When you in your own independence, in your own humanness, are able to live life in your own way, you just lost the blessing. Dr. Tony Evans says there's a difference between living a blessed life and just receiving physical or material blessings. God promises to bless us with stuff, but stuff is supposed to be the bonus, not the essence. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.
Tony Evans. At one point in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, the main character declares: It's no shame to be poor. But it's no great honor, either.
Well today Dr. Evans talks about one kind of poverty that has some divine advantages as he takes us to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. If you were to go to Universal Studios, as many of you have either in Florida. or in California. And in these movie lots, you'll see towns and Western towns and modern day towns.
where films are Are done. They will explain to you as you drive through these lots. What you are looking at, they will tell you, is a facade. That is where the External looks like it's a town or a city. But if you were to go on the other side, there's nothing there.
In other words, There's no reality behind what you see. It looks good. But There's nothing else there. It's simply... to create an impression.
of a town or a city. for the purposes of the film. And it's called a movie facade. Unfortunately, today, much of what goes under the listing of a blessing at the facade. Because there's nothing on the other side of it.
We define blessing as A state of well-being. Where the kingdom follower of Christ gets to both enjoy and extend the goodness of God in their lives. You are blessed not necessarily because you have stuff. All of us little people who have stuff. who are miserable.
and miserable people to be around.
So, blessing is more than stuff. It starts. by being in a state.
So God wants you to be, I'm calling the series. Truly blessed. How to be truly blessed. That is from the inside out and not just from what? you have on the outside.
Today we're talking about the first Beatitude. The first Beatitude, verse 3, simply says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of God. That's all we're going to talk about today. Blessed.
Are the poor in spirit? For theirs is the kingdom. of God. Nobody in their right mind likes being poor. But when it comes to being blessed, According to Jesus, if Jesus knows what he's talking about.
Poverty is absolutely essential. Blessed are the poor, but notice he says in spirit.
Now I know I hear some of you now. I'm sure glad he said that. Blessed are the poor. In spirit. For theirs is the kingdom.
of heaven. Jesus Christ here pronounces a blessing on poverty. But the poverty is pronouncing a blessing on. is a spiritual poverty. Many of God's choicest servants in the Bible were filthy rich.
Many you would call today multi-millionaires. Abraham would have fit into that category. David would have. fit into that category. Job was a very wealthy man.
And there was probably one mega billionaire in there, and that would be Solomon.
So God had no problem with giving his people stuff. But what God does have a problem with. is using stuff to measure your spiritual status. He says, blessed are the poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit.
Means that you have a full recognition in the inner man. Of your complete inability to meet and address your own spiritual needs. To be poor in spirit means that I do not possess. in my own human capacity the ability to live life as life was meant to be lived by the creator If God doesn't. in an act of charity.
Okay. Give me what I need to live life. as life was meant to be lived, I'm gonna starve to death spiritually. It is the cry of a desperate man or a desperate woman who cannot meet their own spiritual needs. Or to put it in the words of Jesus in John 15.
Without me, you can do. Nothing. When you, in your own independence, in your own humanness, in your own self-confidence, in your own pride, are able to live life in your own way, you just lost the blessing. There's a church in the Bible. You can read the second half of Revelation chapter 3.
It was the church at Laodicea. Let me tell you about the church at Laodicea. It was a wealthy congregation. And it was the place to go. It was the in-crowd.
It was where the creme de la creme went to church. And Jesus Christ does an analysis of the church at Laodicea as they drove their Mercedes chariots up to the church and as they had VIP parking and as they had all the nice fineries on as they wore their nice gold jewelry. Jesus says of this church. That was externally. blessed with all the stuff.
You make me want to throw up. He says, I want to spew you out of my mouth. That means vomit. He says, I look at your church service. I look at your congregation.
I look at your wealth, your cars, your niceties, your houses. I look at all this stuff that you would say you've been blessed with. And every time you come to church, y'all make me want to vomit. That's what he said.
