The Poor in Spirit and Those Who Mourn

It was supposed to be the perfect town. After all, it was planned by Disney itself.

The town of Celebration, Florida, a 16-acre Uptopian community just 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, was developed in order to promote Disney values. Disney designed the buildings as well as its education and health policies. Most homes looked identical, even with the same plants in the front garden. During the winter evenings, the town even gets a gentle dusting of artificial snow every hour on the hour. Ironically, Celebration was designed as an antidote to what Disney World itself had caused in central Florida. What Andrew Ross of the Celebration Chronicles calls a purgatory of fast growth and fast food. Instead, Celebration would be yet another fresh start in a world gone wrong.

It borrowed heavily from a burgeoning young movement called New Urbanism pioneered by a duo of Miami architects in the town of Seaside just a few years before. Without getting into specifics, the idea was simple. To combat the endless, creeping, invasive sprawl that had engulfed millions of acres of the U.S., planners would model their developments on the small towns of early America with compact downtowns, walkable streets, diverse housing stock, and plentiful public spaces. You could, in theory, walk to work, though few residents did. It had a great school.

You could do all your shopping without driving and send your kids to a park down the street to play.

It was, in the words of one of their ads, the destination your soul has been waiting for.

But this carefully planned, picture-perfect world was shattered in 2010 by two violent deaths, a murder and a suicide. It was the gentleman's name who was the first victim of the town's first murder. And then just three days later, it mentions another gentleman's name, who was distraught over his impending divorce and bankruptcy, barricaded himself in his home, and started firing shots. After a tense standoff with authorities, he eventually shot and killed himself.

According to a British news article on these tragic deaths, it says, the incidents have added to signs that cracks are forming in the sugary veneer of the town, where visitors can take a horse and carriage ride through the picket fencelined streets.

Maybe the problem, the article goes on to say, maybe the problem with celebration isn't its flaws, but the weariness which the American public perceives, the simple idea of utopia these days.

After centuries of struggling to engineer a perfect society, utopia's greatest enemy might turn out to be as simple as a creeping suspicion. That suspicion that there could even be captured a perfect place, a utopia type of environment. People are suspicious of that mindset, as the article mentions. These excerpts that I shared came from an article titled, Disney Community Rocked by a Murder and Suicide from the preachingtoday.com website, and another article entitled, Celebration Florida, the Utopian Town that America Just Couldn't Trust, by Kelsey Dulligan, which was published in April 20th of 2014. We know that many books and movies have been written about the founding of a utopian society. For those that may not be familiar with what this is, a utopian society is described as a community that possesses highly desirable or near perfect qualities for its members. It is one that is perfect and free of conflict, where everyone is content and has their needs met. Utopian societies tend to have cooperation, democracy, a fair distribution of labor, and no exploitation. And many Utopias are shown as peaceful and agrarian, where people farm and work the land around them. What I found as doing some research and reading into this, what I found ironic, is where the word Utopia actually originates from. It's a Greek word made up of two Greek words, the first being ou, which is pronounced ou, as in moon, so ou. And then the second word topos, t-o-p-o-s, which means place. So no place.

So this thing that's being written about, that's being sought after, this Utopian environment in Greek means no place. Doesn't exist. So why would I bring up this concept today?

So many times in life and also in our relationships with God, we want a perfect, happy, and conflict-free existence here on earth. And we want it on our terms, and in the ways that we feel we deserve, and the way that we want it, and the way that we like it. Now, none of us would be that bold to come here and to say that outlandish statement in front of everybody else, right? Because you guys would all be thinking, wow, get a load of that guy! What is he?

Can you believe he actually, even if he thought it, those words actually came out of his mouth?

We know how that would come across if we outwardly expressed this sentiment to others in our lives.

But I think if we really would pause and look deep within ourselves, I think most of us would have to acknowledge that this sentiment rests deep in our human nature. We do not like to be put out.

We do not like trials or difficulties. We do not like hardships, and we don't like health problems.

I couldn't help but think about... it's still an embarrassment I'm going to share this. A few weeks ago, we got back from camp, and I had some returns on some things I bought for camp but didn't end up using. I had to run some errands. It was a Friday, and you know how busy Fridays are, right? So my first stop was at the bank, and the teller working at the desk just couldn't get the computer system to work the way it should. And maybe to your surprise, I was okay with it. I was patient. It took much longer than it normally would, but I'm like, you can't help these things. These things just happen, right? And I was fine, and finally she worked it out, figured it out, and I was on to my next stop. A little bit delayed, but it was not really, and I'm being sincere. I really didn't bother me that much. So I go to the next place. This is one of the stores. I got to do a return, and I'm standing in line, and the person in line in front of me apologizes because she's trying to find coupons on her phone so that they could scan them and things, but she didn't have them pulled up ahead of time. And I'm, again, just okay with it. I'm like, no, take your time. It's fine. I get it. And she kept apologizing, and it took a while, and I was pretty proud of myself, because I'm like, look at me go. I'm two in a row. I'm doing well. And I ran another errand. That one went fine. Got it. Did another return, and then I get back into the parking lot, get in my car, and I go to pull out, and this guy in a pickup truck is just barely crawling through the parking lot.

