to a particular person or to a particular state of being.
[9:24] So, example. There's a guy who lived 150 years before Jesus in the area of Palestine. And his name was Jesus.
[9:35] Common name. And he was a leader amongst people. People looked to him for advice. His name was Jesus Ben-Sira. Jesus, son of Sira. And he has a list of makarisms.
[9:46] I'm going to read them for you. If you have your Bible, could you look at Matthew 5, 3 to 12? Just kind of have your eyes looking over there. And then I'm going to read Jesus Ben-Sira's list of makarisms to you.
[9:57] You can kind of compare and contrast as I go through them. Okay? It says this. There are nine whom I would call blessed, and a tenth my tongue proclaims. Ready?
[10:09] Blessed is the man who can rejoice in his children. Okay. What about if you don't have kids, right? Blessed is the man who lives to see the downfall of his enemies. Huh?
[10:20] Blessed is the man who lives with a sensible woman. I mean, right? Like, am I right? Come on. That's the flourishing life. And the one who does not plow with an ox and a donkey combined.
[10:33] Always said that. Blessed is the one who does not sin with his tongue. Okay, sure. Blessed is the one who doesn't serve an inferior. Blessed is the one who finds a friend. Blessed is the one who speaks to a tenth of listeners.
[10:45] Greatest is the one who finds wisdom. And none is superior to the one who fears the Lord. Okay. So, some of those kind of sound like the Bible. Right? Some are a little confusing. Like, why can't I plow with an ox and a donkey combo?
[10:58] Because you're poor. You want two oxen. Okay. There's some straight things that are just contradictory to the way of Jesus. Blessed is the man who lives to see the downfall of his enemies.
[11:09] Jesus tells us later in the Sermon on the Mount to bless those who persecute us. Right? Blessed is the one who doesn't serve an inferior. You know, that's all about status. The way up is to climb your way up the social ladder.
[11:21] That is the flourishing life. Yeah, we're going to start with blessed are the poor in spirit. Hmm. So, Jesus, he's inviting his hearers.
[11:33] He's inviting all of us right now into a way of being and being in this world that's going to result in true and full flourishing.
[11:46] Now and then into the age to come. Okay? I wonder, would you be able to spot the flourishing life if you saw it? The good life.
[11:59] Someone best. It was a really long intro, but I'm going to pray for the peace of God's word and then we're going to look at this first beatitude a little bit more closely. Lord, we come to you, our king and teacher and teacher.
[12:17] And as we look at your word, would you help us to hear where you're calling us, to see where you're leading us, and to feel where you're changing us. Spirit, we need you for this.
[12:31] So we ask this in the powerful and precious name of Jesus. Amen. For our little show and tell this evening. This was a book that I had to buy when I went to seminary in my Gospels class.
[12:45] It's by Craig Blomberg. It's called Jesus and the Gospels. We all had to buy it. And so I went on to Amazon. I ordered it. It showed up. I opened up the package.
[12:56] I got it out. And I usually do like the little flip through. And I noticed something. I don't know if you can tell from there. I don't know if you can see it on the screen either. The book's upside down.
[13:07] So the cover. See? Jesus and the Gospels. Then you look on the inside. You notice? Whoop! Upside down, right? And I thought, well, maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.
[13:21] So I brought it to class. And I went and showed all of my classmates. And I was like, hey, does your Blomberg book, is the cover upside down in it? And they would all pull theirs out. And they're like, nope. Mine's right side up.
[13:32] And I thought, oh, okay. That's kind of interesting. And then I thought it was kind of funny. This is where my mind went next. I was like, I can't wait to take this to Starbucks to study at night and to pull open the book.
[13:45] And to flip the pages. And to have everybody in Starbucks be like, oh, that poor soul thinks he's tricking everybody by reading that big book.
[13:58] Right? After I moved on beyond that. I thought about it more and more. And actually, instead of just being silly to me, it actually kind of became precious to me.