So evidently. Having stuff. They're equal. Being blessed. Not if the one you claim who gave it to you wants to throw up when he sees you.
In fact. Jesus didn't even go to church there because he said, I stand at the door and knock. Hope somebody opens. Because he's even on the outside of the church. They're having praise.
They're waving their hands. They're singing songs. They shouting. They dancing to Jesus, not even inside. He said, behold, I'm standing at the door.
Can I come in? What y'all shouting about? I'm not there. Because they are defined being okay with God by stuff. Don't misread me, nothing wrong with stuff.
God promises to bless us with stuff, but stuff is supposed to be the bonus, not the essence. See, it's supposed to be the boldness, not the essence. To be poor in spirit, then, is to declare spiritual bankruptcy. When do you declare bankruptcy when you can't pay? When your ability to meet your obligations.
Not only can you not meet them. You don't see any way to fix it. Because usually people file chapter 7, chapter 11, when they see no way to make it right. Their own resources can't handle the debt load. It is recognizing.
Our total insufficiency to satisfy what is needed in my own humanness. When you get sick. We usually start off over the counter. We start off. going to the drugstore.
And finding something that we think, we think. We'll fix it. But when the problem persists, At some point, we determine this problem is beyond us. The medicine's not working, the syrup's not working, the pills are not working, that I have the power to purchase over the counter. It's not working.
So therefore, something deeper must be wrong. That causes us. to call the doctor. Because We have come to the place of realization. That we do not have the capacity to get what we need to fix where we are.
leading us to a professional who both can diagnose and prescribe the remedy for the deeper issue that we didn't know was deep. We didn't know it was deep till our own humanness couldn't fix it. Purchasing our own pills couldn't fix it. Rubbing our own cells down couldn't fix it. Homespun remedies couldn't fix it.
So maybe there's something deeper here. Could it be that the reason that life is not working for many of us? is we're still locked in to our humanness. Our own human Confidence, abilities, strategies, thoughts. Mentalities.
And we keep on taking over-the-counter solutions. Wondering why. Inside, we still sick, even though money going out. Carb master. Houses better.
Close fighter? Nothing wrong with those things. As long as they don't replace what is true blessing. And true blessing starts with. poverty of spirit.
Paul's conclusion about himself was: In me that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. He says, I am totally incapable. Of satisfying what is needed for life to be lived as it was meant to be lived. Most of us don't believe that. Most of us believe we are more than capable.
If I keep working at it. It'll be better. Dr. Evans will continue to unpack that idea for us when he continues our message in just a moment. But first, let me tell you about a special resource bundle we're making available right now.
It begins with Tony's current series called How to Be Truly Blessed. In this 10-message collection, he takes you deep into Jesus' Beatitudes, showing you what true blessing really looks like, not tied to status or possessions, but to a life aligned with God, one that brings unshakable joy. Along with it, we'll send you Dr. Evans' devotional book, Praying Through the Names of Jesus. Scripture uses many different titles for our Savior.
and each one reveals something about his character, his power, and how he wants to relate with you. This book will help you discover how those names speak directly into your circumstances and how to weave them into your prayer life. You'll find strength, comfort, and confidence as you'll learn that there's a name for Jesus for every need you face. This special offer will only be available for a limited time, so don't wait. Make your request online when you visit tonyevans.org.
or reach out to our resource center any time of the day or night at 1-800-800-3222. That's one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two. I'll repeat our contact information for you after part two of today's lesson. Here's Tony. What happens when you're poor in spirit?
Theirs is the kingdom of God. or kingdom of heaven.
Now, the Bible talks about the kingdom in two ways. The kingdom of God, that deals with... who the head of the kingdom is, God, he's the king. And then it says, kingdom of heaven. That deals with the location.
the spiritual realm basically. He says, theirs is the kingdom of God. In the Greek text, the word theirs is in the emphatic position, which simply means theirs and nobody else's. Only the poor in spirit. Get to experience the kingdom of heaven.