Where do you think I, what do you think I did in that moment?

That's when it all went to pottery, as they say. Yeah, I totally failed. I was like, what is this guy's problem? Like, we've got places to go. We got things to do. And then God's like, where were you like 30 minutes, an hour earlier, when you were so patient and doing things the right way?

And then all of a sudden, somebody is in your way, ruining your day. I share that, and again, I'm embarrassed. I came home later and told Laura what happened, and she kind of laughed at me, just as I'm laughing as well. It's funny how we can maybe be on one train of thought, doing things the way that we really want to do, and God even, and we're being the light that we're supposed to be to the world, and then all of a sudden, boom, something snaps, right? Because we would never say, I can't believe all these people in my way. I can't believe the disruptions, or why isn't this going the way I want, or where did this health trial come from? We would never verbalize that outwardly, but I think we have to admit more times than not that that feeling sits deep in our core that we're being put out. We're being bothered. Obviously, God wants us to be richly blessed in our lives, and that obviously includes a lot of physical blessings that we need in this life, and that's not, I'm not knocking that at all. We need money. We need health. We need our abilities to go and to drive cars and to do things, but mankind's idea of blessed often misses the mark when we compare it to God's Word and His hope for us. We just flipped our calendars to a new year, a few weeks ago, which means we are now tracking and working towards the beginning of God's Holy Day calendar, which will be here before we know it in April. It's during this time of the year that we often focus on the trajectory of our lives and we consider our walk with God. And so, with this in mind, I'd like to take some time today to begin examining a passage that is often referred to as the Beatitudes, as we ourselves reflect on the true blessings that God desires that we receive. The Jews during Jesus' times were expecting their Messiah to come and to establish His physical kingdom right now on the earth. If this occurred, they knew that they would be relieved from the oppression that the Romans had been pressing them with, that they had been putting on them. They knew that prosperity would come again. They knew these blessings that God promised He would give would come back into their lives. And so, they were looking for these physical blessings. They were looking for their Messiah to make everything right and so that they could receive these physical blessings once again. But Jesus, knowing that it was not His time to establish His kingdom, shared with the listeners on how they can be part of this kingdom when the time would eventually come in the future, when we consider the messaging that Jesus shared with the world, and that we have with those in that area, and those in Israel, in that area of the country, in the world, and that ultimately would be recorded in His gospel accounts and be shared with us and with the world, we know that His goal was not to fix all the wrongs of the world at that time. It couldn't be done, and it wasn't the right time for Him to go and do that. He did what He was supposed to do. He went and made dramatic changes in a lot of people's lives, but He couldn't fix everything. It wasn't the time for Him to establish His kingdom on this earth. But He left people and left us with instructions for how we go forward and how we live our lives and how we live a blessed life by God. Jesus opens one of His most famous teachings, and what many refer to as the Beatitudes.

And if you have, and you can begin turning there if you'd like, this is in Matthew chapter 5, where we'll spend a little bit of time, but we're going to be hopping around a lot today as well.

But Matthew chapter 5, if you have headings in your Bible, you may see the beginning of Matthew chapter 5 titled, The Beatitudes. You will not find the word Beatitudes in Scripture, but this 15th century word means ultimate blessing or supreme happiness. Often again, when we think of blessings, we think in the physical, right? Good health, a good job, a good wife or husband, good friends, just like that utopian environment that celebration forward tried to establish, right? The idealist, ideal way that people could live their lives and everyone be happy and everyone be filled.

But Jesus's teaching in the sermon begins with the blessings that God wants to give mankind. And these blessings kind of go contrary to this utopian environment that many of us seek after. The word Beatitudes means blessed or happy, and so happy are those who follow these teachings. But now obviously, many would probably not be happy about some of the situations described in the next verses. And this is part of the meaning and depth of this passage. If we were to go out and talk to someone on the street corner, maybe our neighbor, maybe go down to a local shopping mall or a local Meyer store, and we stood in the parking lot and we invited just random people from our community to come over, and we'd ask them, would you like to live a blessed life?

I think their answer would be absolutely yes. And they would start and they would probably be thinking the way often we do in the physical, right? Nice car, safe home to live into, money that pays the bills, a family that loves me and that we can love in return. But what would happen if we started going down the beatitude list with them? Let's read a few of these. Matthew 5 and verse 3, where Jesus said, blessed, right? Ultimate happiness, joy, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And all of a sudden, you start getting a little bit of a side eye from them, like blessed are the poor in spirit. Okay, that's okay. And then we said, hang on, that's not it. Blessed are those who mourn. And now we're starting to lose them, right?

