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00:00 Have you ever heard anyone say to you, and perhaps you've said it to someone, and he
00:06 or she had the nerve to open up their mouth and say X, Y, or Z?
00:14 We use this language to emphasize what was said, but mostly to emphasize the audacity
00:21 of the person saying it.
00:23 And the ancients were the same way.
00:26 I want you to understand when Jesus stood and spoke, the rock of ages was talking to
00:33 you.
00:34 Jesus did not flinch.
00:36 He did not run.
00:38 He did not cower.
00:40 When Jesus spoke, I mean it was like many waters speaking to you.
00:45 It didn't just come in you.
00:47 It went right through you.
00:48 Jesus possessed himself in a manner that no man ever before had.
01:06 Matthew chapter five and verse one.
01:11 And seeing, watch this, the multitudes.
01:15 The what?
01:16 Multitudes.
01:17 Be slow to judge a church just because it's large, because the Bible says that Jesus is
01:25 the same yesterday, today, and forever.
01:30 And the Jesus I know in the Bible never had a problem drawing a crowd.
01:37 So if Jesus drew crowds yesterday, we should not be surprised if people still flock to
01:46 wherever he's glorified today.
01:50 You see, a church's primary assignment is to set itself on fire with the truth, the
01:57 love and the power of God, and then watch people come from miles around to catch on
02:03 fire themselves or just to watch us burn.
02:07 The Bible says, and seeing, not five, six, or seven, seeing what?
02:14 The multitudes.
02:16 And if this church's heart, and I cry, is really to reach the world, reaching fewer
02:24 people would certainly be more comfortable, but never more acceptable.
02:29 And as long as God has me leading this church, our mission will remain reaching the lost,
02:37 empowering the hurting, assimilating the lonely, and leading our culture toward the
02:44 Christ.
02:46 So seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on a mountain.
02:53 If you read the Gospels carefully, you can't help but notice some parallels.
02:59 As the Israelites were called out of Egypt, Jesus and his family were also called out
03:04 of Egypt.
03:05 How many of y'all remember that?
03:06 Joseph went into Egypt, you know, because Herod and them wanted to kill him, but then
03:10 God called him out.
03:12 But also as the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea to exit Egypt and enter
03:18 the Promised Land, Jesus passed through baptism at the Jordan before exiting private life and
03:25 entering into public ministry.
03:28 And as we see here in this verse, as Moses went up the mountain to hear God on Sinai,
03:35 the people went up the mountain to hear Jesus in Judah.
03:40 And Scripture says of Judea, he went up on a what?
03:44 Mountain.
03:45 Now, on Mount Sinai, there was thunder and lightning.
03:49 There was clouds that whirled.
03:51 There was billows of smoke, wind blew.
03:54 The ground shook, ram horns sounded, and the people trembled.
03:59 Also the ground trembled, and it so impacted them, and they were so frightened that they
04:05 asked that God would never ever speak to them again.
04:10 Let's go to this verse, Exodus 20 and verse 19.
04:15 Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear."
04:21 Like, okay, you could talk to us, Moses.
04:23 We can handle that.
04:24 I know you got a shiny face and everything, but that mountain, watch this.
04:28 "But let not God speak with us, lest we die."
04:35 The children of Israel were only given a small glimpse of God's glory.
04:40 I mean, the glory that created the oceans, the seas, the mountains.
04:43 And when they saw it, the people could not handle it.
04:47 But what's amazing about God is He already knew this would happen, and He already had
04:52 a plan before the world began.
04:56 He knew that the best way to reach us would be to become one of us.
05:01 You know, when my kids were little, I had to get down on the floor to play with them,
05:06 and wrestle with them, and all the rest.
05:08 But you know, Jesus is God on the floor wrestling with each of our souls.
05:15 But what's amazing about Jesus is no more lightning, no more clouds.
05:22 There was no smoke when He walked into a room.
05:25 Wind didn't blow.
05:26 Ram horns didn't blow.
05:28 Just Jesus, who was God on our level.
05:33 And when He was seated, His disciples came to Him.
05:40 Now it was customary in that time for the rabbi to sit and the people to stand.
05:49 So here we have this imagery of Jesus virtually holding court, if you will.
05:57 And everyone is standing around Him.
05:58 He is seated.
05:59 And if you let Jesus be seated on the throne of your heart, He will help you understand
06:05 things you could never, ever imagine before.
