The Blessing of Being Empty: Where the Blessed Life Really Begins

God has a word for you today. We can all participate. I want you to shout word on the count of three. Here we go. One, two, three. Word. We're getting into God's word. So, God's word gets into us. Everybody wants a blessed life. We're starting a new series today, blessed life, because we all want a blessed life. I I believe it's like ingrained inside of us. We want a a blessed family. We want blessed wealth. We want blessed health. We want a blessed nation. God bless America. When you sneeze, God bless you. When you pray, God bless me. When you go on vacation, go ahead and post it to the world. Hash bless.

Deep down inside, we all want to be blessed. In fact, Jesus more than anyone wants you to have a blessed life. And we're going to be looking at one of the most famous sermon that's ever been given. It's the first sermon of Jesus. It's known as the sermon on the mount because Jesus gave it on a mountain side. And Jesus starts off this sermon by saying you can have a blessed life. He starts somewhere that no one would expect. And we're going to look at this today that a blessed life is not about what you have. The blessed life starts at the end of yourself. The title of today's sermon, if you're taking notes, is the blessing of being empty. The blessing of being empty. Would you say it with me? The blessing of being empty.

We're going to see that Jesus does not say it's about wealth that makes you blessed. It's not about your health and those six-packs you've been working so hard to get. It's it's not about being successful or even having it figured out. Jesus is going to show us. In fact, Jesus is going to say something so startling. It was hard to hear in the first century and it's still hard to hear today. In fact, let me correct that. It's not hard to hear. It's easy to hear. It's hard to put into practice. So, we're going to receive from Jesus what he has for us. If you're uh able to, would you stand for the reading of God's word? We're going to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew is one of the 66 books in the New Testament. It's the first of the New Testament books. The New Testament is everything after the

birth of Jesus. Matthew shares the life of Jesus. We come to the fifth chapter. We're going to read three verses. Verses 1, 2, and 3. Matthew chapter 5, verse 1, 2, and 3. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Can we read that last verse together? Matthew 5:3. Here we go. Ready? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. I want to set the scene before Jesus preaches this sermon in Matthew chapter 5 so we better understand what's happening in chapter 5. If we go back just one chapter to Matthew chapter 4, we see at the beginning of the chapter, Jesus fasts from food for 40 days and 40

nights. During that season, he's tempted by the devil in the same way that we're tempted. But Jesus does not give into that temptation. We read that John the Baptist is arrested. John the Baptist is the one preparing the way for Jesus. And this sets the stage for the scene of Jesus ministry. We're told in verse 17, from that time after John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus began to preach saying for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent means turn to God and leave your life of sin. This is the message of Jesus. Turn to God, leave your old life and you get the kingdom. Not someday or another day. Jesus says it's at hand. It's here. Next, Jesus chooses a group called disciples. That word disciple means disciplined. It means a student.

They would become like their rabbi, their teacher. In fact, this is the mission Jesus sent us on is that we would all be disciples of Jesus. We would be disciplined to follow his ways. After he chooses these disciples, he goes on and continues to preach. Verse 23 says, he went throughout all Galilee. That's this northern region near the Sea of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues. A synagogue is sort of like a Jewish church. It's where they would pray, they would sing, they would study the scriptures and Jesus would go into these synagogues proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Now gospel means what? Shout out. Good news. This is the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. Jesus gives us a demonstration of his kingdom.