Because this isn't the way that they want to be blessed, right? Blessed are the meek, oh, those who are weak. No, that's not what they want, right? And we're going to talk about meekness next week, so ignore that definition, because it's a wrong one. Meekness is not weakness, but in a lot of people's minds, that's how they view it. Let's go on down those lists, because we're wanting them to reap the blessings that God wants to give them, right? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Nah, the merciful, they just get taken advantage of. Blessed are the pure in heart. Ah, they're so sweet.

We could go on with the blessed are the peacemakers. You could see where, if we met someone in our parking lots, or we know I went over our neighbors, and we said, do you want to be richly blessed by God? And then we read down this list, they would probably turn around and walk away wondering what we're up to that day.

Because in human terms, this doesn't really align with our idea of what a blessing would be for our life, right? Truthfully, we go the physical route. Good health, large family, again, peace in our relationships, money, cars, a lot of these things, which again, I'm not minimizing. We need them.

We appreciate them. They're part of our lives. It's how we function in this society in a lot of ways. But when we go and look at this, Jesus is flipping the world upside down.

In his ministry, what he came to do, what he came to share was different than everyone expected. And the messages of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7, is time after time and time, time after time, flipping the world upside down. Because it goes contrary to the way that most of us think. Most of us want to operate. Most of us want to behave and want the things from life.

And the lesson for us that we can draw from this, one of the lessons, is to examine our priorities, to consider our motivations for life. Many would say that these beatitudes are conditional statements. That if you do that first part, you'll reap the second part of these statements. But then some would say, well, I'd like certain aspects of these, but some of these are just way too hard. Some may view it kind of like going to a restaurant.

I'd like to order the humility today with the sight of mercy. But it doesn't work that way, does it? These are attributes and characteristics of God. This is the way that He operates. It's the way that He thinks.

It's His motivations. It's why He can do the things He does. It's why His love is endless. His mercy is without bounds. Because this is what He thinks. This is how He works. And so He says, I need you to embrace all of these. Don't just pick the ones that you want or think ones that might be a little bit easier or the ones that may benefit you. He's saying, Jesus, these are for your life and these are the blessings that I want to give you. Again, Jesus came to flip the world upside down.

The blessings that we're about to read and He shares are mental. They are spiritual, based on our relationship with God. They don't depend on life situations working out in a good or what we would put in quotes, blessed way, that many would think of when it comes to the blessings, right?

If we went and talked to our neighbor again, the person down at Meyer and said, do you want to live a blessed life? This would not be where their mind would go to. And oftentimes, it's not where ours goes either. And I recognize, again, we can be blessed today if we work to develop these character traits in our lives. Even though many of these beatitudes culminate in us inheriting the fullness of these blessings of spiritual children of God, don't lose sight that we can live a fuller and happier life right now if we apply these scriptures and the teachings more fully right now.

In the next few weeks that I have with the congregations, I want to work through the beatitudes because as we work and start marching towards Passover here in just a couple months' time, I've been praying about a topic I could share leading up to Passover. And I don't know if I knew when I prayed that he would also allow me to grow from this as well personally, and then brought me here. And so all of a sudden, it's like two by fours hitting me across the forehead. So we're going to go through the beatitudes on a spiritual journey together, because as you know, this guy needs to work on these as well. And I wish I could. I'm kind of glad I don't know who was in that pickup truck in front of me, because boy, would that be embarrassing to go up and acknowledge that I didn't think the best thoughts that day. So we all have room to grow. And so let's work through the first of these two beatitudes and the remainder of our time today, and we'll continue working through them in the future sermons that I'm here with you over the next few weeks. Matthew 5 and verse 1. Let's back up and begin at the beginning of this chapter, and the beginning of what is often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount.

And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. And then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Poor in spirit means full of humility and empty of self. And this is one of the greatest attributes that we can work towards as Christians.

To recognize where we stand as far as the magnitude of this universe, the influence that we can have on this planet, to truly see ourselves as God sees us, and to see ourselves in a way that we can recognize that we fall short in so many ways of being the Christian, and the example that we should be, is an example of being poor in spirit. When we consider the mission that Jesus had when he came to this earth to live as God in the flesh, and when we consider the environment of the society that he was part of and he was born into, and where his ministry began, we'd have to look at the population of the people, those that were living in Jerusalem and Galilee, and those who were living in the little towns here and there. They weren't the richest of the world. They weren't the high and mighty. They weren't the ones who freely could do whatever they wanted because of the Roman government's oppression around them. And unlike our society and some of the other societies and nations around us today, they didn't have a welfare system.

So if you were poor, you were really poor. If you were disabled, you had to rely on the kindness and goodness of others to help you out. And these are the people. This is the environment that Jesus came into to begin preaching God's word and to begin his ministry. These are the people, the beggars, sitting outside of the temple. These are the fatherless, those who lost loved ones and could barely eke out their life. While a lot of this describes physical life and being physically poor, I think we recognize that spiritually and internally they were lacking a lot as well.

This is where Jesus came. These are the people he met with. These are the ones that he talked and tried to encourage and tried to build back up and met them where they were at.