06:12 And like a good teacher, God will repeat the lessons over and over again until they're
06:19 learned.
06:20 You see, in God's kingdom there's no such thing as social promotion.
06:25 If you don't learn it, you don't get past it.
06:28 And sometimes this frustrates me, because the same thing happens over, and over, and
06:32 over again.
06:33 And I say, "Why, God, why?"
06:34 And God looks at me, "Change, Derek, change."
06:37 You hear what I'm saying?
06:41 Then Jesus opened His mouth.
06:47 Have you ever heard anyone say to you, and perhaps you've said it to someone, and he
06:50 or she had the nerve to open up their mouth and say X, Y, or Z?
06:59 We use this language to emphasize what was said, but mostly to emphasize the audacity
07:06 of the person saying it.
07:08 And the ancients were the same way.
07:11 I want you to understand when Jesus stood and spoke, the rock of ages was talking to
07:18 you.
07:19 Jesus did not flinch.
07:21 He did not run.
07:23 He did not cower.
07:25 When Jesus spoke, I mean it was like many waters speaking to you.
07:30 It didn't just come in you; it went right through you.
07:33 Jesus possessed Himself in a manner that no man ever before had.
07:43 And He was seated on this mountain, and He opened up His mouth.
07:48 And today, actually, we're in the first sermon Jesus ever preached.
07:53 And in it, really at the end of it, I want you to watch what is said.
08:00 So it was when Jesus ended these sayings, this is the message we're going to get into
08:04 today, that the people were astonished at His, what, teaching.
08:10 For He taught them as one having, what, authority.
08:15 He spoke like a king, and not as a, or the, scribes.
08:22 So the people were shocked by the substance of His message, but also certainly the power,
08:30 the weight in which He delivered it.
08:33 F.F. Bruce said this.
08:35 He said, "The scribes spoke by authority, but Jesus spoke with authority."
08:42 You see, it's one thing to quote a king.
08:46 It's another to, without education, without political power, without an army, to speak
08:52 as a king yourself.
08:54 You've got to, this image we have of Jesus as this kind of weak, skinny man is not what
09:00 you really get out of the Bible.
09:03 When Jesus spoke, there was a weight to Him.
09:06 As a matter of fact, the leading scholars from across the nation would come to try to
09:10 trap Him in His words, and they'd all leave with their tails between their legs.
09:16 Jesus was that type of man.
09:17 He had that type of intellect, that type of spirit.
09:19 There was a power about Jesus.
09:21 When you shook His hand, you shook a man's hand.
09:25 You understand what I'm saying?
09:27 Jesus was something else.
09:33 Back to Matthew 5 and 2.
09:35 "Then He opened His mouth, and He taught them, saying," watch this, "Blessed."
09:46 Jesus has been speaking as no man has ever spoke before, and as I said, this is the first
09:53 sermon recorded in the Bible.
09:56 And from the start, His words are very, very different.
10:00 You see, in Malachi chapter 4 and verse 6, the Old Testament ends with a curse, but here
10:09 the New Testament begins with a blessing.
10:14 Jesus said, "Blessed."
10:17 Now the word blessed literally means blessed, but also is more commonly used for the word
10:26 happy.
10:29 So basically what He's saying is happy is this person.
10:32 How many of you want to be more happy?
10:36 God cares for your happiness more than you ever imagined.
10:43 The problem is we're looking for it in all the wrong places.
10:48 You see, Jesus is about to teach us that happiness is not a stake to be claimed, but the result
10:58 of a process that God takes our hearts through.
11:03 You see, true happiness is not dependent on external events, but on the internal conditions
11:09 of our souls.
11:14 Abraham Lincoln said this, and it's stuck with me ever since I first saw it, because
11:18 he had a problem with depression and melancholy and all the rest.
11:21 Dealt with death and all those things.
11:23 He said, you know, people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be, meaning
11:30 that our happiness has nothing to do with who we marry to—pay attention—has nothing
11:36 to do with our financial situation.
11:37 In fact, it doesn't even have a whole lot to do with the church we attend.
11:43 It has everything to do with the condition of our heart.
11:51 And Jesus said, happy or blessed, if you want happiness the world can't give and the world
12:00 can't take away, you've got to let God take you through the process that Jesus is about
12:06 to teach us about.
12:08 In fact, when I find myself unhappy in life, I go back to these verses of Scripture and
12:15 I recognize at least in one of these areas, one of his promises, I'm not taking seriously,
12:22 and for that reason I'm unhappy.