If he's the king, his kingdom looks like healing. It looks like deliverance from demons. It looks like some good news. This is Jesus, which is significant. Jesus is fully man. He's fully God. He is Christ. Christ comes from the Hebrew word Hamashiach. It means the anointed chosen one of God. He's here. The one God prophesied about, the one that was predicted in the Old Testament scriptures. He's here. And word is getting out about Jesus. So people aren't just going to the synagogues, they're going wherever Jesus would go. Matthew 4 ends with these two verses. Verse 24. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the

sick. Somebody shout all. All the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics, and he healed them. So you can imagine this guy preaching good news. this guy healing, this guy setting people free from from the oppression of demons. So verse 25 ends chapter 4 by telling us, "And great crowds followed him from Galilee." That's this region near the Sea of Galilee, these fishing villages, bluecollar workers. And the decaps, that's the the region just east of the Sea of Galilee. It's 10 cities that are Greco Roman. They're Roman cities with a with a Greek heritage. So they're Gentiles. They're they're unfamiliar

with the Jewish scriptures. And from Judea, from Jerusalem and Judea, that's the southern region. Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews. Judea, this region full of Jews. And from beyond the Jordan, just west of Jerusalem. So I want you to set the scene here. I this is really important that you see this. What's happening in chapter 4. Jesus is traveling this entire region from Jerusalem to Galilee. Why is that significant? Well, the journey from Jerusalem to Galilee is 70 miles. If you go straight from Jerusalem to Galilee and head straight through Samaria, it's 70 miles. Why is that significant? Well, that's that's the territory that Jesus covered during his lifetime. But not just from Jerusalem to Galilee, but also

to the decaps and also over to the Jordan. He covered this entire region. If you go to Leine to Madress, do you know what that distance is? 70 miles. And if we go from Le Pine to Madress over to Primeville over to Sisters, that's the region of square miles that Jesus is covering. And people are coming from all over. They're leaving their towns. They're leaving their cities. They're leaving their houses. They're they're leaving where they are to go see Jesus. Now, when we declare Central Oregon shall be saved, we see that here in Matthew chapter 4. There's something about Jesus. And that's where we pick up in Matthew chapter 5. When Matthew tells us in chapter 5 verse one, seeing the crowds,

I'm so grateful that Matthew didn't tell us, "Seeing the crowds, Jesus sent them away and said, quit bothering me." I'm grateful that Jesus didn't say, "Seeing the crowds, he he gave them a bunch of religious rules." Instead, Matthew tells us, "Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and he sat down with his disciples and they ca they came to him." There's a lot to take in here because Jesus is Messiah that came to save the world. He is God, fully man and fully God. He's about to give his first sermon. Why is this significant? Because he went on a mountain. This isn't the first time God speaks on a mountain. If you go back to the book of Exodus, on this journey from slavery to freedom, God spoke and gave his word. And guess where he gave it? On a mountain. Moses

went up on the mountain and God gave his word, which tells us that God has a message for his people. God speaks and he wants you to hear his word. God doesn't leave you in this world to wonder who he is. He doesn't leave you in this world to figure out how to live life on your own. God has a word and he often gives it on a mountain. And here Jesus is God in the flesh. He goes up on the mountain and verse two tells us he opened his mouth and taught them. Oh, the anticipation is thick. God is right there in the flesh. The place is filled with excitement. Here's the guy that heals. Here's the guy that delivers. He sits down as was the custom of the day for a rabbi, a teacher with authority. And Matthew tells us in

chapter 5:2, he opens his mouth. This is where you lean in and you open up the ears of your heart and you listen to what Jesus has to say. And Jesus says in Matthew 5:3, "Blessed." That's the opening word of his sermon. Come on, slap your neighbor and say, "You're blessed." Blessed. You are blessed. You're blessed. Jesus says you can have a blessed life. He's going to go on to share us nine ways to be blessed. And he starts off by saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I can imagine some were sitting there that day saying, "Wait, wait. What did he say? Blessed are the poor.

Wait a second. Amen. Hold on a second. That is not the cultural norm of Jesus day. Nor is it the cultural norm of our day. In fact, in the days of Jesus, it was assumed that if you were blessed with financial wealth, you must have been blessed by God. And clearly, if you didn't have financial wealth, you must have been cursed by God. This same myth and lie today exists not just in in our culture, but all over the world. In fact, we see systems in places like Africa and India where people believe that if you don't have financial provisions, you must be cursed by God. Jesus is introducing something absolutely entirely significantly different. This was serious in Jesus' day and it's very serious in our day because this is backwards to the kingdom of this world.

