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Welcome to the live big broadcast with Derek Greer. We believe this teaching from God's Word will empower you to live a full, impactful life in Christ. Let's dig in.

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Matthew, chapter 5 and verse 1, and seeing. Watch this. The multitudes. The what? Multitudes. Be slow to judge a church just because it's large, because the Bible says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the Jesus I know in the Bible never had a problem drawing a crowd. So if Jesus drew crowds yesterday, we should not be surprised if people still flock to wherever he's glorified today. You see, a church's primary assignment is to set itself on fire with the truth, the love and the power of God and then watch people come from miles around to catch on fire themselves or just to watch us burn. And the Bible says, and seeing not five, six, or seven, seeing what the multitudes. And if this church's heart and our cry is really to reach the world, reaching fewer people would certainly be more comfortable, but never more acceptable. And as long as God has me leading this church, our mission will remain reaching the lost, empowering the hurting, assimilating the lonely, and leading our culture toward the Christ. So seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up on a mountain. And if you read the Gospels carefully, you can't help but notice some parallels. As the Israelites were called out of Egypt, Jesus and his family were also called out of Egypt. How many of y'all remember that? Joseph went into Egypt, you know, because Herod and them wanted to kill him and. But then God called him out. But also, as the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea to exit Egypt and enter the promised land, Jesus passed through baptism at the Jordan before exiting private life and entering into public ministry. And as we see here in this verse, as Moses went up the mountain to hear God on Sinai, the people went up the mountain to hear Jesus in Judah, Scripture says, or Judea, he went up on a what mountain? Now, on Mount Sinai, there was thunder and lightning. There was clouds that whirled. There was billows of smoke. Wind blew. The ground shook. Ram horns sounded. And the people trembled. Also the ground trembled. And it so impacted them, and they were so frightened that they asked that that God would never, ever speak to them again. Let's go to this verse, Exodus 20:19. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear. Like, okay, you could talk to us, Moses, we can handle that. I know you got a shiny face and everything, but that mountain. Watch this. But let not God speak with us, lest we die. The Children of Israel were only given a small glimpse of God's glory. I mean, the glory that created the oceans, the seas, the mountains. And when they saw it, the people could not handle it. But what's amazing about God is he already knew this would happen. And he already had a plan. Before the world began. He knew that the best way to reach us would be to become one of us. You know, when my kids were little, I had to get down on the floor to play with them and wrestle with them and all the rest. But, you know, Jesus is God on the floor, wrestling with each of our souls. But what's amazing about Jesus is no more lightning, no more clouds. There was no smoke when he walked into a room. Wind didn't blow. Ram horns didn't blow. Just Jesus, who was God on our level. And when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Now, it was customary in that time for the rabbi to sit and the people to stand. So here we have this imagery of Jesus virtually holding court, if you will. And everyone is standing around him. He is seated. And if you let Jesus be seated on the throne of your heart, he will help you understand things you could never, ever imagine before. And like a good teacher, God will repeat the lessons over and over again until they're learned. You see, in God's kingdom, there's no such thing as social promotion. If you don't learn it, you don't get past it. And sometimes this frustrates me because the same thing happens over and over and over again. And I say, why, God? Why? And God looks at me. Change, Derek, change. You hear what I'm saying? Then Jesus opened his mouth. Have you ever heard anyone say to you, and perhaps you said it to someone, and he or she had the nerve to open up their mouth and say X, Y, or Z? We use this language to emphasize what was said, but mostly to emphasize the audacity of the person saying it. And the ancients were the same way. I want you to understand, when Jesus stood and spoke, the Rock of Ages was talking to you. Jesus did not flinch. He did not run, he did not cower. When Jesus spoke, I mean, it was like many waters speaking to you. It didn't just come in you, it went right through you. Jesus possessed himself in a manner that no man ever before had. And he was seated on this mountain, and he opened up his mouth. And today, actually, we're in the first sermon Jesus ever preached. And in it, really, at the end of it, I want you to watch what is said. So it was when Jesus Ended these sayings. This is the message we're gonna get into today. That the people were astonished at his what, teaching? For he taught them as one having what authority? He spoke like a king and not as a. Or the scribes. So the people were shocked by the substance of his message, but also certainly the power, the weight in which he delivered it. FF Bruce said this, he said the scribes spoke by authority, but