When Bankruptcy Becomes a Blessing | Part 2

From the Love We're Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler. Here with the CEO of Love We're Finding, Kerry Vaughn.

Kerry, today, Adrian Rogers looks at when bankruptcy becomes a blessing. This is part two now and a message that we'll be looking at in just a moment. But first, as we kick off a brand new month together, this is the end of a year. Hey, this is calendar year end, and what better time to give than now?

I can't think of any better time than 2020. Then to serve, to support, to pray, to minister. Hey, to make a kingdom impact.

Now is the time to do that. And so we've been blessed with a challenge gift that's out there. And if you would love to come alongside Love We're Finding and partner with us, we just want to thank you in advance. Well, Kerry, part of the blessing of the year is seeing people respond to the Love We're Finding ministry. Here's one that says, Oh, that's great.

You know, somebody once said, if you're nine or 90, you get it. And that is the preaching and teaching of Adrian Rogers. Adrian Rogers says it best this way. Well, a beatitude is a speaking of a blessing. The word blessed means to be happy, to be congratulated.

Actually, we don't have an English word that aptly translates it. Somebody has said that the beatitudes are the attitudes that ought to be. Well, I think we're going to have a better chance on what we have than what we are. The number of bankruptcy filings in the U.S. has steadily increased over the last century.

And bankruptcy filings hit an all time high back in 2005, when more than two million cases were started in a year that one out of every 55 households filed for bankruptcy. And as sad as that is, we're talking about something even more sad. Spiritual bankruptcy. That's exactly right. We're talking about beggars before God, right? Humility to not have self-righteousness, right? But here's the key. He is God, and we are not. And I think when we get to that point, we're exactly where we need to be.

Well, as we move into this series, another word that Adrian Rogers says is this. Jesus said, Blessed are the poor. Now, he's not talking about those who are financially poor. There's no real blessing in being financially poor, though many financially poor people are blessed. But what he's talking about here is the poverty of spirit when we cease to strut, when we cease to depend upon ourselves, when we are broken before a holy God, and we realize that in us, in ourselves, is no good thing. Even God cannot fill that which is already full. And until we empty ourselves of our self-righteousness, we're not ready for God's blessing. And that's why Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Kerry, we must discover this truth, and we have to admit it, too.

We have to admit it. You know, there's none righteous, no, not one, is what the Word of God says. For all of sin it comes short the glory of God. But I think when we stand on God's promises, we begin to see the need for a Savior. And I think when we get there, we become spiritually rich.

Well, as we continue this first sermon in the series, Keys to the Kingdom, here's Adrian Rogers with When Bankruptcy Becomes a Blessing, Part 2. The Beatitudes, and what they are is really a blueprint for happiness. What they are are foundation stones for building your home and your life. Really what they are, they are the keys to the kingdom.

Laws for living, attitudes that ought to be. And the first one is found in verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is the first key to the kingdom. Blessed, blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus here is putting an emphasis not primarily upon what a man has, but what a man is. Blessed are, and then he describes character qualities. And the very first of these character qualities is a character quality called poorness of spirit.

What's he talking about? Well, he's really talking about being a beggar. He's saying blessed are the beggars. Now, there's several words in the Bible for being poor. One word is a word that just speaks of poverty, like the widow who put her two mites in the offering place. You remember that story, the widow's mite? She was poor, but at least she had two mites.

She had something to give. That's one word for poverty that's found, but that's not the word that's found here. It's another word. It's a word that means a beggar, a man that has absolutely nothing. And Jesus calls such a one blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the beggars.

What's the meaning of this? Well, let me say right away, Jesus is not talking about financial poverty. Jesus never said it's a blessing to be financially poor. If Jesus Christ is talking about the blessedness of financial bankruptcy, then it is our job to make everybody on this earth poor and to get poor ourselves.

I mean, that'd be our responsibility, to immediately divest ourselves of any wealth and to help everybody else to do the same thing and just have one world of poor people so everybody could be blessed. Does that make sense to you? Do you think that's what Jesus Christ was teaching?

Not at all. Jesus Christ had many friends who had material blessings. So he's not talking about financial poorness here.

He's not talking either about a person being poor spirited. He is a person all hung over, sort of a milk toast type of person. You know, I'm just no good.

Poor me, you know. What's he talking about? In the spiritual realm, he is absolutely totally bankrupt and a beggar before God. You see that? He will never, ever get into the kingdom of heaven. Not just that he is spiritually poor, but that he is spiritually a beggar, that he is bankrupt. All right, so what we're talking about now is the spiritual beggar and his bankruptcy. But now I want you to think about the spiritual beggar and his brokenness.

Because, you see, brokenness follows bankruptcy. I remember reading in the Bible about a woman who was a Syrophoenician. That is, she was a pagan woman.