[14:09] Because as I read through this and I went through the Gospels class, one of the things that hit me again and again is how fitting of a mistake that the cover is on upside down.
[14:20] You see, because when you come and you encounter Jesus, the king, and his kingdom and the way of life, it's all upside down. Again and again.
[14:31] Jesus is the upside down king. And therefore, his kingdom is also upside down. The Beatitudes are just that.
[14:45] They're upside down. But what Jesus said is the good life, the flourishing life, is completely upside down to what the world would say. I want to ask two questions about this first Beatitude.
[14:58] Blessed are the poor in spirit. So we'll move through this. First off, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? And then secondly, what are the promises attached to it? What does it mean to be poor in spirit?
[15:09] And then secondly, what are the promises attached to it? First off, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? Now, this first Beatitude has been called the gateway Beatitude.
[15:21] It's the gateway to the rest of the Beatitudes. And the Beatitudes are called kind of the gateway to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. You understand that, you start to get the Sermon on the Mount right. You miss the Beatitudes, you get the Sermon on the Mount wrong.
[15:33] And I want to say, if you get this first Beatitude right, then you understand all of the rest of the Beatitudes. And therefore, the Sermon on the Mount. You get it wrong, you get the point, right? We're going in the wrong direction.
[15:46] So what does it mean to be poor in spirit? Well, maybe we can start by saying what it's not. Because, you know, it's interesting. In Luke chapter 6, this part of the Sermon on the Mount is there also.
[15:57] And Jesus just says, blessed are the poor. So a lot of times people interpret this as saying, what Jesus is saying is the good life is to lack material possessions.
[16:08] Right? To be poor monetarily. But actually, in the Old Testament, a lot of times God's people are referred to as the poor.
[16:18] So here's a few examples. Psalm 34.6. Listen up. This poor man cried, the psalmist says, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of his troubles. Didn't say anything about money.
[16:30] Right? The idea was there was need. Right? Psalm 40. David sings of his need for rescue. He says, I am poor and needy. Going together.
[16:41] But the Lord takes thought of me. Last example. Psalm 69. Verses 32 and 33. When the humble see it, they will be glad. For the Lord hears the needy.
[16:52] Okay? You can start to see that the poor are those who need the Lord. And now, certainly, I do want to say this. Certainly, the monetarily poor, those who are lacking in life and the normal things that it takes to sustain life, are valued by God.
[17:12] What does Paul say in Galatians 2? Remember the poor. Jesus is constantly hanging out with people who are literally poor, who don't have a lot of things. Right? Jesus is born into poverty.
[17:23] And for his ministry, he is homeless. And certainly, we could say, too, those who are poor, the way the world would describe it, a lot of times, not always, a lot of times, they are certainly more aware of their need because it's right in their face.
[17:38] Right? Sometimes the illusion of not needing anything has been ripped away when you don't have that much. Okay? So, we can say that. But what Jesus is saying here, when he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, he's not saying just, hey, listen, blessed, happy are those who don't have a lot of things, and so go live a life of a monk.
[17:58] That's not what's going on here. When Jesus, he announces in Luke chapter 4, his ministry, he says, he quotes Isaiah 61 that we read earlier.
[18:10] He announces good news to the poor, and then he gives two examples. He gives Naaman, the Syrian general, who wasn't poor. Right? And then he gives the example of the widow of Zarephath.
[18:24] Right? Who was poor. So, one was rich, one was poor. But the point was, both of them were humble. Right? They both shared that one thing, besides being Gentiles, was that they humbled themselves, and they depended on the mercy and the provision of the Lord.
[18:40] So, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? I like how one writer puts it. He says, to be poor in spirit is to depend on the infinite riches of God in Christ Jesus.
[18:52] Famous preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones, he said this, It means a complete absence of pride. A complete absence of self-assurance and self-reliance. Blessed are those who have a sense of their own poverty, their own limit, their own loss, their own need, their own brokenness.