Because he himself was poor in spirit. He himself was the most humble of all. He did not come to be exalted. He did not come to sit on a throne, even though he deserved to. He came to help and he came to serve, not to be served. To understand the depth of some of the challenges that we have in life, let's turn to Psalm 51 in verse 16.

Psalm 51 is a psalm that many of us have read through and is probably familiar, especially as we begin reading this. It's the Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him and pointed out his sin that had occurred with Bathsheba. Because remember, David had committed this adultery. She became pregnant. They had a child. He had to, well, in his mind, he had to deal with the problem of her husband. He had him murdered. And all of this seemed like it was working out the way that he thought it would. Everybody's moving on with their lives.

Things are going as well as they can. To the point that he'd even become callous to where, as Nathan the prophet is describing that account, the man who had the sheep, one little sheep that he cared about as a child, and then the rich man who had a lot of sheep came over and stole his one sheep and then used it to feed the people. And then David was outraged and says, who is this man?

And then Nathan says, you are that man. And then when David was cut to the heart, he wrote this psalm that many of us have read through at different times. We're not going to read through all of it.

But notice Psalm 51 and verse 16. Psalm 51 and verse 16, where David writes, For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings.

And then he goes, the sacrifices of God are what? A broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. That literally means a repentant heart. He says, These, O God, you will not despise.

When we think about David's life, I mean, this is one of those accounts because we're just so appalled by what happened that somebody would actually do what he did.

This is one of those accounts we think of. But we also often think about his riches, I think. We think about the position that God had placed him in. We think about his his faith. We think about how God gave him his spirit. We think about how he was king of Israel, how he lacked nothing, how he had wealth and a bounty that could not be measured.

Other nations would just idolize Israel at that time, of course, propping him up and honoring him.

He had multiple wives. He was lacking nothing. If he wanted to go ride a horse in the middle of the desert, he could do whatever he wanted. He had all of those physical blessings.

And now he's seen himself the way that God has seen him, recognizing his poverty before God, recognizing his shame, recognizing how far he had fallen. David reached the point in his life that he recognized the physical blessings from God weren't going to ultimately bring him happiness.

It's a similar thought process that I think we've all come to in our journeys and our walks with God as well. I mean, if we really consider physical blessings you could receive today from God. I think we could, obviously. Okay, when I was preparing this message, this is where my mind went. So a new sports car wouldn't be bad. A new $60,000 SUV, that would do me well. Right? More money that maybe winning the lottery, getting an inheritance.

Big house, six-bedroom house in an affluent part of town.

Sure, some of these things may change our lives or maybe even allow your life to become more manageable, but I think most of us realize that this type of happiness, these things would only be temporary. They don't normally last very long, do they? What happens to that new car?

Gets old. Breaks down, right? Has to be replaced. What about all that money?

It runs out, gets spent. More money, more problems, right? That's how the phrase goes.

You have more money, you spend more money. What about that big, fancy house?

Well, eventually we die. That house goes up for auction or goes up for sale, and somebody else acquires it and somebody else moves into it, right? Eventually everything physically fails, but God doesn't fail.

Think about those who are at the end of their physical life, maybe with only moments or days left to live. I don't think very many would ever think back and be thankful for those physical blessings that they've acquired over time. I don't think they're laying there thinking, oh, I'm so glad I got that nice sports car sitting in the garage.

I'm so glad I got that huge house. What do they normally think of? What does humanity normally think of in those moments that matters to them? The relationships that they had with others, people who love them, the ways that they influenced other people's lives in a positive way, the kindness maybe that they've shown. They think on those things. They think on the spiritual elements. They're thankful that they have a relationship with God. They're thankful that this isn't the end. There's a future still for us. The physical fails. David was brought to that point because he had nothing. He was lacking nothing. Yet internally he was lacking a lot. And that poverty of spirit, that poor in spirit, is what God is looking for us to change and to adapt in our lives to let that be a blessing from God because that's what God wants to give us. That's what he calls a blessing for our life. A little bit earlier in Psalm 51, David focuses on the more important things of life in verse 9. He says, Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. Isn't that what we want daily?

Create me a clean heart, O God, and renew my steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. When we're poor in spirit, when we see our own poverty, this is where our mind goes to, and these are the things that God wants to bless us with. This is what he wants to give us.

David recognized his brokenness as a blessing, understanding that knowing God and having a relationship with the Almighty, along with his forgiveness for his brokenness, is far more valuable than all the material wealth that this world could offer. Now, God doesn't want us going around and saying that I'm so unworthy or I'm so undeserving. Just pick someone else to be your servant and pick someone else to receive eternal life. He does not want us to just carry ourselves with that mindset. That sounds like Eeyore a little bit, right? Being poor in spirit, leads us to recognizing how God looks at us, not as one that is unworthy, but one he desires to give the keys of the kingdom to, and wants to know what is in our heart, what is our motivation.