Jesus spoke with authority. You see, it's one thing to quote a king. It's another to. Without education, without political power, without an army. To speak as a king yourself, you gotta. This image we have of Jesus as this kind of weak, skinny man is not what you really get out of the Bible. When Jesus spoke, there was a weight to him. Matter of fact, the leading scholars from across the nation would come to try to trap him in his words, and they'd all leave with their tails between their legs. Jesus was that type of man. He had that type of intellect, that type of spirituality. There was a power about Jesus. When you shook his hand, you shook a man's hand. You understand what I'm saying? Jesus was something else. Back to Matthew 5, 2. Then he opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, watch this. Blessed Jesus has been speaking as no man has ever spoke before. And as I said, this is the first sermon recorded in the Bible. And from the start, his words are very, very different. You see, in Malachi, chapter four and verse six, the Old Testament ends with a curse, but here, the New Testament begins with a blessing. Jesus said, blessed. Now, the word blessed literally means blessed, but also it was more commonly used for the word happy. So basically, what he's saying is happy is this person. How many of you want to be more happy? God cares for your happiness more than you ever imagined. The problem is we're looking for it in all the wrong places. You see, Jesus is about to teach us that happiness is not a stake to be claimed, but the result of a process that God takes our hearts through. You see, true happiness is not dependent on external events, but on the internal conditions of our souls. Abraham Lincoln said this, and it stuck with me ever since I first saw it, because he had a problem with depression and melancholy and all the rest dealt with death. And all those things he said, you know, people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Meaning that our happiness has nothing to do with who we married to pay attention, has nothing to do with our financial situation. In fact, it doesn't even have a whole lot to do with the church. We Attend. It has everything to do with the condition of our heart. And Jesus said, happy or blessed, if you want happiness, the world can't give and the world can't take away. You gotta let God take you through the process that Jesus is about to teach us about. In fact, when I find myself unhappy in life, I go back to these verses of Scripture. And I recognize, at least in one of these areas, one of his promises I'm not taking seriously. And for that reason, I'm unhappy now. Let's. I'll cover that more later. But he said, blessed are the what? Poor. This beatitude is first above all the other beatitudes that will follow, because everyone can start here. Jesus doesn't say, happy are the perfect. Happy are the smart. Happy are the wise. Happy are the accomplished. Happy are the rich. Happy are the one. None of those things he said, blessed or happy are the what poor. And what we're gonna discover in this series and today is the introduction, and we're gonna go deeper in the weeks ahead, you'll notice that each blessing depends on the former and rises on the other until we finally reach the top. Spurgeon says it this way. He says, if a ladder is to be of any use, it must be or have its first step near the ground. So the first step to happiness is accessible only to those who want to admit that they too, have clay feet. God never requires perfection, only for us to be real. Jesus begins his most important, his most famous sermon, in fact the longest message in the Bible, with a singular statement, blessed are the poor. But the word used here in the Greek speaks of the most extreme kind of poverty. It speaks of a person so poor that actually that person is bent over with poverty. So why would Jesus understanding life, he lived in a season where there were many poor people in his neighborhood, and all the rest, perhaps he might have faced it at times himself. So why would he call someone in this condition happy? I'm glad you asked, because watch where he puts the location of the poverty. Blessed are the poor in spirit, not necessarily poor in your wallet, not necessarily poor in your relationships, but poor in your attitude and your spirit. You see, Jesus begins his New Testament message where the law ends. In the Old Testament, you see, the poorest people are often people who think they're rich. And the richest people are those who realize their poverty. Let me explain. Romans 3:20. Therefore, Paul is speaking by the Holy Spirit. By the deeds of the law, no flesh, no flesh will be justified. And I don't care how wonderful you are, I don't care how great you are, you can perfume it up, you can wash it up, you can scrub it up, you can paint it up, you can get all types of surgeries, but no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. And what he's saying here is the law is like the speed limit we see posted on the sides of the roads. It points out our obligation, it points out the requirement. It points out what the law says, but it doesn't help us keep it. How many of you know how hard it is to say exactly at 55 miles an hour, day in, day out, week after week, all the law does is help you know how much over under you are going so that when the flashing lights pull up behind you, you can be smart enough to ask for mercy and not what you deserve. You might have missed that. The purpose of the law was to show us our sin so that we can ask God