[19:14] To be poor in spirit is to know that we do not have any resources in ourselves. And therefore, we have to look to God for help and live a life of dependence on him in all things.
[19:28] I mean, think about the opposite, too. To be rich in spirit would be to be self-sufficient. To live independently of God's norms, with reference to God, of worship to God, of saying that you need anything from God.
[19:46] And let's be honest. So many times what we feel, what we aim for is specifically that. It would be great, wouldn't it?
[19:57] If I didn't have to pray so much. If everything just kind of fell into place, and I had. The rich in spirit person, they notice the fault of others, but don't notice the fault in themselves.
[20:10] Because after all, they're rich in spirit. You know, if you're rich in spirit and you're self-sufficient, it's hard to be merciful towards others. Because, come on, you don't need to be shown mercy. You're rich in spirit.
[20:23] The poor in spirit, though, they consider others more significant than themselves. See, Jesus starts, he starts by saying the ladder to true happiness doesn't first go up.
[20:35] It goes down. C.S. Lewis, he wrote a book called Mere Christianity. And he talks about the great sin of pride. Maybe you've heard this before. And he talks about, you know, what pride does is it causes us to fixate on ourselves.
[20:51] He said a high view of oneself is to be rich in spirit. But he also mentions one thing that I always found very insightful. He says, hey, listen, just having a high self-esteem, this high view of yourself, being rich in spirit, this is pride.
[21:04] This is this root sin from where all these other things spring from. But he says, flip it around. You know, sometimes then we think, oh, to be poor in spirit must mean to have super low self-esteem.
[21:17] And he says, no, no, no, no, no. The problem with that is the proud person, what are they thinking about constantly? Themselves. The person with extremely low self-esteem, what are they thinking about constantly?
[21:31] Themselves. Love or hate the person in the mirror, you're still fixated on and captured by the mirror. Rather, C.S. Lewis, he points out that true humility is to think of yourself less.
[21:47] He calls it blessed self-forgetfulness. See, to be poor in spirit is to reject the illusion that you can be all-knowing and all-powerful. And instead, to live within your limits.
[22:00] To live with reference to God in all things. There's this thing in the modern Western culture that it's been coined and referred to as expressive individualism.
[22:15] It's been around for a while, but basically what it's saying, it's the way that we look into the world. It's the way that we find a sense of our true self. Who are you really?
[22:28] In past cultures, it's not always been the way it is now. In past cultures, you would look to your community to tell you who you are. Nowadays, what people do is they look inside.
[22:39] And so to be your true self is to express whatever's in there. Whatever's at the core, that's the real you. And so if you're going to be the full you, you've got to get that out somehow.
[22:51] It's this sovereign self. There's no limits by religion or tradition. You've got to burst free. You want an example of that? There is this Disney movie that a few years ago my girls watched and sang constantly called Frozen.
[23:09] Frozen. Maybe you've heard of it before. Anybody ever heard of it? Okay. Yeah, some of you need to get out more. The big hit song in that first movie, it's Let It Go, right?
[23:19] And the character Elsa, she says this. He says, It's time to see, well, she sings it, but I'm not going to sing it. It's time to see what I can do to test the limits and break through.
[23:30] No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. Let it go. Let it go. Right? That's what it means to live the good life.
[23:43] To be who I've always really been on the inside. You see, everything else, all these expectations, all the world, good or bad, whatever it is, they're coming at me and I have to burst free.
[23:54] I've got to let those things go. No rules. Therefore, I'm my true self. I'm going to roll here. We're going to give another one. Moana. This isn't like Bash Disney Night or anything like that.
[24:07] It's coming. It's rolling. What do you want to know about Moana? Moana is about Moana. And in Moana, she wants to, again, break free from her family's tradition.
[24:19] She has to find her true self. And at the end of the movie Moana, Moana sings a song called I Am Moana to herself Moana.