The nations of Israel and Judah lost sight of God's law, and they lost their way. Because of their disobedience, God would eventually allow them to fall into captivity, and they cursed God because they believed he fell short of the physical blessings he promised. But God warned them about relying on physical blessings and trusting too much in themselves. Turn with me to Isaiah 29 in verse 8. Isaiah 29 in verse 8. And as we read this passage, these excerpts from this passage, keep in mind the physical blessings that they look to as a nation versus the spiritual blessings God wanted them to develop. Isaiah 29 in verse 8. I love the imagery used here in verse 8 because I think we can relate to it. Notice what it says, it shall be even as when a hungry man dreams. And so he's building this imagery about dreams and how sometimes in our dreams we have this situation that we think is happening. But then when we wake up, we realize, oh, it was just a dream.

It says, it shall be as when a hungry man dreams. And look, he eats, but he awakes, and his soul is still empty. Whereas when a thirsty man dreams and looks, he drinks, but he awakes, and indeed he is faint, and his soul still craves. Isn't this what happens so often in our life with the physical aspects, right? How long can we go without a meal before we're hungry again? Right? The physical fails. What's the first thing we do often? Even if we took a big drink of water before going to bed, what's usually the first thing we do in the next morning? Find another glass of water, right?

Because the physical fails us again. And so many times in Israel's history, they were going on just oblivious to how richly they were blessed physically, but how poor in spirit they should have been, because they were failing left and right. They thought they had it all, as these dreams often portray, maybe even in our own lives. But then when reality hits, they're not going to be able to escape it. Verse 13, Therefore the Lord said, Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the commandments of men. So they were having this wrong attitude. They were praising him and saying, Oh, we believe and we follow you, God. But yet he's saying, inside they were just dead. Inside it wasn't the right motivation. They were just going through the paces. Their heart was not there to follow God. Verse 14, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people. He's saying, I will transform their heart. It's going to be some time, a marvelous work and wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden. It's going to be a hard time, and we know the history of Israel. We know what happened with them. But in the same passage, the same message from the prophet Isaiah, he describes the opposite way that Israel should have thought and the opposite way that we should think. Instead of trusting and relying on physical blessings, we can humble ourselves and we can rely on God. Look at verse 18. Isaiah 29 verse 18, he says, In that day, picturing a future time, is how we normally read this phrase, but I believe we can apply it for our life today as well, says, The deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of the out of obscurity and out of darkness. Of course, it's talking about physical blindness, but there's a spiritual component to this as well. People who don't see their poverty, people who don't see where their motivations are. People don't see what they're lacking.

And verse 19, it says, The humble shall also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel. This doesn't add up. This isn't the way that we think normally. This isn't the way that society operates. What? The humble shall increase in their joy? The poor among men shall rejoice in the holy one of Israel? This is how God thinks. This is that aspect of having a lowly heart that God desires that we have. Going on with the mindset God wants us to develop, flip ahead to Isaiah 66 in verse 1. Still the book of Isaiah, but chapter 66 and verse 1.

Thus says the Lord, I love the imagery here in this verse as well, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build me, and where is my place of rest? You think you have all the information, you think you have all the knowledge, you think you have all this greatness, all this prosperity, all these blessings. Tell me where my house is. Tell me this planet that you inhabit doesn't belong to me, isn't it? A footstool.

He goes on in verse 2. For all these things my hand has made, and all these things exist, says the Lord.

I mean, this is like that mic drop moment, right? This is God saying, you're nothing. You think you're all that in a box of chocolate, but you're not. You're lacking so much. I am the great God. I am the Almighty. But then he turns here as an offer of encouragement, because we're not deserving of his mercy, we're not deserving of his grace, but says the Lord. But on this one will I look, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. We all want God to turn his eye towards us. We all want God to look favorably on us. And the Almighty, the God of the universe, says this is how, like, if we will humble ourselves, if we will honestly look at ourselves and truly evaluate our motivations, evaluate our attitudes, evaluate our mistakes, if we will develop the attitude of being poor in spirit, he will look towards us. He will remember. He will walk with us. That's who God looks towards. And going back to that beatitude from Jesus, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Let's look at the second beatitude, Matthew 5 and verse 4. You want to turn back there real quick? I'm going to have to get moving. I've got a captive audience. Where are you guys going to go?

Matthew 5 and verse 4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

There are obviously countless ways that we mourn in this life. The loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, losing a good job, we could go on and on.

But what is the greatest spiritual takeaway from this teaching? There are a couple ways that this beatitude can apply more deeply in our lives. First of all, it's about us maintaining a realistic view of who we are before God. Again, a tie-in to humility. How often in prayer do we feel unworthy to speak with God because of our shortcomings? I think we can all have counted more times than not times where we feel ashamed, embarrassed, maybe to be coming to God in prayer, recognizing, man, I'm falling short this week, or yesterday, or today even.

We can feel like we're unworthy and that we can't even come to God in prayer because we know enough, we should be doing better, but yet we're still struggling.