This is counterculture because our world says if you have stuff, you're blessed. And Jesus says, "If you have nothing but me, you're blessed." The world says, "If you're just self-sufficient, if you do life on your own, you're blessed." But Jesus says, "No, you need to be completely God dependent." When the world says just believe in yourself, you got this. Jesus says, "No, deny yourself. pick up your cross daily and follow me. When the world says build your kingdom, Jesus says no, it's not about your kingdom. It's about thy kingdom come. See, we've got to understand that what Jesus is saying is so serious. That a blessed

life is not when your team wins a bigger boat or a better house. A blessed life is not getting that health that you've been fighting so hard for. A blessed life is not when you succeed in your career or a bigger bank account. A blessed life really happens when our kingdom ends and his kingdom begins. So I want us to look at what a blessed life looks like according to Jesus in this first of many blessings. Number one, blessed means more than happy. Blessed means more than happy. This is really important that you understand this because some translations in English actually translate this word as happy and it seems fair at first glance because it does mean happy. It means a deep happiness. But the Greek word here is macarios. Macarios actually it means deeper than happiness. It means favor.

It means flourishing. Now why does it not just mean happy? Because happy by the very premise of the word is based upon what happens to you. Happiness is based on my external circumstances being what I want them to be. That's why you can go to some place and it could be the happiest place on earth. It's all based on what happens to you. But what Jesus is teaching us in this text is that blessed is not what happens to you, but you actually can have something in you. So it's not based on your external circumstances, but it's based on what you believe on the inside. So Jesus is showing us that you can be blessed even when you're hurting. You can be blessed even when you're grieving. You can be blessed even when

you're going through pressure because it's not based on what happens to me. It's based on who's in me. Blessed means something so much more than just happy. You see, blessed means that if I have Jesus, I have everything I need. That if everything else disappeared in my life, if I have Jesus, it's enough. In Philippians 3:8, Paul is the author. And he says, "Indeed, I count everything. Everything is lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things. I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Now, this guy Paul, if you're you're new to the Bible, this guy had it all. He had success. He

had education. He had religion. He even had influence. This is what people still go after today. If I had more followers, if I had more likes, this guy seemed to have it all. But he says, "When I got Jesus, I realized it's all garbage compared to Jesus. Nothing compares you. This is a blessed life. The good news of the kingdom is not Jesus plus anything because Jesus plus anything is not the kingdom at all. Jesus alone is everything. This is where the blessed life begins. And the biggest obstacle to a blessed life is not weakness. We often in our world associate weakness as something that's wrong. And Jesus actually says weakness is the beginning of a blessed life. The greatest obstacle to the

kingdom and a blessed life is self-dependence, self-sufficiency, thinking that I don't need God. I can do it on my own. I could be strong enough. I can work hard enough. I could be good enough. Too many times we think our weakness disqualifies us. But according to the scripture, that's the beginning of a blessed life. When Paul was praying in 2 Corinthians 12, he had something in his life. We know not what it is, but he gives us insight that he prayed once, he prayed twice, and he prayed again for God to remove this thing in his life. And the response from God, the answer to his prayer in 2 Corinthians 12:9 from Jesus. Jesus said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made

perfect in weakness." What if your weakness is not the thing keeping you from God, but it's the very opportunity for God to work even greater in your life? What if the very thing you're praying for is not that God would remove it, but God would get you through it? What if the very thing that you thought was not is the very thing that God is going to use and say, "Now we're at a starting place." We continually see that Jesus is showing us what a blessed life looks like. He doesn't leave you to your own thinking. In Luke chapter 18, Jesus shares a parable. It's a fictional story and he uses two people to contrast the idea of a blessed life. The first one is a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the religious elite of Jesus day. The second