If you're not poor in spirit. Because you're rich in self-confidence, guess what? You don't get? You don't get the kingdom of heaven. Because theirs alone, that is the poor in spirit, are the only ones who get the kingdom of heaven.
You will see. Heaven overruling earth. The Bible is full of this. The Bible is full of. God creating situations.
to create an impoverished state. spiritually. That people, no matter what they had, could not fix.
so that he could show them. what this other kingdom could do. Israel is leaving Egypt. And when Israel is leaving Egypt, they're leaving Egypt with... Bling, bling.
Because the Egyptians wanted to get rid of them so bad, they took off all their gold and all their silver and they gave it. to the Jews to get them out of there.
So the Jews are leaving Egypt living large. They are leaving Egypt with jewelry they never had before, clothes they've never possessed before. After being in slavery over 400 years, they are living lives. They're going out and say, hey, oh, you know. Wave your hand in the air, wave it like you just don't care.
I mean, they got it going on. They are leaving Egypt. Successful. When they leave Egypt, They run into a problem. A rather big one.
Pharaoh's coming in one direction. The Red Sea is another direction. They're surrounded by mountains. They are Trapped. And they're going to die.
That's this first statement. Moses. You let us out here to die. Because Pharaoh's gonna kill him.
Now, here's the interesting phrase. When you read the story, it says God led them. God told Pharaoh to go after them. God stuck them up against the Red Sea. How can the same God who said, I'll set my people free, I'm going to deliver you, I'm going to save you, I'm a, you know, I'm going to work things out for you, put me in this kind of situation.
Now guess what the Bible says? It says, when they looked and saw Pharaoh coming this way. And the Red Sea going that way. Is that they cry? Ah no!
To the Lord. They cried out. To the Lord, they're screaming and hollering, and they're crying out to God. You know what they were? Desperate.
They were poor in spirit. Because they couldn't fix it, even though they left bling, bling, even though they had all this money, even though they had all this riches, they were in a situation you can't fix. They couldn't fix it.
So guess what? When God hit is. When God don't miss this. When God don't shoot, don't let this go over your head. When God Put you in a situation you cannot fix.
No matter how much money you have, people you know, power you possess. He is doing you a favor. What is the favor he's doing you? He is showing you your insufficiency so you can see the kingdom of heaven at work on your behalf. That is what God is doing.
Oh, by the way, another one is Jacob. Jacob was self-sufficient. He was the manipulator. He could make stuff happen. He would carve.
He would create stuff. Until he found himself. between a rock and a hard place. in a situation he couldn't get out of because his brother Esau was going to kill him. And he had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
Well now he wrestling with God all night long. What did the angel do? Long story short. He touched him in the hip. If Jacob was here, he'd tell you, oh, this is my blessing.
He said, This is my plan. God broke me? To remake me? Unless I get in my old ways ever again, every time I walk, don't go back there. Don't go back there.
Don't do that again. Don't go that direction no more. Oh no, you better rethink that. Every time I walk, it's a reminder that my self-sufficiency is not enough. Peter, Peter thought he knew fishing.
Jesus, they cast your net on the other side. Peter said, Jesus, Jesus, testimony. You preach, I fish. I've been doing this all my life. We got a fishing company.
It's the Zebedee Incorporated. We do this for a living. You coming out of nowhere telling me, well, let me explain, Jesus, how this works. We have already been out here all night and have caught nothing.
So, so, and we know fishing.
So, Jesus, we appreciate you and appreciate your suggestions. But let us do this our way. She said, if you just throw your net on the other side, you'll catch on something.
Okay, just to placate you, Jesus. Just to be respectful. Just to be respectful. That's the way a lot of people are in church. They'll nod and be respectful.
Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
Now be respectful.
So Jesus, we're going to be respectful and cast our nets. The problem says that the nets were about to break because they caught so many fish. Peter got out the boat, fell down at the face of Jesus and said, I am a sinful man. Because they had to be stripped. of his self-sufficiency.
of his independence. before he could see and be called to be a fisher of men. Paul said, we reached to the point of death, 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We were down to the point of death. He said, we despaired even of life.