12:24 Now I'll cover that more later, but he said, "Blessed are the," what?
12:30 "Poor.
12:31 This beatitude is first above all the other beatitudes that will follow, because everyone
12:37 can start here."
12:39 Jesus doesn't say, happy are the perfect, happy are the smart, happy are the wise, happy
12:45 are the accomplished, happy are the rich, happy are the one of none of those things.
12:50 He said, blessed or happy are the what?
12:53 Poor.
12:55 And what we're going to discover in this series, and today is the introduction, and we're going
12:58 to go deeper in the weeks ahead.
13:01 You'll notice that each blessing depends on the former and rises on the other until we
13:07 finally reach the top.
13:09 Spurgeon says it this way, he says, "If a ladder is to be of any use, it must be or
13:15 have its first step near the ground."
13:19 So the first step to happiness is accessible only to those who want to admit that they
13:26 too have clay feet.
13:28 God never requires perfection only for us to be real.
13:34 Jesus begins his most important, his most famous sermon, in fact the longest message
13:39 in the Bible with a singular statement, "Blessed are the poor."
13:46 But the word used here in the Greek speaks of the most extreme kind of poverty.
13:54 It speaks of a person so poor that actually that person is bent over with poverty.
14:02 So, why would Jesus, understanding life, he lived in a season where there were many poor
14:07 people in his neighborhood and all the rest.
14:11 Perhaps he might have faced it at times himself.
14:14 So, why would he call someone in this condition happy?
14:20 I'm glad you asked.
14:25 Because watch where he puts the location of the poverty.
14:32 Blessed are the poor in spirit.
14:38 Not necessarily poor in your wallet, not necessarily poor in your relationships, but poor in your
14:47 attitude and your spirit.
14:52 You see, Jesus begins his New Testament message where the law ends in the Old Testament.
15:02 You see, the poorest people are often people who think they're rich.
15:09 And the richest people are those who realize their poverty.
15:14 Let me explain, Romans 3 and 20.
15:16 "Therefore," Paul is speaking by the Holy Spirit, "by the deeds of the law, no flesh,
15:22 no flesh will be justified."
15:27 And I don't care how wonderful you are, I don't care how great you are.
15:29 You can perfume it up, you can wash it up, you can scrub it up, you can paint it up,
15:33 you can get all types of surgeries, but no flesh will be justified in his sight.
15:42 "For by the law is the knowledge of sin."
15:50 And what he's saying here is the law is like the speed limit we see posted on the sides
15:56 of the roads.
15:58 It points out our obligation.
16:01 It points out the requirement.
16:04 It points out what the law says, but it doesn't help us keep it.
16:09 How many of you know how hard it is to say exactly at 55 miles an hour, day in, day out,
16:17 week after week?
16:21 All the law does is help you know how much over or under you are going so that when the
16:32 flashing lights pull up behind you, you can be smart enough to ask for mercy and not what
16:41 you deserve.
16:43 You might have missed that.
16:47 The purpose of the law was to show us our sin so that we can ask God for his mercy.
16:57 You see, the issue was people started comparing themselves with themselves or by themselves.
17:02 So, you know, I'm as good as this guy, not as bad as that guy, and because of that I'm
17:06 going to make it in.
17:07 So, God had to show, you know, listen, y'all are comparing yourself to your standard, but
17:14 not my standard.
17:16 Have you ever, you know, maybe guys sitting around and guys talking about how good they
17:20 are playing basketball or whatever game they play, and then you're like, okay, give me
17:27 the ball.
17:28 Let's get on the court, and let's find out how good you are.
17:33 The rules of the game are one way.
17:36 Everyone knows how to—now you did a lot of talking about what you were back in the
17:41 day and how good you are and how you can do, you know.
17:46 But here's the ball.
17:48 Let's play.
17:49 So, God said, y'all think y'all so good.
17:52 Y'all got it all together.
17:54 Here's the ball.
17:55 Here's the rules of the game.
17:58 Let's play.
17:59 And Jesus began to break our ankles and break our knees as we tried to—he left us on the
18:06 ground crying out for mercy.
18:11 Deuteronomy 28, verse 1.
18:14 Let's listen to the conditions, and there are some cults in the rest that are trying
18:19 to make people obey the law.
18:21 The challenge is you obey five of 300 and something.
18:25 It's the whole law.
18:26 You got to obey the whole law.
18:28 You can't just obey five of your favorite ones.