person is a tax collector. They were cheats. They were liars. And everybody knew it. So Jesus takes the Pharisee and says he goes to the place of prayer. And you got to imagine he looked like he was in his Sunday best. He would have taken a picture and posted it on Instagram, headed to church, hashtag bless. He would have looked good. His family would have looked good. He he looked like a good Christian. He dressed up religious. And when he gets to the house of prayer, Jesus says he prays. And when he prays, he's eloquent. He has the right words. And he starts off by saying, "I thank God." And everyone's listening to this religious man, thinking, "Oh man, this guy knows how to pray." His head is tilted up towards heaven. His hands are in the right posture. He's dressed like a religious man. It looks good. And then as he starts to pray, he says, "I thank

God that I'm not like this guy or that girl or that guy and that guy. And I'm especially thankful I'm not like this guy, the tax collector." And he finishes his prayer. Amen. And then Jesus goes on in Luke 18 and says, "And then the tax collector prayed." And I got to imagine he wasn't wearing his Sunday best. He probably wore a ball cap in church. Probably had holes in his jeans. Come on, just look around a little bit. And Jesus says, "This guy could not even look up to heaven. He could not even look up. In fact, Jesus says he made fists and he beat his chest

and all that he could say is, "God have mercy on me, a sinner." He knew who he was. He knew what he did last night. He He knew what other people thought of him. And Jesus says of both of those prayers, it was the tax collector that was justified before God, not the religious man. And then Jesus says something that's so important that we understand his ways, his kingdom. He says, "The humble are the one that are exalted." So one guy comes bragging and it looks good. The other guy comes begging and Jesus says, "That's the one that's right with God.

Blessed life means more than just happy. A blessed life is dependent on God. When we think about our own lives, think about the fact that God knows everything about you. God is omnisient. That's the spiritual word. He knows every thought you've ever thought. He knows every deed that you've ever done. And just think about this. God still loves you. He loves you not because you were good enough, not because you earned it or deserve it, but because he loves you. James 4:6 reminds us that God gives more grace. Therefore, it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

God gives grace to the humble. God doesn't just dislike pride. If you hear this, God actually opposes the proud. He opposes those who don't recognize their need for him. They miss the blessed life. God's not asking any of us to do it alone. He's asking us to trust in him. One of the greatest prayers you could ever pray is just simply three words. I need you. I need you. It's the great prayer when you ask Jesus to be the savior of your life. But it's the continued prayer. It's the daily prayer. Father, I need you. Holy Spirit, I need you. Jesus, I need you. Not just when I

got saved, but I need you right now. Jesus before he went to the cross gave a great illustration. He said, "I am the vine and you are the branches." So in this relationship he says whoever abides in me I'm going to abide in you and you will bear much fruit. But then he says something significant. He says apart from me you can do nothing. So the blessed life according to Jesus and the kingdom life is actually in direct opposition of the proud. In fact it's offensive to the proud because the proud would say I got here on my own. Jesus, I didn't need you to get here. I got this on my own. I got here without you. I'm going to get more without you. The pride doesn't understand that every breath you

have is a gift from God. Every heartbeat you have is a gift from God. And nothing that you actually own is yours. Because according to the way of life, when you die, you don't take anything with you. But the proud somehow thinks that what I got, I got on my own. No, you didn't. According to Jesus, you got nothing apart from him. James would put it this way. Every good gift comes from God. You've got nothing that God didn't allow you to be a steward of what you have. So, what will you do with it? 1 Corinthians 4:7, Paul is questioning the church and he asked this question. What do you have that you did not receive? This question destroys pride because all of us can simply say nothing. What do you have that you did not receive? your

intelligence, your strength, your talents, your gifts. Everything you have was actually given to you by God. John says that Jesus is not just a giver of good gifts. He's not just the one that God gave to the world so that we would believe in him and be saved from our sins, but from his fullness. We've all received grace upon grace. Therefore, when you even go through trials, what is God going to give you to get you through it? Grace. When you're praying for God to remove that very thing that you don't want in your life anymore, what is God going to give you to get through it? Grace. His grace is sufficient for you on this day that if you have nothing else but Jesus, you've got enough because he gives grace upon grace. That trial that you're going through, James would say, just count it as joy.

It's a great opportunity to ask God for wisdom that you didn't have before, it's God's grace. God's going to give you exactly what you need at just the right time. Blessed means more than happy. The blessed life, I want to make sure that we understand this. If you want the blessed life of all the things that Jesus could start with, he says the blessed life starts with being poor in spirit. The blessed life starts with being poor in spirit. So if we know that a blessed life is not just to make me happy. A blessed life begins by being poor in spirit. Which means the word poor here is is the deepest word of poverty. In the days of Jesus it would be a beggar. I have nothing. So I'm dependent on others to

give me what I need to survive. And Jesus does not say just to clarify blessed are those who are poor financially. He said blessed are the poor in spirit. So, you've got to be like a beggar to God, recognizing that I have nothing without you. I need you. If I don't have you, I have nothing. If we contrast this to poverty financially, imagine you have no money, but you have bills to pay. You're desperate for some money to pay those bills. Imagine with God, you have sinned against God. You have no way to get into heaven because you have a debt because of your trespasses. is the wrongdoings you've done. Now you need God's mercy to get you in. You can't get there on your own doing. You don't deserve eternal

life. You can't get it by being born into the right family. You get it by being fully dependent and completely reliant on God. You become the beggar of God. God loves to fill people who are empty. There's a great story in the Old Testament. 2 Kings chapter 4. 2 Kings 4. where there's a widow. And now in the days of old, if you were a widow, it was a very vulnerable place to be because widow women were not educated. They were not trained in a trade. So when their husbands died, they're in a vulnerable place. And this particular widow not only lost her husband, she has a debt to pay. And she's worried she's going to lose her sons, they're going to become slaves because she can't pay the debt. A prophet Elisha comes along to this woman

and he comes to meet her needs because God's uh uh people the men of God are meant to come alongside and he comes to this widow and Elisha asked her in 2 Kings 4:2 he said what shall I do for you tell me what do you have in your house let's just start with what you have and she said your servant has nothing this is the desperate place where we think we have nothing and then she recounts well I do have a jar of oil. Elisha would go on and tell her, "Here's what you're going to do. You're going to go to your neighbors and you're going to ask for all of the empty vessels and you're going to bring them back." So many of us start with what we don't have. I don't have enough money. I don't have a spouse. I don't have a good past. I don't have a good faith. We start with what we lack. And can I just say that's the starting place of God.

that if you would just start with what you have and you might think you have nothing and God says great, you've got a jar of oil. That's what I'm going to use. You've got a broken pass, that's what I'm going to use. So Elisha says, "Go get all the vessels from your neighbors, empty vessels." And he says in verse three, "And not too few. Get as many as possible." Now, this is not a story about vessels and oil. This is a story about God's people. These vessels represent people. This woman gathers these vessels and she takes her one jar of oil and she pours it into the next jar and the jar gets full and she still has oil. And she goes to the next jar and fills that jar and she still has oil. She goes to the next jar and she fills that oil with that oil and she still has oil. She never runs out.

Oil throughout the scriptures represents the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit is looking for empty vessels. And this is not a message of us for and no more. We are not a holy huddle where we say, "Guys, we got it figured out. Don't tell anyone this secret. The Lord wants you to go get some more empty vessels and you bring them into this house so they would get filled with oil. There's enough to go around. God can fill me up. And if he can do it with me, he can do it with you. If God can fill me with his oil, he could fill you with his oil. He is a God of abundance, but he's looking for some empty vessels. And let me just make sure it's really clear. Blessed means more than happy. And the blessed life starts by being poor in spirit. And poor means empty. So, we've

got to evaluate our hearts. Is there anything in your life that shouldn't be there? And when you do a self-evaluation, the oil does not want to be filled with the vinegar. So if you've got some anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, lust, greed, jealousy, comparison, gossip, you got something inside of you, that oil doesn't want to be filled with something else. God's not in here to compete with who you are. God's looking for some poor in spirit. He's looking you to empty your old to fill you with new. Get rid of the bad and receive the new life in Jesus Christ. He He didn't

call bad people to be better. He called dead people to be alive. And so the blessed life begins with a poor in spirit. When we recognize our dependence, our utter complete dependence on God to do what only God can do. I can't be good enough, but I've got a good God that will fill me. There's a warning to the church in the book of Revelation. It's the last book of the Bible, and there's two chapters where Jesus is speaking to the whole church in chapter 2 and three. And he comes to a church in Leodysia, and he says something so hard. He says to this church, "I hold this against you. You're neither hot nor cold, but you're lukewarm, and I just want to spit you out." He says, "Here's the deal. Everyone knows your works. You're meeting. You're doing good things. And he says, "Here's the problem. You think you're rich.

You think you're doing things, but the fact is you're doing it apart from me." And then he says to this church in Revelation 3:20, In-N-Out has this embedded, I think, on their cups. Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, "Here, I stand at the door and knock." How in the world did Jesus get outside the church? And Jesus doesn't say, "I'm going to break down this door to get to the church." He says, "Here, I stand at the door and knock. Anyone who opens the door, I will come in and dine with you. I will do life with you. You will have a blessed life when you let me into your life." But the implication is, church, we can be doing life apart from Jesus and think we're doing the work of Jesus. This is a warning to the church that if we don't

invite Jesus to be the sinner, if we don't recognize our desperation, our need, and realize that we are just wretchful and pitiful without Jesus, but with him we are righteous, redeemed, we are his. Lest any of us misunderstand this, let me clarify before we get to the last point today. Being poor in spirit is not a poor self-worth of who you are. are. It's not a a a it's not a low value of who you are. It's not I hate myself now God will love me. That's actually not what Jesus is saying. It's the exact opposite. You are so loved by God that when you empty yourself, you are made in God's image. You actually become who God created you to be. You're made in his image. You are so loved by God that he who is without

sin wants you to exchange your sin for his righteousness. That's how loved you are. God wants you to be blessed. And the first step is being poor in spirit. And finally, we come to the promise. The blessed life is found in his kingdom. The blessed life is found in his kingdom. Consider this. The crowds are coming from everywhere. There's Greeks and Romans. There's Jews over here. There's young. There's old. They're coming from all over the place. And Jesus gives an invitation to all who will receive it. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Do you see the promise? It's not you were born into the right family. It's not you follow the right religious rules. It's if you are poor in spirit and you know your need for God, you get

the kingdom of heaven. It's yours today if you want it. It's yours. The blessed life is found in the kingdom. Do you remember the first message Jesus preached? It was kingdom. Matthew 4:17, Matthew 4:23. Remember when he's traveling, he was proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. It's yours. Healing, deliverance, good news. It's yours. And now with this massive crowd, it's the one thing Jesus wants the world to know. A blessed life is your life, but not in the way that you think it is. This is the kingdom life. This section of scripture is often referred to as the biatitudes. It comes from the Latin word beatatus. Beatatus just means blessing. And so the biatitudes are the blessings. And as we read through this blessings, Jesus didn't just want you to have a blessed life. He wants you to experience the kingdom of God. He he wants you to

know the kingdom of God. He he wants you to experience all that he has for you that you would have his kingdom not someday or another day. Remember when he taught us to pray in Matthew 6? It's the same sermon. Verse 10. And he says, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That prayer begins with your kingdom. Not someday or another day. I want your kingdom in my life. I don't want to wait to heaven to experience heaven. I want to experience it now. And Jesus has shown us the way. He is the way. If Jesus wanted education to save us, it would be universities that we would be going to. He would have

sent the best teacher to save us. But it's not education that saves you. If Jesus wanted religion to save us, he would have given us more rules. If if he wanted money to save us, he would have sent the right businessman and we would live in a socialistic society. But he didn't send a businessman. If Jesus wanted you to save yourself, you could have done it by now. If Jesus wanted politics to save us, come on, somebody. He would have sent a politician. We certainly know that politicians aren't going to be the ones that save us. You can't legislate salvation. You can't legislate the kingdom of God. It's found in the blessed life that's poor in spirit. for yours is the kingdom.

