Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the Poor

WCC 10-6-19

Introduction

Life’s deepest questions are answered within the Bible; and these answers come directly from God. God is our maker and designer. He has made us and designed us and has given us a manual for living; and if we know how to read this manual, we will know God’s answers to our questions like: Why is there so much pain in this world? Why do I have so much pain in my heart? How do we solve this pain in our lives? The answers to these questions are found in God’s manual for life.

This morning, we are turning to a new section of this manual that is universal in its implications and profound in its teachings. This section addresses our relationship with God and our relationship with others, and how to carry ourselves in a world that’s still under God’s curse.

Today, we’re starting our study on the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount was given by Christ on a hill somewhere in Galilee. This particular sermon was given at the beginning of Christ ministry but Jesus probably gave similar sermons throughout His ministry.

The Sermon on the Mount is Christ’s kingdom teaching for His kingdom citizens. It is a summary of how we are to live out the reality of Christ’s present kingdom while still living in a sinful world. It gives principles and instructions to apply to the daily challenges we all face, and it gives us the promises of God’s blessings, and even says in Matthew 7:24 & 25 that if we obey these instructions, we will be like a house built on a rock and able to stand up to everything life throws at us.

So, this morning we embark upon a new study of the greatest sermon ever given, and some of the most profound truths ever spoken. If you have a copy of God’s Word, please turn to Matthew 5 and let’s start with some introductory comments about how to approach the Sermon on the Mount.

Point #1 Sermon on the Mount

If you have been around Christianity for a while, you’ve heard of the Sermon on the Mount. It’s Jesus’ most famous teaching. It covers 3 Chapters, 111 verses, and in the NAS translation, it contains 2474 words. Yet, these 2474 words contain some of life’s most profound truths, and countless books have been written to unpack them. As we’re beginning to study this passage we need to know a little bit about how some people have interpreted these truths over the past 2000 years.

The early church took this passage as Christ’s call for kingdom living as His disciple. For instance, the church father named Chrysostom taught that we should pursue these principles in our daily life. He recognized that Christ’s standards were high, but he taught that God’s grace would enable us to live by them. As a practical measure—Chrysostom taught that we should start with the easier principles, and learn to walk by grace, and eventually God’s grace will transform our entire life to conform to all these principles. Chrysostom’s view was basically the standard way of interpreting the Sermon on the Mount until the middle ages,

During the middle ages, Thomas Aquinas taught that the Sermon on the Mount actually spoke of two different levels of spirituality. On one level was for the “average joe” (just the basic stuff). The other level—was the higher level for enlightened people. The good news was that since the enlightened people were able to successfully live out the Sermon on the Mount, when they died, they went to heaven. The bad news was that since the average joe only obeyed the basic teaching, went they died, they went to purgatory (which, of course, is not true). But that became the dominant view until the Reformation.

In the 1500’s, Martin Luther was seeking to live by out this teaching, and he kept failing, time and again. He began to see it as a standard that nobody could live by. He saw it as an example of God’s incredible holiness, and how we all fall short of His glory and since we cannot look to our obedience of this passage to justify us, we need to look to Jesus’s death on the cross (instead). So, for Luther, the Sermon on the Mount drives us to our knees to ask for God’s forgiveness and Christ’s righteousness.

After Luther, the Anabaptists came along and returned to the teaching of the early church and viewed the Sermon on the Mount as Christ’s instructions for His people about how to live in this world today. That’s (more or less) how we’re going to approach this passage. But there are also a few other perspectives that I want to quickly mention because you might come across them.

There’s a Social Gospel view that says the Sermon on the Mount is not specifically for kingdom people but all people. Thus, we should apply these principles to all of society, in all kinds of ways, to produce social reform and social activism.

Another theory of interpretation approaches the Sermon on the Mount as some kind of puzzling guru-like teaching, kind of like an ancient version of Mr. Miaggi from Karate Kid, where he did the “wax on”...” wax off” to ultimately teach Ralph Macchio how to defeat the bad guy. So, the Sermon on the Mount contains hard lessons that will lead us to a more enlightened state of mind.

Finally, there’s a theory that says this passage is only for the millennium. Some dispensationalists from long ago held to this, but I went to a dispensational college and a dispensational seminary, and both refuted that theory.

Now, our approach to the Sermon on the Mount is tied to our understanding of the context of Matthew’s Gospel and the purpose that it was written. When we look at the context and purpose of this Gospel, it’s clear that Jesus intends for us to live these truths here and now. To understand how these pieces fit together, let’s go back to the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel and follow his purpose from chapter 1 up to where we are this morning, go ahead and turn to Matthew 1.

Matthew’s Gospel was written to prove that Jesus is the King. This purpose started with the very first verse and goes all the way to the end of the Gospel. For instance, Matthew 1 starts out with a genealogy of Jesus. Matthew 1:1 ties Jesus’ genealogy to David, and that was critical for Matthews Jewish readers because they were expecting the Messiah to be a king. Matthew show us that’s exactly who Jesus was and is. Verses 6 through 11 links Jesus to the kings from David to Jeconiah, and he mentions guys like, Solomon, and Rehoboam, and Abijah, and Asa, and Jehoshaphat, and Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and finally, all the way to Judah’s last king: Jeconiah. These aren’t just random names. These were Israel’s Kings, and Jesus’ genealogy shows us that He was directly in the kingly line, and therefore fully qualified to reign as Israel’s true and eternal king.

Matthew’s purpose continues into Matthew Chapter 2:2 when the Magi come looking for the “One who has been born king of the Jews.” This purpose continues into chapter 3 when John the Baptist announced the coming King and His kingdom saying in Matthew 3:2: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This purpose was underscored in Matthew 4 when Satan’s temptations of Jesus culminated in verse 8 which says... “Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him: ‘All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.’”  Satan offered Jesus a kingdom without having to obey the Father’s plan of the cross.

Jesus doesn’t fall for it, Satan leaves Him, and then in verse 18, Jesus started gathering people into His kingdom. Then Matthew 4:23 says... “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.” Jesus was going throughout the region announcing the kingdom and showing people what His kingdom looks like by healing their sicknesses and disease. By verse 25, large crowds were following Him and that brings us to chapter 5 where Jesus begins the sermon on the Mount and teaches these people what it means to live as His kingdom citizens.

With that as a background, let’s turn to Matthew 5 and start our study in verse 1. Matthew 5:1–2 says: “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them...” So, here we are with Jesus as a massive crowd of people. He’s gone up onto a mountain and using the natural amphitheater. He sits down (as was the custom for Jewish teachers) and without notes, and without a laptop, He opened His mouth and began to teach them. A

As we look at what He taught, we quickly find out that His opening words are almost like poetry. These words are simple and profound. They are limited in number, but rich with depth and meaning. Depending on how you count them, these first 12 verses contain 8 or 9 “blessings” we call the “Beatitudes”. They are called the “Beatitudes” because the Latin Vulgate starts each of these verses with the Latin word “beati” (which means “blessed”). So, this passage says... “Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the gentle, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

The word “blessed” comes from the Greek word “makarios”.” Makarios” was a specific term—a poetical term that described an inner happiness that came as the result of being free from the cares of this world. One of my dictionaries defines “makarios” as “the transcendent happiness of a life beyond care, labor and death.” So, the term “Makarios” described a person who was blessed because their cares were not centered on this world, but on a higher plane. So, when Jesus starts this sermon with these “blessings” He’s telling His followers that true happiness and joy doesn’t come from the horizontal plane of this world, it comes from a right relationship with Him in His kingdom.

Now, what’s so amazing about this introduction to His sermon is that Jesus begins with a promise: We can be happy if we follow the principles in this passage. The world thinks that Jesus is trying to take away our happiness, but He’s not! In fact, He’s doing the exact opposite! He wants us to have the fullness of joy He created us to have. That’s why He said in John 15:11: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” And so, the instructions Jesus gives here are the very things that will make us most happy and most joyful, in this life and the one to come.

Jesus wants us to have His eternal, abiding happiness and joy. The world’s “happiness” is temporary. It’s based on stuff and it comes and goes with life’s shifting circumstances. People in the world are looking for happiness in all the wrong places and so they chase after things like a new job, a new relationship, a new this or that. And they think that “thing” will give them happiness. Even Christian fall into this trap. We’ll we say, “God has blessed me!” and talk about “How” with stuff like a new home, a new car, a new friend. So, even we can be guilty of looking to things of this world to give us happiness.

Jesus’ point in these “beatitudes” is that we cannot solve our spiritual problems with physical things. People run around trying to fix their spiritual problems with all kinds of physical things, but you can’t do that. It just doesn’t work. You need spiritual solutions for spiritual problems.

One of our deepest spiritual problems is related to happiness. Augustine said there is a “God-shaped void” in every person’s heart, and we try to fill it with all kinds of things, but we won’t be truly satisfied until we’re filled with the Lord. This void comes from our sin. Romans 3:23 says everyone sins. Isaiah 59:2 says that our sins separate us from God. This separation leads to an aching in our soul. We’re like that Simon and Garfunkel song where they sang...” I’m empty and I’m aching and I don’t know why.” Jesus is giving the answer in this passage and offers us the source of true happiness and joy: Himself. Until we fill the void in our soul with Him we won’t have the happiness God intended for us.

There’s a trend in our society to post all kinds of cool memes on our Facebook and Instagram feeds about how to be happy. These memes give advice in a space the size of a post-it note and they’ll say things like: “Happiness is not in the destination but in the journey.” People act like the cumulative impact of all those memes will make people happy, but they won’t because they’re wrong.

It doesn’t make for a popular Instagram post, but God has actually cursed this world so that nothing in it will give us true, soul-satisfying happiness. That’s by His design. Now, things will give us temporary happiness… like the beauty of a sunset or the cooing of a baby. Those are things God gives to us because He good to everyone. But none of those things will provide true, enduring, lasting happiness. Everything in this world has been tainted by sin and therefore nothing in this world can give us the true happiness our soul craves. Yet, this passage is going to show us throughout these “beatitudes”, God’s gives us His blessings that come from living in a submitted relationship to Him where He is our King and we seek to do His will. So, we cannot solve our spiritual problems within anything in this world, we can only solve them by being part of the Kingdom of God where these virtues reside.

So, with that as an introduction, let’s start with the first “Beatitude” from verse 3, where Jesus says...” Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This verse lays the foundation for the rest of this Sermon on the Mount because in order for us to obey any of it, we must be in a right relationship to the King and that comes from being “poor in spirit.” So, let’s dive into verse 3 and unpack what this means…

Point #2 Blessed are the Poor In Spirit

Verse 3 says... “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus starts with this principle because it is the fundamental quality of all kingdom people. It’s how we enter Christ’s kingdom and it’s how we abide in God’s grace and happiness. If we lose this quality, we very quickly become dried-up raisin-Christians who have all of the joy of the Lord sucked out of them. But when we live in this state of being poor in spirit, we will be spiritually healthy and alive.

Let’s start off by pointing out that the whole flavor of verse 3 is in the present tense. That’s denoted by the word “are”. This condition is present tense. It’s the present, ongoing reality for Christ’s kingdom people. We are poor in spirt; not… we “once were” poor in spirit, and not…“we will one day be,” and not…“we sometimes are.” It’s just “are”…“Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

The word “poor” points to poverty. It’s the Greek word “ptochos” and it spoke to the physical position of a person in abject poverty. The word was related to the word for “cower” or “to bow down timidly.” The word “ptochos” was used to describe the posture of a beggar as he held out his cup and begged for coins or crumbs from people passing by. Often these people were physically disabled and unable to provide for themselves. They lived in absolute dependence on the graciousness and generosity of others.

The word “Ptochos” was the opposite of having “riches”. The Greek word for “riches” was “ploutos”.” Ploutos” meant to have lots of stuff. In the ancient world wealth was not having a large bank account, it was having a large amount of stuff. A wealthy person had lots of changes of clothes, lots of furniture around their home, lots of food and lots of dishes to use. They had what they needed (and then some).

The Jews of Jesus’ day tied “blessings” to “wealth”. If you were wealthy you were blessed because you didn’t have to worry, you didn’t have to fear, you certainly didn’t have to rely upon anyone else. They also thought wealth was a sign of God’s blessings upon a person who was righteous and they figured that in the Messianic Kingdom—there would be nothing but wealth.

People still do this today. They envision heaven as a place of unimaginable luxury where we sit around being pampered and having whatever we want. Sometimes people say they want to go to heaven because they’ll have everything they’ve always wanted: great fishing spots, a great home, a great intellect, great health. Sometimes the Bible does describe the abundance of God’s blessings in heaven, but the ultimate purpose of heaven isn’t to get us a great fishing spot, it’s to bring us to God.

You see: God is the Gospel. He’s the prize. He’s the reward. And when we’re in fellowship with Him we’ll have all we need because we have Him. This ties into the person who is “poor in spirit” because that’s what they’re poor in! The person who is “poor in spirit” knows their greatest need and their deepest poverty is in their relationship with God. That’s the poverty they want to fix! Their deepest hunger is to be rich in a pure, joyful, relationship with the Lord. And to these people, Jesus promises: “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” People who recognize their spiritual poverty and come to Christ will forever have that poverty abolished by the Kingdom of heaven. So, one aspect of being poor in spirit is recognizing that we are in poverty before God.

But there’s another element to the “poor” in this passage. The word that Jesus uses is for “poor” is used of a crouching, cowering beggar. There’s an activity to this poverty. It’ not just “not having stuff”, it’s being so destitute that you have to go out and beg for what you need.

When a person recognizes that they are poor in spirit they have to depend on God. They come to Him and say... “God I can’t… I can’t do anything to please you. I can’t give life to my dead spirit. I can’t do this. I need Your grace and forgiveness and life. Without it, I’m lost.” This person has been stripped of all self-sufficiency, all self-security, all self-righteousness and all self-reliance.

Think about how this was so different from the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day…The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day had made an art-form out of self-glory. They paraded themselves around the street with their long, religious garb. They blew trumpets when they gave tithes. They made a great show of their sacrifice and service. Everyone knew just how spiritual that person was and how much currency they had before God. Rather than being stripped of self-sufficiency, self-security, self-righteousness and self-reliance, the Jews of Jesus’ day built their lives upon these things. Their entire religious system was based on how much they deserved heaven, and Jesus was trying to wake these people up that the spiritual currency they’re trusting in can’t buy anything from God.

Jesus gave this same principle in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Turn in your Bibles to Luke 18 and let’s read the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, starting in verse 9…Luke 18:9–14 says... “And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get. ’ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” This parable is about two men who have no currency with God, but only one man knew it. The other man was self-deceived. He believed he had some spiritual currency that earned him standing with God.

The pharisee believed his spiritual wealth came from keeping a bunch of “dos” and “donts”… Don’t swindle. Don’t be unjust. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t be part of the world. And Do fast, and do tithe, and do all kinds of good stuff. The pharisee believed he was rich with the currency that buys God’s favor.

No one has ever entered the kingdom of God based on their own merits thinking about all the things they’ve done to deserve to be there or trusting themselves or relying upon their own goodness. No one has ever entered God’s kingdom on the basis of pride and glorying in themselves. Those who have the kingdom of heaven are those who recognize their poverty and beg for God’s mercy and grace.

The tax collector knew that even his good deeds had no value with God, so he didn’t even offer them. Think about it. People always want to say they’ve done something to merit God’s favor (but not this guy). A few weeks ago, I was on a plane and talking with a person about the Gospel. He was quick to tell me the good things he did. He even told me a story from something like 10 years ago where he helped push a broken-down car for like a 100 yards. Now, if you’re trying to prove that you’re a good person and you have to go back 10 years to find a time when you pushed someone’s car, you really should be open to Jesus’ point that we’re all spiritually bankrupt before God!

Yet, even if he pushed a 100 people’s car last week, that doesn’t make him morally fit for heaven! That’s what this tax collector understood. He doesn’t bring up something from 10 years ago, he’s not bringing up anything because he knows he has nothing to offer God. But this is true the tax collector, and it’s true for the Pharisee. Even the most super-moral person in society is still spiritually bankrupt before God. The tax collector knew his poverty, and Jesus says in verse 14... “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

That brings us back to where we began: People who are poor in spirit, know they have nothing to offer God, but their sincere faith and trust. These are the ones who will be blessed. Why? Because they’re the only ones who have come into the true source of God’s blessings. They’re the only ones who actually come to God and have asked for His forgiveness. They’re the only ones who know God and have His kingdom and are abiding in His kingdom and experiencing His spiritual blessings.

Now, notice that it’s a kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is the domain that is subject to the rule of Christ. When a person recognizes their absolute inability to save themselves and when they want to be saved from God’s coming judgment on this cursed world and when they cast themselves on Christ’s mercy, He graciously accepts them into His kingdom and takes up His rightful place as reigning over them as their King (here and now) and promises them—who are now citizens in His kingdom—a place in His coming Kingdom.

In one sense the Kingdom of God has already begun and is already present because He is already ruling over His disciples who have submitted to His authority as King. In another sense, His Kingdom is still to come and will one day be fully manifested in its complete glory.

Now, maybe you’re hearing that and thinking... “I like the heaven that’s filled with great fishing spots. Not the one that’s about Jesus as King.” If that’s your perspective, then you still haven’t come to see your spiritual poverty. Until we see how worthless we are, Christ will never be precious to us. The person who is not “poor in spirit” doesn’t make much of Christ because they figure they’ve got some good things in this world too. They do “this” and they do “that” and since they’re enamored with their own accomplishments, they’re not enamored with Jesus.

Those who recognize their spiritual poverty have the kingdom of heaven right now. They have already begun to have fellowship with the Lord here and now. Right now, we’re only seeing through the glass darkly but one day we will see Christ’s radiant kingdom of glory. Revelation 21:3 describes it saying...” Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” Indeed, Psalm 16:11 says... “In God’s presence is fullness of joy.”

Heaven is a place of joy, but not Hell. Hell is a place where there is still sorrow and suffering. There will always be suffering and sorry. Hell is a place where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. But not heaven. Heaven is a place where every tear is dried and there is no more suffering or sickness or death. And for those whose poverty leads them to cry out for spiritual fellowship with Christ, they will receive it. God gives His kingdom to those who recognize their spiritual poverty and ask for it. It is theirs, present tense, right now. A gift from a generous king, that begins in our lives now, and extends throughout eternity.

Let’s finish up with a couple comments about how to live out this principle in our daily lives,

Point #3 Application

This beatitude defines both how we enter into a relationship with the King and how we continue it, being poor in spirit is a combination of knowing certain truths and living them.

We need to know that we are living in a cursed world. We need to know that there is nothing in this cursed realm that we can offer God to make up for our sin and rebellion. We need to know verses like Isaiah 64:6 which says... “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away...” We need to know and believe that all of our “righteous” deeds are like a filthy garment to God, a garment that is stained and gross and offensive, and cannot buy us any credibility in heaven.

When we truly understand our spiritual poverty before a righteous and holy King, we must completely throw ourselves on Him for His mercy and ask for the forgiveness of our sins and ask to be made citizens of His kingdom and ask to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to His kingdom of light; knowing that His answer to that prayer is only because of His mercy and grace.

I was privileged to be part of one man’s surrender to the Lord like this during my ministry in Skid Row with a man named Coleman. Coleman had spent a life in suffering and misery and was bitter at God. When he was a child his father murdered his mother and then killed himself and Coleman was the one who found them. You can imagine the tailspin that threw him into. After a life of pain, Coleman believed that God owed him heaven because his life was so hard. But as we walked through these principles, Coleman saw his spiritual need and eventually in a prayer of sobbing confession, Coleman apologized to the Lord and asked for forgiveness and called out to God to have mercy on him and make him one of God’s own. It was a beautiful and holy moment.

We need to know that God will always answer that prayer of faith but never because we deserve it. It’s not because we are particularly good or have helped a person once 10 years ago or that we deserve His mercy for any reason at all! It is something He freely gives to the one who recognizes their spiritual poverty. When we come to the Lord in this manner, He is gracious and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that we are no longer classed with the lawbreakers and we’re made spotless and pure so that now we can abide in a living relationship with a Holy God.

Now, once our spiritual poverty shows us our need to flee this world, and once our spiritual poverty causes us to throw ourselves upon God’s mercy so that we enter His kingdom and submit to His rule, this spiritual poverty continues on in our present tense.

Verse 3 says... “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” These are present tense principles intended to be lived out continuously. We need to have this mindset in our present day thinking where we are poor in spirit and we don’t come to God like He’s a genie granting our three wishes. We don’t come to God like He owes us something. We don’t allow spiritual pride or self-righteousness to cloud our thinking. But we have the mindset of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:10 which says... “…by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

And so, we recognize that any spiritual victories in our life could not have been from us because we’re so spiritually impoverished and so any victory in our life has to be the work of Christ in us. And if any spiritual success comes from Christ, why be self-righteous about ourselves and why be judgmental about others? A judgmental, prideful, self-absorbed mindset only keeps us from God’s blessings.

To change the analogy, being “poor in spirit” is like being at a drop-zone in a giant field where the planes fly overhead and send down supplies by parachute. It is the place we must be in order to receive God’s kingdom blessings. The mindset that keeps us in this drop-zone is humility. James 4:6 says...” God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to humble.” So, being poor in spirit is not being absorbed in self.

The self-absorbed person is still focused on themselves. And when we’re focused on ourself, we’re not going to be in that drop-zone because God’s blessings aren’t (ultimately) for us! God’s blessings on us are for His church to give to others so that we’re stewards of His grace. The self-absorbed person isn’t in this drop zone of blessings because their focus in on themselves… how are they doing, what’s going on in their life, what people think of them, what God thinks of them. This self-absorption pulls them away from the drop-zone of the poverty of the spirit, where Christ sends His kingdom blessings.

And so, the remedy is to just to acknowledge we’re poor. We were “poor in spirit” when we came to Christ and we’re still “poor in spirit” now and there’s nothing we can do to change that spiritual reality. We will always be poor in our spirit.

But when we come to Christ, we are rich in Him, and in Him we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So we discipline our thinking to set our minds on things above, and not on this earth. We take every thought about “self” captive and we replace it with thoughts that are obedient to “Christ” where we think about Him, and we think about what glorifies Him, and what kingdom work He’s doing, and how we can join Him in works that will last for eternity.

When we think little of ourselves, and much of Him, we’ll be walking in the ways of our King and His kingdom.

Let’s pray