18:33 You got to obey the whole law for the law to justify you.
18:38 Deuteronomy 28 and 1.
18:40 "Now it shall come to pass if you diligently," this is the conditions of the law.
18:46 "If you diligently obey," meaning it's going to take some work and some sweat and some
18:50 doing, "the voice of the Lord your God to observe what carefully," watch this, "all,"
18:56 say it with me, "all."
18:57 One more time, "all," meaning each and every one with nothing left out, with no iota, no
19:05 dot missing.
19:07 If you got to carefully obey all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord God
19:11 will give you, and when you do that, he'll set you on high above the nation.
19:14 But watch Deuteronomy 28, 15.
19:16 So first, God's so serious about it, he says it first positively, but now he's about to
19:20 say it negatively.
19:21 "But it shall come to pass if you do not obey."
19:26 The first, here's the promise, if you obey, but here, "If you do not obey the voice of
19:29 the Lord your God to observe carefully," watch this, "all," say it with me, "all."
19:34 Meaning each and every one, nothing left out.
19:40 All his commandments and his statue, which I command you today, that all these curses
19:46 will come upon you and overtake you.
19:50 You see, God in his holiness is no joke.
19:54 God does not grade on a curve.
19:58 God's only passing grade came on a cross.
20:02 Paul said it this way, Galatians 3 and 10, "For as many as are of the works of the law,"
20:11 meaning folks that think they're going to get in because, you know, they're better than
20:15 the next guy or they're living their life right, not based on the sacrifice but based
20:20 on their works.
20:21 "For as many as are of the works of the law," watch this, "are under the curse."
20:30 You see, the law was the tool God used to show us our need of mercy.
20:37 And if you just trusted your good works, how good you are compared to the next guy, and
20:45 not the blood sacrifices made year after year for your failures, you too were under a curse.
20:51 I don't care how Jewish you were.
20:53 I don't care how Jewish your granddaddy, your granddaddy, if you did not trust those sacrifices,
20:59 you were under a curse.
21:01 For it is written," watch this, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in," what?
21:09 That's what we just read, "which are written in the book of the law to," what?
21:14 "Do them."
21:16 Somebody said that the law demands we do it all.
21:20 The Gospel declares Jesus paid it all.
21:28 After service, I preached the same message in the first service.
21:33 And Willie came up to me.
21:34 He said, you know, because I was talking about kids jumping over buildings.
21:38 And he said, "Yeah, that's the way I used to come home from school."
21:41 And what they would do is, you know, sometimes you take a shortcut or if you don't want to
21:44 get beat up and you don't want to walk in the street, you go on the top of the building
21:47 and you jump from building to building to get to where you're going.
21:51 But here's the deal.
21:52 Whether the jump was, you know, sometimes three feet, sometimes as much as five feet,
21:57 sometimes just a couple feet.
21:59 But the short of it is if you missed that jump by just one inch, you were dead.
22:09 It doesn't matter how much further you might have jumped than the next person, but if you
22:14 missed it by an inch, it's over.
22:21 So many of us say, well I'm doing better than the next guy.
22:28 But God's law is perfect.
22:31 If you miss it by an inch, you're dead.
22:36 And who wants to be the best sinner to ever go to hell?
22:41 Well I jumped further.
22:42 I was better.
22:43 I got longer, but you still missed.
22:47 And the wages of sin is death.
22:54 He said curse it is everyone who does not continue to do what?
22:58 All the things.
23:00 There was a bridge too far for us to cross, so Jesus laid his body down over that bridge
23:06 and said use me.
23:08 And he becomes that bridge for us.
23:12 But now you can understand Matthew five and three, why Jesus said this.
23:17 He said blessed are the poor in what?
23:22 Those of us honest enough to admit given the right circumstances I could be as trifling
23:28 as the next person.
23:31 I'm no better than anybody else, probably no worse.
23:34 We have all fallen short.
23:36 And it's this acknowledgement that you know what?
23:40 Without you Lord I am nothing.
23:42 I have no righteousness of my own to commend myself to you.
23:47 I don't deserve a place.
23:48 I know a lot of people feel entitled to Heaven, but I own a home.
23:56 And no one except me has a right to my house.
24:02 Now I can let you in, but it's my house.
24:07 If you come trying to knock the door down, the police is showing up, and I might show
24:13 up you know.
24:19 It's my house.
24:22 Heaven is God's home.
24:24 You don't get in unless he lets you in.