You need a savior and Jesus is a great savior and he's available to all that will receive it today. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Which means that all of us need a savior from our sins. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 6 that the wages of sin is death. That means you have a debt because of the things you've done wrong. That if you don't pay for that debt, it will separate you from God forever. But God doesn't leave you there. The free gift of God is eternal life. Did do you hear that? It's free. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is why it's

good news, my friends, that when you empty yourself, God is willing to fill you with his Holy Spirit by you believing in him. But you can't have pride, the very thing our world celebrates, self-sufficiency. You did it on your own. Just do what feels good for you. You've got to be willing to acknowledge your need. Jesus says, "If you really want this kingdom," Matthew 18:3, "Unless you turn and become like children, you'll never enter the [music] kingdom of heaven." Children are dependent. Even the government acknowledges that. Children just have trust. Children receive. And that's the posture of faith that your father is going to give to you. I've got three kids that are all grown now.

All growing up. Not a single one of them at dinner said, "Man, thank you, Mom and Dad, for this meal. How do I pay you back? I don't deserve this. I did not earn this dinner. It's so good. You sacrifice so much for me. What can I do to pay you back? No. A child just enjoys it. In our family, I think we had ice cream at least once or twice a day. Not because of mom, but dad snuck them out. Not a single one of them said, "Man, Dad, this this overwhelming grace, this great gift that you give me." It's just expected. And Jesus says, "I need you to be a little more like a child and just receive this free gift. I need you to understand I've got a blessed life for

you, but I need you to trust me like a child trusts a parent. I need you to not do things on your own. I need you to not take on the burdens, the stress, and the worries of this world. I need you to trust me. In Luke 12:32, Jesus said, "Fear not, little flock, for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." God loves to give you himself, and Jesus is the king, and the father is ready to give you an inheritance of abundance, but you've got to receive it today. So, I remind you, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. A blessed life is yours. And as we cover this blessed life series the next nine weeks, you don't want to miss a single week. But we start today with the

simplicity of where you start and [music] not where you end. But you continue every day by simply praying this prayer. I need you. I need you. It's a desperate prayer, but it is a powerful prayer. It's a prayer you could pray before you go into your school. You could pray this before you go into work. You could pray this before you step into your house after a stressful day. Come on, somebody. Before you come into church, before you sing a song, before you do anything else, you ought to pray this prayer. I need you, Lord. I need you. Not the version I had yesterday. Not the not the counter I had 20 years ago. Not the oil that was filled up yesterday. Today, I need you.

When Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus, he says to the Ephesians, he says, "Be filled with the spirit." The implication here and is a is a verb. It's ongoing. It's not be filled with the spirit one time when you believe in Jesus. It's continually be filled with the spirit. Continually be filled with the spirit. Continually be filled with the spirit. Daily invite the Holy Spirit to fill you because yesterday's oil is not enough. Your blessed life starts at the end of yourself. So let's cover these three points once [music] again. Blessed means more than happy. The blessed life starts with poor in spirit. The blessed life is found in his kingdom. It's yours. Now today, I invite you, if you've never believed in Jesus, today is your day. The Bible does not say go get your life right first and then you could believe in Jesus. It doesn't say go clean yourself up and

then you get to follow Jesus. It says if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, you will be saved. Not you might be saved, not one day you're going to be saved. You're saved when you believe and when you confess. And I want to give you an opportunity to do that right now. And when you do, you receive the kingdom. You receive God himself, the Holy Spirit. Let me just tell you, it's the best decision you could ever make. more important than who you'll marry, more important than college you'll attend, more important than the city that you will settle down into. Following Jesus is everything. There's a great joy, there's great peace, and there's pure righteousness in the Holy Spirit when you believe in

Jesus. Just with every eye closed, I want to just make this serious. This is between you and the Lord, and this is your day of salvation. I don't want you to think about anybody around you. I don't want you to think about anything in the future. In this moment, if you want to believe in Jesus and be saved, be forgiven of your sins, and receive the kingdom. Would you just raise your hand and wave at me? I want to see who's making that decision today. Raise your hand nice and high and say, "This is my day. I believe in Jesus." Praise be to God. God loves you so much. Raise your hand high. I want to see who you are. Praise be to God. Yes. Anyone else, right where you are, just wave your hand high. Don't be ashamed of this. This is the best news in the world. Praise God. Hallelujah. This changes everything. You no longer do things on your own. God is doing it with you. Jesus promised, "I'll

never leave you. I'll never forsake you." God's going to get you through whatever you're going through next. Anybody else? Just you want the kingdom. You want abundance. You want forgiveness. You want freedom today. The Bible says the Lord is spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. Anybody else want freedom in the house today? Just raise your hand and wave it at me. I want to see you. I want to celebrate with you. I had you close your eyes just to focus. Who else is it today? Praise God. Yes. Amen. Praise God. God sees you. He loves you. This changes families. This changes your future. I want to pray with you today. And let me tell you from this point forward, you got to keep praying. The Bible says pray without ceasing. The moment you stop praying, the moment you are poor, you are not poor in spirit. But when you pray, you're inviting God into your life. Now,

prayer is just talking to God. God doesn't need eloquent words. He just needs your real heart. So, if you made that decision today, you raised your hands. I I want you to join with me in prayer. And all those who have ever believed, join with me out loud, pray this. Jesus, Jesus, I believe in you. I believe forgive me of my sin. Today, I follow you. I receive the Holy Spirit. I am a child of God. I am righteous. I am redeemed. I receive the kingdom in Jesus name. Amen [music] and amen and amen. Praise be to God. Now before you leave, don't rush out of here. Just be one more minute. I want to just ask you if you have believed in Jesus and you

recognize you've been busy. You recognize you got distracted. You recognize you went back to your old ways. you recognize that you got stressed today. If you have believed in Jesus and you want to just acknowledge that you want to be poor in spirit and filled with the spirit, would you just raise your hand just as an acknowledgement of obedience that Lord, I heard your word. Now I'm going to do your word. I'm not just going to hear it. I'm going to do your word. Praise [music] be to God. Would you stand to your feet? I want to pray with you today. I'm going to teach you a simple prayer that when you leave here, you can repeat this prayer. I want you to not just say this prayer one time. I want this to be your daily prayer. This is the one thing you can remember. And when we get to the word amen, you're going to be dismissed and you can go sign up for Rooted or a small group or you can come forward to receive prayer. Now, when you say the word amen, it doesn't mean the

end of your prayer. Sometimes we see it like it's a period, like it's over. The prayer is done. The word amen actually means so be it. It means I believe what I just prayed. What I just prayed is true. So when you hear people say amen or shout in church, amen, that just means they believe it's true. They believe in the fulfillment of what God's saying. It's good to shout amen because you're simply in agreement with God. So be it. I believe God's going to do that. So I want to teach you a prayer. Just five words. I've already taught it to you today, but we're going to associate Jesus and amen to it to believe it's true. And I need you to pray this like a preacher. I need you to yell it if you need to yell it, but I need you to say it out loud together. Let's put it on the screen together. It says, "Jesus, I [music] need you." And then we're going to say, "Amen." But I want us to say it in unison. Are you guys ready to pray this together? And then we say, "Amen." I'm going. You're dismissed and [music]

you're going to go live out the blessed life. Here we go. Ready? Jesus, I need you. Amen.