Yet when we approach God feeling this way, when we're mourning a bit about who we are ourselves, it's exactly where we should be because God is the one who can restore us. We may be lacking, but God is the one who can fill us. And what an amazing and awesome blessing to have this type of relationship with God. So that's one way that we can mourn, as the scripture says.

Second, this attitude can be one of sadness, mourning for the state of people's lives, of society, and the entire world that we inhabit. Those who mourn and grieve are sensitive to the reasons why this world is in its current condition. Let's look at Luke chapter 4 and verse 16.

Luke 4 and verse 16. We've talked a little bit about the uniqueness of Jesus's message that he came at the beginning of his ministry and the messages that he shared with those around him.

Again, he flipped the world upside down with his teachings. And when we understand, again, who he came to and his mission and life, it leads us to Luke chapter 4.

And verse 16, because here's his mission, here was his purpose.

So he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and his custom was, and he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.

So I've come to go to the bridge and powerful of this world. I've come to establish my throne as the highest on the earth. No. He says in verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. He has set me apart to preach the gospel to the poor, not the great, not the kings. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of the sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Jesus came to help those who were really struggling. They didn't have anything going for them. They were caught up, maybe, in their own poverty, both spiritually and physically. They were lacking in all sorts of ways.

If we were to consider that utopian society that we looked at at the beginning of this message, what would be the opposite way of mourning that someone living in a utopian environment would want?

I think our human nature says it would be good for us to experience a life where we would never have to mourn, a life where we never suffered loss, a life where no tears ever rolled down our cheeks, a life where we're not so angry or hurt that we're not so angry and hurt by someone that we cry. I think that is truly if we really ask ourselves again to create this perfect environment for each of us, there would be no mourning. We'd want that removed. This is that life that we would try to create for ourselves if we could. But if this was a life that we could attain, how would we ever be able to understand and comfort those who suffered losses themselves?

The reality is, if this existence could be achieved where everyone who had ever lived experienced perfect lives, fulfilling all their desires, we would not comprehend the impact that sin has had on this world. This is where all those utopian movies or books usually take a turn.

They start out beautiful. They start out, everybody's happy, life is going well, nobody's lacking anything, and then what? Plot twists, right? Someone else is left usually holding the bag. Someone else is usually the ones propping up this utopian environment for the others who can live that way. Someone else is being marginalized. Someone else is being ran over. Someone else is being tasked to do all the work, because in a this perfect environment, somebody is usually struggling. I mean, we could all go through examples of things we've gone through in life, where we've been sorrowed, where we've mourned for what we've seen in society around us, and sometimes we've even been the one holding the bag at the end of the day. And that's hard, because we think back, well, what did I do wrong? Because shouldn't God have blessed me?

So I wasn't left holding the bag. I don't want to get into specifics. We all have those stories.

But one of those accounts where I was left holding the bag and was really disappointed because I'm thinking, did I do something wrong? God put in my heart, no, but I don't want you to forget what other people are going through in the world. I don't want you to lose sight that my kingdom is not of this earth. Yeah, I could have kept you from that event, kept that from occurring, but then you wouldn't have been able to develop and understand more of what I see, nor would you have been able to develop more of my character to mourn for this world and the direction it's going and the struggles that people have. Let's turn to James 4, verse 1.

Remember, Jesus came and he flipped the world upside down. If you and I were to go out to the street corners, out to a grocery store or mall, and pull people aside and say, do you want to live a richly blessed life? And we were describing this type of a life to them.

I don't think it would be, but about two minutes, and they'd be walking away being like, they're off the rocker. But these are the blessings that God wants to give us.

James gets to the crux of the issue very quickly here in James 4, verse 1. He gets to us. He gets to humanity. He gets to the motivations that is creating all kinds of problems. Notice what he says, right? This is that utopian book that's going great. Plot twist. Somebody's left holding the bag. James 4, verse 1. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure? Right? I don't want to mourn. I want this easy life. I want the possessions. I want these physical blessings from God. He says, does it not come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and you war. But then he twists later on in verse 6, talking about how if we move through this, if we change our thoughts from the physical, which creates more problems, and focus on the spiritual. Notice he says, verse 6, but he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Clench your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. I personally don't wish for any of us to experience the deep sorrow that comes with life, because many times it's truly difficult, right? We don't sit in a family here and say, I hope somebody goes through a really hard time. I hope they really suffer loss.

I hope they really... We don't do that because we know we put ourselves in their shoes. We've lived some of these experiences. We know how much it hurts, and so we don't wish this pain upon anyone else, because this brings heart or brings sorrow to our hearts. And we put ourselves in their shoes, and we get a glimpse, again, of what they're going through. Can we mourn for the brokenness of our lives and for the sorrows of others, like our Father and our brother Jesus mourns for this world? That's one of the takeaway questions, because that's part of this, blessed are those who mourn, because God mourns for the state that our society is in. He mourns for the impact that sin has had on the world. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. See, I do it for me, too. Going back to all those youth lessons of memorizing the Bible.

Ecclesiastes 7. Right? This is a passage, I'm going to share a passage, that often we go to, or you might have read or heard read to you at a funeral or memorial, because then it, here's again is Solomon, King Solomon. Right? Like his father, Solomon wasn't lacking anything physically in this world. He had everything he could desire. He had other nations who would visit him and then praise him and wish that they were being blessed physically as much as God was blessing Solomon and his people. He had wives that could not practically couldn't be counted.

He had everything he wanted. Again, if he wanted to jump on a horse and ride some boys, he could have thrones of chariots that would accompany him, horsemen. Nothing was lacking Solomon, including ultimate wisdom from God. And what we have here in Ecclesiastes 7 gets down to the core of who we are as people. This should be, this is that aspect that money can't buy.

Verse 7, verse 1, a good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death better than the day of one's birth. See, this again goes contrary, right? This isn't what we would think.

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. That doesn't make sense.

I like food. There's no hiding it. I don't want to go to funerals. I don't want to go to memorials.

For it is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter. If we stood at our grocery stores telling people that sorrow is better than laughter, they'd be calling the police because there's somebody crazy out here in front of the store throwing crazy words around, right? But notice, for by a sad countenance, the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of the fools is in the house of mirth. This doesn't add up. This isn't the way that our lives, the way that we normally think, right? If we really get down and ask ourselves, would I rather be at a memorial or at someone's party eating some fun food? But Solomon, in all of his glory, in all of his riches and everything he had, realized that all of that is for naught, because everybody's life comes to an end. Nothing, riches, and the physical blessings aren't going to provide forever.

And at the end, it causes us, when we recognize these things, it causes us to think back to our lives and we think back to the other people's lives. We remember our frailty. We remember that we're just mortal. And that mindset shifts the way that we operate. It shifts the way that we're kind to others. It shifts how we're compassionate towards others. When we walk this walk and when we go to these situations, because in all of his riches, there was something lacking inside Solomon. That's where this came out. He recognized it's better to mourn because it makes us more sober, more serious minded. Just like we're working towards Passover again here in a couple months.

We think about our poverty before God. We think about these areas that help me to change, help me to work on these aspects. I find it interesting, like going back, if you will, back to Matthew, real quick. Matthew chapter 5. As you turn there, I'm just going to point out a few things. What's interesting, what I find interesting, is the Sermon on the Mount is captured in Matthew 5, chapters 5, 6, and 7. Maybe another time we'll maybe work through some of these other aspects outside of the Beatitudes. It's an amazing passage that goes contrary to so much of what we would, if we were to create this perfect life for ourselves, it goes contrary to so much of it. It talks about if you get slapped in the cheek, you turn the other cheek. That doesn't make sense.

If someone abuses you and things, you just take it. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

That's not adding up. This message from Jesus flips the world upside down, starting with the Beatitudes, which is amazing. He doesn't hold back. He doesn't just gradually, like a lot of Sermons, get to the point like well in that, okay, here's where we pivot. Here's where we take it and we change. He goes right from the get-go saying, if you want to be blessed from God, if I want to be blessed from God, then these attributes have to be added on. This character has to be brought in.

And he gives us beautiful sermon, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And then what I find interesting is if you have chapter headings or you have like insets in your Bible, maybe some of your Bibles do, chapter 8, look at the work that Jesus does right when the sermon comes to a close and he begins continuing on with his ministry. Chapter 8 talks about Jesus cleanses a leper. Jesus heals many.

Jesus calms the storm. Jesus heals two men with demons. Jesus heals a paralytic.

A girl restore—and this is chapter 9, by the way. Now we're into chapter 9. Jesus heals a paralytic. A girl restored to life. A woman healed. Jesus heals two blind men. Jesus heals a man unable to speak. This is what he does after giving these instructions. This amazing sermon for you and for me. He doesn't go up to the king and start whining and dining with the king. He doesn't start going up and telling them all these rich and powerful people how to live better lives, how to make this nation more prosperous that they were part of. He gets back down to the level of those who needed help because he looked around and his heart hurt for them. And this brings us to Matthew 9 and verse 35. Chapter 8 and chapter 9 is just filled with account after account of him helping others. And right at the end of chapter 9 and verse 35, it says, Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching us in their synagogue, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and healing and every disease among the people.

I know this is verse 36, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd.

It's okay for us to have heavy hearts sometimes because when we do, we feel as Jesus felt.

And this emotion helps us to refocus our vision on God's kingdom, right? We have that mission. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When things are going great in our lives, when things are easy breezy, when we've got money and everything's hunky dory, it is hard to keep your vision on the kingdom, right? Because often we're doing okay.

We need to have heavy hearts. We need to be able to mourn because God is the one who brings us this comfort. He's the one who helps lift us back up. And when we mourn and when we have heavy hearts for the society that we're part of and the things going on, it helps us to seek first the kingdom and it helps to keep our vision on what we should be doing as we walk with God. You can put in your notes Revelation 21 and verse 4 because this ultimately is when this morning will come to a conclusion. It says, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. This is what we look forward to.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

As we looked at the beginning of the message, the opening illustration, developers in Florida wanted to build a community that would work and be beneficial to everyone. It's a noble idea, but one that was inherently flawed from the beginning. What was the flaw? Mankind, ourselves.

As we looked at before, the problem of our existence is not God. The problem is us.

God created in us the minds that we can think and reason, and our thinking and reasoning is what too often gets us into trouble. So God has provided a new direction for us to go with our lives, and He's given us a new way to think. Jesus flipped the world upside down, and this is that mindset that we must carry ourselves with as well. We have the attitudes to help us rethink and refocus our lives. We all want to be supremely blessed from God, and I hope that as we continue to work through these blessings, we will see the beautiful and beneficial way God wants us to be blessed. Now, as we're wrapping up, I recognize this is a heavy message, and as we read through the beatitudes, we don't see a lot of physical blessings that we start to be like, yay, I feel better. There are some other hard ones that we're going to get. The next message already I've started on meekness, and that one is like a two-by-four across the forehead for me. I'm just being open. I shared that with Laura this week. That one's hard for me, and we're going to dive into some of the definitions and some of the aspects. But remember, this is a hopeful message as well, because this is the way that God wants us to be blessed. Not just blessed, but supremely blessed. But it takes us shifting our minds around, and that's where it gets hard. That's why maybe these messages sometimes feel heavy, because we're still in the process of working and letting God transform this mind to where we view things differently. And that's a good thing, because if there is a little bit of heaviness, then that means God is making sure that we're continuing to refocus our mind. We are beginning, again, our journey to the spring holy days, and with it, renews our commitment that we made to God at baptism. And that brings so much joy to our hearts, because we have a Savior, and we can never lose sight of that. We have a God who has conquered everything that we've gone through, like in this world, and the temptations that we've dealt with, and He understands. He's our Advocate. He goes before the Father. And we can always come, and we can always be under His grace and His mercy, and that's a relationship. And that's why we don't mourn to the death that others, like we have no hope, because we know God is walking with us.

And I want to finish up in John chapter 6.

Sometimes life does get heavy, and sometimes these messages that God shared with us in His Word can kind of like hit us hard, right? And that's a good thing, because it makes us sensitive to what we need to continue to be doing in our lives, to continue to have a focus on, continue to allow Him to work in our lives. Because if He only gave us all the blessings of life, if that's all He ever provided for us, how could we ever change, right? How could we ever understand the depth of other people's sorrows and the struggles? And I'm not saying God is holding back blessings from us, because He only wants us to change, like in that way that He only wants us, like He's lacking, like we're not getting something that we should be getting. I don't mean that to sound, because I'm coming off my notes. I don't want that to be perceived as that way, because God wants us to be richly blessed. But He knows if He just gave us everything that our hearts ever desire, what would be the end result at the end of the day? We would not be building the character that He wants to have part of His family. And that's the thing. That attitude that we would have, if we never went through anything difficult or never went through anything that was uncomfortable, we would not have the personality, the character traits, the attitude that God has. We would not be a good fit to be part of His family. There would be constant conflict, constant problems.

And so He's saying, like, I've given you a choice. I've given you free moral agency to choose where you want to go with your life. But you're going to have to reign yourself in. And that's the hard part. And that's why looking at these beatitudes, how to be supremely blessed, it doesn't add up in man's mind. But God is working with us on a different plane than the way that most of us and most of society would want to go if it was our own way. And I want to finish in John chapter 6, because this is where the hope comes back in, right? We could view this as kind of a downer message, kind of as a message where it's hard, that it hurts, it's uncomfortable.

Jesus shared a message where, at the end of it, many of His disciples, He had more than 12 disciples, many of His disciples chose not to follow Him anymore. It's that passage where He says, you must eat of my blood, or eat of my flesh and drink of my blood. And some of the disciples that were following Him, these are people who left their professions, these are people who stayed close to Jesus. At that moment, it was like, this is too much. Is this guy talking about, like, we got to physically, like, eat Him? Because I'm not okay with that. And God isn't okay with that. Let me find John 6, where we at? It's in the 60s. John 6.

66. John 6, in verse 66, it says, from that time, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the 12, I can only imagine the emotion, the environment, the uncomfortableness, the sorrow. Do you also want to go away? But then we have Simon's response, which I think is our response. When we have these heavy messages, when we have hard sayings of Christ, we have these things that seem like go contrary to our own nature. I think this is our response, though, because we see the big picture, and we're so thankful that God has called us, and that God is working with us, and that we see differently than we did previously in our lives.

Simon Peter answered in verse 68, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

So we work through the Beatitudes. We work through some of these other tough sayings.

We try to develop more and more the character of God, His attributes, His the way that He thinks. We try to bring this into our life because where else are we going to go that is going to help and bring comfort and to bring blessings for our lives than this walk with God?

So don't lose sight of your amazing blessings.

So