Introduction:

When we look around the world or even around Adel and the Des Moines Metro area we see some poverty, some need and want. This past week our clergy new to the Des Moines District toured the various umbrella ministries and saw several areas of need. We usually do not consider those so afflicted as the blessed and happy. We seek to help alleviate poverty locally and across the globe, but it continues. Let me ask you. Are the wealthy, the ones who are the blessed people? What about the poor and those of moderate means - some as a result of circumstances beyond their control? Could they be happy and blessed?

Did not Jesus teach that happiness and contentment are not found in material possessions or money? Yes He did. Material things do not in themselves bring peace and happiness.

Billy Graham wrote: "Happy is the person who has learned the secret of being content with whatever life brings him, and has learned to rejoice in the simple and beautiful things around him."

This is very similar to what Paul wrote to the Philippi­ans. Philippians 4:11-13. That is about how C.S Lewis described George McDonald. "His resignation to poverty was at the opposite pole from that of a Stoic. He appears to have been a sunny, playful man, deeply appreciative of all really beautiful and delicious things that money can buy, and no less content without them. In Anal of a Quiet Neighborhood, McDonald said of himself, "Let me, if I may, be ever welcomed to my room in winter by a glowing hearth, in summer by a vase of flowers; if I may not, let me then think how nice they would be, and bury myself in my work. I do not think the road to contentment lies in despising what we have not got. Let us acknowledge all good, all delight that the world holds, and be content without it."

When Jesus opened His mouth 2000 years ago and began to teach, there were probably many then who believe as many do today, that happiness is found in wealth and material possessions. To them, and to us, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Many now have and many back then had a longing for blessedness, for lasting happiness. What does this first beatitude tell us about how to really be blessed? What does it say about the blessedness of poverty?

I. Realize our Poverty of Spirit

In the Greek language there are two words for poor. The first is penes, descriptive of the person who works for a living; a working man who is not rich, does not have unnec­ess­ary luxuries, but is not destitute. This is not the word Jesus used.

The word used in this beatitude is ptochos, descriptive of absolute and abject poverty, poverty beaten to it's knees. The root word means to crouch or cower. The poverty described here is that of being absolutely destitute. So Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." While the Pharisees may have had ample of the world's goods, poor very poor these hypocrites were in the sight of God. Recall the story of the rich man in Luke 12? Read Luke 12:19-21 He did not realize his spiritual poverty.

William Barclay wrote, "... in the Hebrew the word poor was used to describe the humble and helpless man who put his whole trust in God."

The Psalmist wrote:
9:18 "The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever."
34:6 "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles."

God created us with a yearning, an appetite, a longing for fellowship with Himself. To be poor in spirit we must realize that the worth of our lives is not in earthly possessions, but eternal realities. We must cry out, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." The scriptures clearly teach that we are all sinners. Spiritually, we are bankrupt, destitute because of our sin. We must realize this poverty of spirit and confess our sin to God.

Donald Anderson wrote: "Many honest churchman have begun to wonder how to get some feeling back in the faith. It seems to them that it has become heavy of head and light of heart. The answer is clearly set forth in the New Testa­ment. We must wake up to our spiritual poverty. We must call for, and be aware of, their gift of constant grace. The we will love God as all forgiven sinners do - with feeling."

An old gospel song by D.B. Towner puts it this way:
Naught have I gotten, but what I received
Grace hath bestowed it since I have believed
Boasting excluded; pride I abase
I'm only a sinner - saved by grace.
Suffer that sinner whose heart overflows
Loving his Savior, to tell what he knows.
Once more to tell it, would I embrace
I'm only a sinner - saved by grace.

Commenting on this song, Donald Anderson wrote: "As a child, hearing my father sing this song and talk about the beauty and meaning of it did nothing for me. He was the straightest, most moral man I have ever known. I didn't know what 'grace' meant - and I certainly didn't know what he meant when he talked about it. Now I think I know. I know that grace means an undeserved gift - and I know that my father felt he needed it and received it. Good as he was, he was painfully aware of the gap between where he was and where he should be. And it was his knowledge of the forgiveness of God that made the gap bearable. He was, after all was said and done, a sinner saved, not by his goodness, but by God's grace. He was a pilgrim on a journey, and he has a long way to go. But the distance between him and the goal was filled completely by the grace of God."

Robert Schuller, in his book on the Be Happy Atti­tudes, entitled the chapter on this first beatitude, "I Need help - I can't Do It Alone." He wrote, "happiness comes when you admit where you are lacking and where you have a need."

Are any of you familiar with an ashram? Years ago E. Stanley Jones was a Methodist leader that conducted ashrams. An ashram is a term from India that means a time of spiritual growth and expansion. Dr. Jones always began his ashrams by passing out pieces of paper and saying, "No one will see what you are about to write on this paper. I want you to write what your need is today."

"It happened at every ashram. While people were thinking and praying and writing, someone would say, 'Brother Stanley, I don't have a need. What do you write down if you don't have a need?' And Brother Stanley would say, 'If you don't think you have a need, then that's your need!'"

A.W. Pink, asks and answers: "What is poverty of spirit? It is the opposite of the haughty, self assertive and self-sufficient disposition that the world so much admires and praises. It is the very reverse of that adequate and defiant attitude that refuses to bow to God." I have spent several minutes talking about this first point because it is a vitally important to experiencing the blessedness of this first beatitude, Realize our Poverty of Spirit.

II. Receive Christ and His Spiritual Riches.

This is the next step after we realize our spiritual poverty - confess your sin, repent and receive Christ - He alone has the solution to the poverty of spirit of humankind.

Pink continues, "To be poor in spirit is a realization that I have nothing; am nothing; and can do nothing; and have need of all things. Poverty of Spirit is evident in a person when he is brought into the dust before God to acknowledge his utter helplessness. It is the first experiential evident of a Divine work of grace within the soul, and corresponds to the initial awakening of the prodigal in the far country when he "began to be in want." Luke 15:14

The familiar parable that Pink refers to illustrates this point. A young man who had the world's goods realized that they did not satisfy. He wasted his money and lived in sin. Then after he was materially in poverty, he realized his errors and remembered the riches of his father. When we realize our sin, our spiritual poverty, we can receive Christ and His spiritual riches. They are available to us when we trust Christ as our personal savior who died on the cross to pay our penalty for sin.

Have you taken this step? If not, you can today. However, without realizing your sin and receiving Christ, you cannot experience the true and lasting happiness of abun­dant and eternal life.

III. Recognize our need for ongoing dependence on God.

It saddens me to hear of persons who claim that they have realize their poverty of spirit and have received Christ and His spiritual riches, but they do not seem to be happy and blessed.

To enter the kingdom of God, Jesus said, we must become like children. Children depend on their parents for protection and care. When we become children of God, when we receive Christ, we as sons and daughters of God are dependent on Him. We should rely on God to meet our needs, not just as young Christians, but throughout our lives. You may recall that later in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, "Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. ... Seek first the Kingdom of God."

Conclusion:

Who are the really blessed people? Are you one of them?

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