She was a phoenicia. And Jesus happened to be there in that place. And this Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus Christ. She had a daughter that was demon possessed. And she wanted Jesus Christ to heal her demon-possessed daughter. And Jesus Christ, in order to bring her to a point of brokenness of spirit, said something that sounds awfully cruel to her. She said, Master, have mercy on me. And Jesus said, I haven't been sent to you.

I have come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus said, is it reasonable that we would take bread from the children and give it to dogs? And in effect, he was calling her a dog.

It doesn't sound very good coming from Jesus. I mean, that he would call her a dog. And here, he used the word for dog that meant household pet. You don't take the food off the table and give it to the dogs.

You give it to the children. Jesus said, I've come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And that Syrophoenician woman, you would think she would have gone off in a huff and said, I've never been talked to such a way in all of my life. Some religious leader he is.

I thought he was a man of compassion. She didn't say that. You know what she said? She said, you're absolutely right. She said, that's the truth, Lord. But she said, even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table. And when she used the word dog this time, she didn't use the same word Jesus used. She used a word that meant scrungy, back alley, mature, mangy dog, ravenous, back alley dog.

That's the way she described herself. Jesus' heart was broken. He said, woman, great is your faith.

You're going to have exactly what you asked. The Apostle Paul, if there was ever a man that it was hard for him to see himself as bankrupt, it was the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, first of all, he had the right birth. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Secondly, he ran in the right society.

He was a Pharisee. Thirdly, he had the extra accoutrements of being a Roman citizen. Next of all, he had the best education that money can buy. He had the state of Galileo. And he would have today the equivalency of a triple PhD. He was fluent in many languages. He was a world traveler.

He had been keeping the Jewish laws with an exactitude that was amazing. But one day, he caught a glimpse of Jesus Christ. And he said, all these things that I counted gain, I now count as loss.

I put them on the asset side of the ledger and I put them on the liability side of the ledger. All these things I was depending upon. He said, I count them, are you listening, as dung, d-u-n-g, excrement. That's what I count them as, that I might gain Christ. Spiritually bankrupt. I mean totally a beggar in the sight of God. When you talk about something that knocks the legs out from underneath human pride, that does, doesn't it? I mean, there are a lot of people listening to me today who say, boy, I'm not going to go that route.

Who does he think he's talking to? I'm a pretty good guy. Well, you and all the rest of the pretty good guys are going to go straight to hell. Until you see yourself as a beggar in the sight of a righteous and a holy God.

The poor in spirit are the poor in spirit. Now, when he discovers this, then he gets a different dependency. You stop depending upon the things that you used to depend upon. You don't depend upon your natural birth, your pedigree, what your parents may have been. You may be from the finest family in this city, but that's not going to count as a judgment.

God has children, but he has no grandchildren. You have to be born again. You may depend upon your position in life when you die. They may have a big funeral for you. A lot of Cadillacs, Mercedes, BMWs parked out in front. They may stand up and eulogize you and say, here lies, oh, one of the finest citizens in this city.

He did this. A man of prestige, a man of influence. But your soul will be in hell before the undertaker hears you're dead, if that's what you're depending on. You're depending upon your money, your wealth. Billy Sunday said, you can't take it with you, and if you could, it'd melt where some of you are going.

What are you depending upon? Education and knowledge? You say, well, I'm not here to listen to some narrow-minded preacher. I am erudite. I am a learned person. Well, you may be. Thank God for your education.

Get all you can. But I'll tell you something, friend, I'd rather be in heaven saying my ABCs than in hell spouting philosophy. Jesus Christ, not Adrian Rogers, Jesus Christ said, blessed are those who are spiritual beggars. spiritual beggars who've come to this place. Maybe you have personality and ability, and you've always gotten through. I mean, there's some people who are just blessed with sweet personalities, just sweet personalities. They always get through.

I mean, you know, just they know how to meet folks. But if that's all you've got, dear friend, try flashing that big smile at the judgment seat. Give God a right hand and slap him on the back.

See if that's going to get you through. When he was in his prime, I mean when he was the top, got on an airplane, sat down, and the stewardess said, fasten your seat belt. He said to her, Superman don't need no seat belt.

She said to him, quick as a flash, Superman don't need no airplane either. I don't care what you've gained, my dear friend. I don't care who you are.

I don't care what your ability. When a man sees what he is, bankrupt in the sight of God, then he ceases to depend upon all of these other things that cannot help him or do him any good whatsoever. Look here in Matthew 5 and verse 20. For I say unto you, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Well, exceed it how much?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Look in verse 48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

That's how much it exceeds it. Be ye therefore perfect. Anybody here would stand up and say I'm as perfect as God?

Absolutely not. But that's the standard that God demands. And the standard that God demands can only be met through the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the righteousness of God is imputed to you. You understand that? But you'll never know that righteousness.