24:26 You don't have a right apart from the door.
24:30 But Jesus said I am the door.
24:34 Apart from the door.
24:35 The thief comes through windows, but Christ is the door.
24:40 And here's the deal.
24:41 You're like, well how could God be so narrow to give me only one way?
24:45 First of all it's His house.
24:51 Secondly, you ought to be grateful He gave us anyway.
24:57 No, no, you're not hearing me.
25:07 We feel so entitled.
25:10 The fact He gave someone like me even one way is amazing.
25:18 I was a street urchin.
25:19 You hear what I'm saying?
25:20 I was nothing.
25:21 I was dead in my sin.
25:24 I was in a horrible — you hear what I'm saying?
25:27 But He let me in.
25:28 And imagine me saying, well, because you didn't have enough doors.
25:35 Well, you know what?
25:37 I didn't like that Jesus, even though He was your only son.
25:41 I had issues with Jesus and the church folk, and for that reason, no.
25:46 Are you kidding me?
25:50 God became a man, left Heaven and all its glory, and there's no crime up there, no
25:56 sin, no confusion, no pain.
25:59 And then He became one of us, and then He walked and breathed our air.
26:03 And you say, well God, how could there be suffering if you're a good God?
26:07 You see, God is so good.
26:09 He said, you know what?
26:10 I'm going to give you free will, and I know you're going to make some bad choices, but
26:13 I'm so amazing.
26:14 In fact, I'm — the same pain you're in, I'm going to inject myself into.
26:20 As a matter of fact, all the pain you have ever felt don't even come close to what I
26:23 experienced on the cross.
26:26 I am not sitting aloof and afar and just, you know, allowing all these bad things.
26:33 No, no, I entered pain, and your free will was worth it.
26:40 You don't understand that.
26:42 Free will came at a price.
26:46 Listen, when you're made in the image of God, there's responsibility that comes alongside
26:51 it, but I was created in God's image.
26:55 I'm an image-bearer.
26:56 There's a responsibility to bear the image of God, to be able to speak, to be able to
27:01 think, to be able to sense, to be able to feel, to be able to exhibit the character
27:07 and nature of God.
27:08 And with that came responsibility.
27:12 And God allowed each of us a choice.
27:16 In fact, the Bible says that hell was not created for you and I.
27:20 It said it was created for the devil and his angels.
27:23 That's what Jesus said.
27:25 So God doesn't send anyone to hell.
27:28 We go there because we choose to keep following our Father.
27:36 If you don't change kingdoms, if you don't move from the kingdom of this world and the
27:43 God of this world and shift into the kingdom of His Son, your destiny is the same as the
27:52 devil's.
27:54 God doesn't want you to go there.
27:55 That's why He sent you His Son.
27:57 God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, "Whoever believes in Him should
28:00 not perish, but have everlasting life."
28:03 God doesn't want any of us.
28:05 This is why I preach this Gospel.
28:06 This is why I stay on this point.
28:08 This is why we go into the highways and the byways.
28:10 I don't want anyone to go there without hearing the good news of Jesus Christ and all He died
28:15 to give us and the price He paid.
28:24 So Jesus begins His message with "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
28:35 And I'm sorry, Mr. All This and All That, that I'm not as perfect as you might think
28:42 you are.
28:47 But if you want to enter the kingdom, the first step, the ladder—this is the first
28:50 rung on the ladder—is you have to recognize your poverty and your need.
28:58 You have to admit without you, God, I am nothing.
29:03 Without your Spirit, God—I could put on a show for people, but God, you see all things
29:07 are naked before the eyes of the Lord.
29:11 Blessed are the poor in spirit.
29:14 Who are the poor in spirit?
29:16 The poor in spirit are those who can admit without God, life has no purpose.
29:23 Without purpose, life has no meaning.
29:26 Without meaning, life has no significance.
29:30 Without significance, I have no value.
29:33 And if we have no value, we have no hope.
29:39 And until we empty of self, we cannot be full of God.
29:50 He said, "Blessed are those that recognize their poverty, those that have tried and failed,
29:58 tried and failed, and now all they can do is look up and say, 'Daddy, help me, dear
30:05 God.'"
30:07 But what's the promise?
30:10 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs.
30:15 Only that group of people—not people who come to church, but folks that recognize their
30:20 poverty for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
30:26 Church, we do not enter the kingdom because we're good.
30:32 The only prerequisite to entering the kingdom is acknowledging our need and trusting God's
30:39 supply.
30:43 Stripped of redemption, stripped of sonship, stripped of God's amazing grace, all I am
30:53 is just one beggar trying to tell another beggar where he can get some bread.
31:00 Apart from God's goodness—thank God for Bishop Docter—apart from God's goodness,
31:06 you hear what I'm saying?
31:07 I'm just one beggar telling another where he can get some bread, because he—listen,
31:13 I know where I come from.
31:20 I remember the horrible bits.
31:24 He pulled me out of the murdery clay, set my feet upon the rock to stay.
31:31 Jesus paid a debt He didn't owe, because I owed a debt I couldn't pay.
31:37 And we live our life out of gratitude for the goodness and mercy of God that Jesus became
31:44 a bridge, that He became the ladder on which we can climb to go into the presence of God,
31:49 that He reconciled a man and God and made us one and brought us back.
31:54 The church is not just about you feeling good.
32:00 It's about experiencing the Christ, and in it, if half the church understood this, we'd
32:10 be the most humble people.
32:13 And I know all of the motivational books tell you all that, but Jesus said, "Listen, don't
32:18 start there."
32:19 Blessed are the poor.
32:23 Those that recognize, "I'm not all that."
32:28 You know, y'all are beautiful people, wonderful people, and I appreciate you all.
32:32 But I do want to tell you, all y'all wake up with bad breath.
32:40 I don't care if you go to sleep with mints in your mouth.
32:50 But you notice babies aren't that way.
32:53 Babies aren't that way.
32:55 You see, no matter how good you think you are, you are still—your sojourn on earth
33:03 is still under a death sentence.
33:06 All of us will die.
33:09 We all have a death sentence.
33:12 The doctors can't even figure out why human beings die.
33:14 Well, I know we go back in the book, but here's the deal.
33:20 If you're over 20, you're dying.
33:24 You need God.
33:26 You are not eternal.
33:27 You are not immortal.
33:29 You are not God.
33:31 You need a Savior.
33:32 As a matter of fact, if you died yesterday, even if you knew where Heaven was, you couldn't
33:38 get there on your own.
33:39 God's got to take you.
33:40 The angels got to bring you.
33:41 You are in poverty.
33:43 You do not have strength in your own to make it to where you want to go.
33:50 So now I recognize I'm not a beggar; I'm a son.
33:55 I recognize I've been redeemed, and I'm not a slave.
34:00 But I also remember where I came from, and I remember my poverty.
34:08 And listen, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
34:14 Do you know the things we're afraid of?
34:17 We're afraid most of losing the things that are most valuable to us.
34:23 Many people don't have the fear of the Lord, because they don't value His presence.
34:26 You see, He's not talking about being trembling and fearing in front of God.
34:32 He's talking about the one thing I fear in my life is that God would lift His hand, and
34:39 His grace won't go with me.
34:41 And the reason I try to live a right life is because I need Him, and I don't want to
34:47 hurt Him, harm Him.
34:48 I don't want any distance as much as it depends on me between Him.
34:52 And you hear what I'm saying?
34:55 Moses, you know, he was like, you know, God was saying, you know, go do da-da-da-da.
34:58 He said, "Lord, if you don't go with me, I'm not going."
35:01 His greatest fear was to go without the presence of God.
35:06 And there are many of you in here, you live every day without the presence of God, beyond
35:10 the presence of God.
35:11 You don't care about the presence of God.
35:12 You just want to live your life.
35:16 But when you recognize your poverty, there's a new respect, and Lord, this touch on my
35:25 life, your forgiveness.
35:27 It is something utmost important.
35:31 I fear ever losing it, God.
35:35 So whatever it takes, wherever you take me, Lord, I want to be found in your way, Lord.
35:40 I recognize my poverty, but we watch too much Oprah and all the rest of the stuff, and we,
35:49 you know, no.
35:51 You're not going to live your best life until you discover your poverty.
36:00 Are you going to trust Jesus or the motivational speakers?
36:06 And may God give you a revelation of what you are without Him, so you will never, ever
36:13 let Him go.
36:16 Jesus began the greatest sermon He has ever preached.
36:20 In fact, people from other religions read this sermon.
36:24 And the first rung of the ladder, the first step into the kingdom was, "Blessed are the
36:30 poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom."
36:35 And I want to be part of the kingdom.
36:38 (Applause)
36:45 (Music)
37:10 (whooshing)