[24:31] And the song is about Moana. You don't have to watch the movie now. You see, what's going on there? You see, Christianity, it promotes the inner life, right?
[24:44] Not ignoring your emotions, but it also doesn't let the inner life reign supreme. It sees your emotions as not something to be afraid of or to submit to, but to steward and direct towards God.
[24:56] But in our day and age, what we say is that is what reigns supreme. That is whatever's coming in here, whatever's coming out, I have to get it out. And therefore, I'm myself. And until I do that, until I'm my true self, I can't be happy.
[25:11] I can't flourish. There's this good biblical illustration, too, better than Disney movies. Sorry for that. Of what it means to be poor in spirit versus rich in spirit.
[25:22] In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells a parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. They both enter the temple together. And first, the Pharisee prays.
[25:36] And he basically prays a self-justifying prayer to himself. Listen to all the repeated I's in it. God, thanks that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector who's over there in the corner.
[25:51] I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, he stands far off. He puts his face in the ground and he simply prays.
[26:03] God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus says it's the tax collector who went away justified. And he says this. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
[26:17] If we're poor in spirit, it means we're going to come clean. Enough with the excuse of making up excuses and covers up and defensiveness.
[26:30] To maintain that veneer, it is exhausting. It's not the good life. The good life is if you saw somebody not pretending anymore. But also not giving in to this lie that the pretending then has to give in to whatever arises inside of them.
[26:47] But rather living a life under the rule and reign of God. That person is poor in spirit. And that person is flourishing. So, to be poor in spirit is to come to an end in our own self-sufficiency and to trust humbly in God.
[27:04] Second question then, what's the promise attached to this? You see, the promise that Jesus makes is simply this. The one who is poor in spirit is flourishing.
[27:17] Because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Emptied, you're ready to be filled. We'll talk more about the kingdom of heaven as we go through different beatitudes.
[27:29] There's all this context to it. But the kingdom of heaven, what I'll say right now is just this. It is the rule and the reign of God. Jesus announced it at the beginning of the passage that Walter read earlier in chapter 4, verse 17.
[27:41] He says, repent for the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven is at hand. Or some translations say the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. To repent means to turn around.
[27:53] So, Jesus is coming and saying, hey, listen. Eyes up here. Eyes on me. Listen. Turn around. Not that way. This way. The rule and the reign of God, the kingdom of heaven is here.
[28:05] And for the kingdom of heaven to be there, it means that the king has come. To have the kingdom is to be a citizen of the kingdom. And it means to belong to the king.
[28:17] And this belonging to him changes absolutely everything. The poor in spirit are those who need a king. It's the lowly ones who belong to this king.
[28:28] And what we read as we go through the gospel of Matthew is that Jesus is the type of king. What he says in Matthew 11, 28. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.
[28:41] And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls.
[28:51] See, the promise of flourishing and the good life, the promise of the kingdom, is to those who are poor in spirit because they are yoked to the gentle and lowly king.
[29:06] And his life is theirs. And the trajectory of his life is then ours also. Put it another way. The path of what happens to King Jesus is what happens to those who are attached to him.
[29:21] Who are subjects to that king. He humbles himself to the point of death. Even death on a cross.
[29:33] Therefore, God has highly exalted him. And given him a name above every name. Sorry for all the movie illustrations.
[29:44] One more. There's this Tom Cruise movie called Night and Day. You don't need to go watch it or anything like that. It's Tom Cruise movie. I think Cameron Diaz is the other character in it.
[29:55] And in this movie, the Cameron Diaz character, her name's June. She just happens to bump into Tom Cruise, who's this super secret agent. And when she bumps into him, just this life of chaos ensues.
[30:09] Because all of a sudden, there's bad guys everywhere. And there's guns being shot. And they're on the run. And she just can't deal with it. And so at one point, after this massive chase scene and Tom Cruise jumping off a motorcycle and landing on a car and taking out all the bad guys.
[30:25] She's just like, enough. I've got to get away. I've got to get away from you. It's too much. This isn't the good life. My nice quiet life was the good life.
[30:38] I want to go back to that. And Tom Cruise, in his typical overacting style, he looks at her. And he says, June, you want to go? Fine.
[30:48] Go. But I just want to let you know one thing, June. There's lots of bad guys out there. Guys with guns. And these guys want to get us. And here's what I want you to know, June.
[30:59] Your chances of surviving out there, with me, without me. With me, without me. And then he does it again another three times. With me, without me. With me, without me.
[31:10] But, see, Jesus starts with. Blessed are the poor in spirit. You look at it and you go, that's not the good life. Go back to my nice quiet life.
[31:22] Where I can control things. Where I was expressing my inner self. Can I please go there? Say, hey, listen. The rest of this.
[31:34] The rest of this flourishing. If you want to go in that direction, this is the gateway. You can turn around and you can walk away. I just want you to know.
[31:46] Out there in that world where you think you can just grab the good life. Through pleasure and doing what you want. Your chances of surviving out there? With me.
[31:58] Without me. With me. Without me. Those who serve the king. Those who serve the king. And trust this one who first goes down and then goes up.
[32:13] As we say. That's the good life. Why? Because we're with him. Because the kingdom of heaven.
[32:23] It's ours. Because we belong to the king. What would it look like for Glasgow to flourish? Well, it would have to be through the preaching of the word.
[32:34] Right? Ain't no way that on our own we're going to stumble into this as the life of flourishing. And it would have to be through the praising of the name of King Jesus.
[32:46] Because it's when we rehearse this story. The story of the upside down king. And his upside down kingdom. When we sing it. And pray it. And believe it. It starts to work its way into our imagination.
[32:59] And we start to dream a dream of a life for us. And our families. And our unbelieving neighbors. That's connected to that.
[33:12] That's connected to the king. And his kingdom. For Glasgow to flourish. It would have to truly believe that the way up is down. Maybe some of us here tonight.
[33:24] You could start simply by entrusting your life to him. And looking to him. And believing that he knows a better way than you do. Here's the thing.
[33:35] We're going to. About the. You know. Over the coming weeks. The most interrupted sermon series ever. None of these beatitudes are good. They can't be flourishing.
[33:47] Unless something has fundamentally changed about this world. Unless the king has come. And the king was crucified. And the king was raised.
[33:58] And the king has ascended. And the king is sitting on his throne. And the king will come back. That is the only way. That this is the flourishing life.
[34:11] And if that is true. If that's true truth. The truest thing in this world. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
[34:23] Let's pray. Lord. Let's pray. Let's pray. Lord. Lord we come.
[34:34] To you. After hearing your word. And we struggle. We struggle to think. About this reality.
[34:45] That to be poor in spirit. Is. To have. The riches. Of heaven. Father. Father. We pray. That this.
[34:55] Gospel story. Of the upside down king. And his upside down kingdom. Would work. Its way. Into our hearts. That we would rehearse. This story. That we would think about it. Pray about it.
[35:06] Talk about it. Remind one another. Of it. That Holy Spirit. You would come. Go to those places. In our heart. That we've. That we've sectioned.
[35:16] Off. From you. Burst through those doors. By your grace. So that we might flourish. Lord. So that we might find happiness. That we might find.
[35:27] The blessed life. The good life. Not a life. Apart. From you. But one. Under your rule. And reign. Where our hearts. Are full of joy. And our mouths.
[35:38] Speak your peace. And our feet. They run. To the poor. And the needy. Because we know. That we are poor in spirit. Father.
[35:48] Would you do this. In our life. In our midst. For the good. Of our city. Would you let Glasgow flourish. By the preaching of thy word. And the praising of thy name. We ask all of this.
[35:59] In the name of Jesus. Amen.