You'll never have that perfection that is given through the Lord Jesus Christ until first of all you understand exactly what you are in the sight of a righteous and a holy God. Now, what most of us need to do is to stop measuring ourselves by some false standard. You know what most of us like to do?

We like to find somebody else that we're better than. Generally, it's a hypocrite in the church. Every now and then somebody says, I don't want to go to church. There's so many hypocrites in the church.

You tell. I've always been hypocrites in the church. One of the 12 apostles was a hypocrite.

My dear friend, you better not lie down in the gutter and stretch yourself out alongside some hypocrite and say I'm longer than he is. You measure yourself by the standard of almighty God. Be therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. You folks say, well, I'm just as good as those folks down there at the church.

You better start saying, I'm just as bad as those folks down there at the church. And all of us, we're beggars in the sight of a righteous and a holy God until we lay our pride in the dust. There's the discovery of that situation. And once we discover it, then the dependency, we stop depending upon the things that we've been depending upon.

And not only is there the discovery of it, the dependency that comes from it, but there is the declaration that follows it. We lay our pride in the dust. I was in Los Angeles one day and I saw a man, it was a garbage can there. I saw a man stick his head in the garbage can and begin to eat, not lift the food out. I've been in places in the country where I've seen beggars sitting at a gate lifting up a trembling hand and pleading. I've seen mothers holding little babies, gnawing at dry breasts and saying, please, for the baby, for the baby. It breaks my heart every time.

I can't stand it. But my dear friend, I tell you, there's one thing about these folks, they've lost any sense of shame. They say, well, you know, I'd like to be a Christian, but I'm not going to go down there in front of all of those people and let them know that I need Jesus. Then go on to hell.

You're so rotten proud. You've never come to the place where you're bankrupt in the sight of a righteous and a holy God. You don't want to be seen as a person who needs God and can't do anything for himself. Blessed are the bankrupt. Blessed are the poor in spirit, not just the impoverished, the beggars, the sight of a righteous, the holy God. We've talked about the spiritual beggar and his bankruptcy. We've talked about the spiritual beggar and his brokenness. Now let's look at his blessedness.

You say, boy, if I ever heard a downer message, this is not a downer, this is an upper. Jesus is not saying this is the way to misery. Jesus is not saying this is the way to devastation. Jesus is saying this is the way to blessedness. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Why is it such a blessing? Well, number one, it's the only way you'll ever get to heaven. You see, Isaiah 57, verse 15, For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I will dwell in the high and the holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite ones.

And no peacocks in heaven. All sin is rooted in pride, and until that pride is dealt with, people are not ready and willing to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. You see, the reason that this beatitude is put first is it's the foundation of all of the other blessings that Jesus is going to talk about.

If you don't have this key, the other keys don't make any difference at all. Listen again to Jesus in Matthew, chapter 18, verses 3 and 4. Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Until a man lays his pride in the dust, he cannot be saved. Even God cannot fill that which is already full. We'll never live spiritually until we admit we're dead spiritually.

Jesus said to the Pharisees, because you say you have no sin, your sin remains. Do you know what evangelism is, my dear friend? It's one beggar telling another beggar how to find bread. That's all it is. You're looking at a beggar.

Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar how to find bread. She was beautiful. She was charming. She was gifted. She was the talk of the town, a lovely, gracious, talented girl.

She sat at the piano and played. The crowds came and they told her how sweet and how beautiful she was. But there was a preacher there that night. His name was Caesar Milan. And Caesar Milan approached this young lady and said, you have charm and you have grace and you have beauty.

But if you don't get saved, if you don't see your need and give your heart to Jesus Christ, you're just as lost as the worst harlot in London. She was insulted a little bit. She was shocked by the rudeness of this preacher. I think God the Holy Spirit knew what she needed though because she went up to her bedroom and tried to go to sleep.

She tried to laugh it off, but she couldn't laugh it off. And at 3 a.m. in the morning, Charlotte Elliott gave her heart to Jesus Christ, was born again. She was the one who wrote a song that we sing here so often, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. O Lamb of God, I come to thee.

I come. That's the way she came. And, friend, that's the way you'll come. And that's the way anybody will come because it was none less than Jesus Christ who said, blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That, my dear friend, is the key to the kingdom.

Indeed, this is the key to the kingdom. And if you have questions regarding the kingdom of God, your faith in Jesus Christ, how to receive the love that he's freely offering you, we have an insightful resource on our website. It's called our Discover Jesus page. You'll find answers there that you may need about your faith. There's a response section as well where you can share how this message may have impacted you. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click on the tab that says Discover Jesus. We can't wait to hear from you. Well, thanks for studying with us in God's Word today. As Adrian Rogers said, evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar how to find bread. Share the good news of the gospel today and be sure to join us next time for more profound truth simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding.