Matthew 5:3 begins the “Sermon on the Mount” with “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

What a powerful beginning for Jesus seated on the mountains with those following him and trying to become like him.

“I Can, I Will, I Must”. That’s what we often say, and feel like we SHOULD say. But Jesus says that happiness is in understanding our emptiness, accepting our inability, and embracing our poverty.

Yet my Bible also tells me that in my understanding of my bankrupt state, “But God… is Rich “ Ephesians 2:4. God who is rich in Mercy. Why is he rich? Because of his great love.

Oh my, trying to be like God, and sometimes, let’s be honest, we say, “I’m too impoverished, I want to be like Jesus, but I can’t show mercy.” Well, my question, what’s in your ‘love account’”. If my love account is empty, I can’t be merciful, can’t be generous.

Yet Ephesians 2:5 says God… made us alive… even though we were dead… we are saved by Grace

Oh I definitely want to be like God. I want to be a disciple of Christ. This where it starts, embrace your poverty.

Isaiah 57:15 says “For the High and Exalted One, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this: ‘I live in a high and holy place, and WITH the oppressed and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.”

Being a disciple of Christ is about coming down and living with the oppressed and lowly in spirit.

Back there in Ephesians 2:6 it says that Christ then he raised us up WITH Him, and seated us WITH Him in the heavenlies

If we’re going to be like Christ in mercy and love, then I will bring people UP, not expect them to “get with it” and come up.

James, the brother of Jesus, writes in James 1:10, “let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field”

Life is short, I’ve got to invest in what will last.

“Let the Rich Boast in Humiliation” – that’s not what you see on a recruitment flyer, but it is the expectation of the one Rich in the Mercy, Love, and Grace of God

1 Timothy 6:17 “Instruct those who are rich… not to be arrogant or hope in their wealth but in God… 18 do what is good… be rich in good works… generous… willing to share 19 storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life“

Wow… we are making future investments not seizing earthly wealth. There isn’t anything wrong with earthly wealth if the Lord gives and we use it to his glory, but we will pass away like the flowers.

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit…

Oswald Chambers calls it the “Ministry of the Unnoticed” and he says “at the basis of Jesus Christ’s Kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace… If I know I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition… Jesus says – Blessed are you…

It isn’t my goodness, or competency that makes me Happy, it is recognizing my poverty. In my poverty – when we think, “I have nothing to give…” and yet we GIVE what we have and later we find the wealth of what we have done in eternity.

Blessed are the poor in spirit for the Kingdom of heaven is theirs…

…and they give it away to all who will receive