We didn't think we were going to be alive another day. Why would the God who loved you bring you to the place of death, Paul? He said that we might learn not to trust in ourselves, but to trust in the one who raises the dead. He said, God brought us to death. He brought us to a situation we couldn't fix.
so that we would discover the one who is the only one who can fix them. God, for many of you who are in a miserable place right now, is doing you a favor. It's just a painful favor. It's an inconvenient favor. It's a hurtful favor.
But it's a divine favor because when you declare spiritual bankruptcy, he says, yours will be a whole nother realm operating. Let me bring this to a conclusion. You know, you're poor in spirit. But let me tell you how you know. when thanksgiving replaces complaining.
Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. Any of you have children that complain all the time, no matter what you give them, they complain about, you know, complain about what they don't have. You know They're not thankful that they're eating. They're complaining that what they wanted, they didn't get.
They're not starving, so they are complaining. In other words, they don't see your goodness. They see that they're not having their way. They don't see your kindness. They see that they're not having your way, their way.
Children of Israel just saw God open up the Red Sea.
Soon as they go across the Red Sea, they're complaining, no water.
Well shucks, if he can open up the Red Sea, duh. Instead of saying, thank you, Lord, you opened up the Red Sea. I got a need here. We need the water. But because of your goodness yesterday, I can trust you today.
If complaining marks you, that's because you're not poor in spirit. You're not depending on God. That's why you're whining. That's why you're complaining. No, he says you got to be poor in spirit.
Any of you, any of you get on the scale? And you get on the scale to see how much you weigh. But you can't handle the truth. You get on a scale of feel much weight, but you can't handle the truth. And because you can't handle the truth, You don't correct the needle when it shows that it's not on zero.
You don't want it to be on zero, so the pounds will look a little less. In fact, when you have to move it to zero, you move it a little to the left so it'll show the weight a little to the left because you can't handle the truth. Or when you stand on it, you kind of lean a little bit so it doesn't fully reflect your total weight because you don't want to see the reality of your weight gain. A lot of us don't want to see spiritual poverty, so we camouflage it with the facade of stuff, never getting around to what God really wants to show us of our own insufficiency. Dr.
Tony Evans will return with a final challenge for us in just a moment. But first, if you'd like to have a copy of today's message to review on your own or share with a friend, Just visit TonyEvans.org for details on the title Blessed Are the Spiritual Beggars. Better yet, consider taking advantage of our current special offer. For a limited time, you can receive all ten messages in Tony's series, How to Be Truly Blessed. along with his popular devotional book, Praying Through the Names of Jesus.
It's all yours and appreciation for your contribution to help us keep this program coming your way. Just visit us online at tonyevans.org. Or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222 to make the arrangements. There's someone there to help with your resource request around the clock. That's 1-800-800-3222.
It's natural to mourn a death. But doctor Evans says it ought to be just as natural to mourn the sin that infects our lives. Tomorrow he'll explain how that emotional burden can lead to an enormous blessing. Right now, though, he's back with this closing challenge for us. One of my favorite songs, you know, everybody knows my favorite group going up was the Temptations.
And one of my favorites, all-time temptation songs was Ain't Too Proud to Be. I love ain't too proud to be. He said, I can beg and plead for your sympathies, but I don't mind because you mean that much to me.
so desperate for you. Ain't too proud to beg. God is looking for some Christians that ain't too proud to beg. willing to go up to God and say, I'm a beg and plead. For your sympathies, I don't mind.
Cause you mean not much to me. I ain't too proud to beg. I wonder if we got any beggars in the house who are willing to be poor in spirit so you can be rich in faith, so that you can experience the kingdom of God in your life. Don't be too cute to be. Don't be too proud to be.
Because God only responds to those. who are spiritual beggars.