for his mercy. You see, the issue was people started comparing themselves with themselves, by themselves. So, you know, I'm as good as this guy, not as bad as that guy. And because of that, I'm gonna make it in. So God had to show, you know, listen, y'all are comparing yourself to your standard, but not my standard. Have you ever, you know, you may be guys sitting around and. And guys talking about how good they are, you know, playing basketball or whatever game that they play. And then you're like, okay, give me the ball. Let's get on the court and let's find out how good you are. The rules of the game are one way everyone knows how to. Now, you did a lot of talking about what you were back in the day and how good you are and how you can do, you know, but here's the ball. Let's play. So God said, y'all think y'all so good, y'all got it all together. Here's the ball. Here's the rules of the game. Let's play. And Jesus began to break our ankles and break our knees as we tried to. He left us on the ground crying out for mercy. Deuteronomy 28:1. Let's listen to the conditions. And there are some cults in the rest that are trying to make people obey the law. The challenge is you obey 5 of 300 and something. It's the whole law. You got to obey the whole law. You can't just obey five of your favorite ones. You gotta obey the whole law for the law to justify you. Deuteronomy 28:1. Now it shall Come to pass if you diligently. This is the conditions of the law. If you diligently obey. Meaning it's gonna take some work and some sweat and some doing. The voice of the Lord your God to observe what carefully watch this all. Say it with me all one more time. All meaning each and every one with nothing left out. With no iota, no dot missing. If you. You gotta carefully obey all his commandments which I command you today that the Lord God will give you. And when you do that, he'll set you on high above the nation. But watch Deuteronomy 28:15. So first God's so serious about it, he says it first positively, but now he's about to say it negatively. But it shall come to pass if you do not obey. Now, first, here's the promise. If you obey. But here, if you do not obey. The voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully watch this all. Say it with me. All meaning each and every one. Nothing left out. All his commandments and his statute, which I command you today that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. You see, God in his holiness is no joke. God does not grate on a curve. God's only passing grade came on a cross. Paul said it this way. Galatians 3 and 10. For as many as are of the works of the Lord. Meaning folks that think they're going to get in because you know they're better than the next guy or they're living their life right not based on the sacrifice, but based on their works. For as many as are of the works of the law. Watch this. Are under the curse. You see, the law was the tool God used to show us our need of mercy. And if you just trusted your good works, how good you are compared to the next guy and not the blood sacrifices made year after year for your failures. You too were under a curse. I don't care how Jewish you were. I don't care how Jewish your granddaddy's, your grand. If you did not trust those sacrifices, you were under a curse. For it is written. Watch this. Cursed is everyone who does not continue in what all. That's what we just read. Which are written in the book of the law. To what do them? Somebody said that the law demands we do it all. The gospel declares Jesus paid it all after service. I preached the same message in the first service. And Willie came up to me. He said, you know, because I was talking about kids jumping over buildings. And he said, yeah, that's the way I used to come home from school. And what they would do is, you know, sometimes you take a shortcut, or if you don't want to get beat up and you don't want to walk in the street, you go on the top of the building and you jump from building to building to get to where you're going. But here's the deal. Whether the jump was, you know, sometimes three feet, sometimes as much as five feet, sometimes just a couple feet. But the short of it is, if you missed that jump by just one inch, you were dead. It doesn't matter how much further you might have jumped than the next person, but if you missed it by an inch, it's over. So many of us say, well, I'm doing better than the next guy. But God's law is perfect. If you miss it by an inch, you're dead. And who wants to be the best sinner to ever go to hell? Well, I jumped further, I was better, I got longer. But you still missed. And the wages of sin is death, he said, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do what all the things. There was a bridge too far for us to cross. So Jesus laid his body down over that bridge and said, use me. And he becomes that bridge for us. But now you can understand Matthew 5, 3 why Jesus said this. He said, blessed are the poor in what those of us honest enough to admit, given the right circumstances, I can be as trifling as the next person. I know better than anybody else, probably no worse. We have all fallen short. And it's this acknowledgement that, you know what, without you, Lord, I am nothing. I have no righteousness of my own to commend myself to you. I don't deserve a place, and I know a lot of people feel entitled to heaven, but I own a home, and no one except me has a right to my house. Now, I can let you in, but it's my house. If you come trying to knock the door down, the police are showing up. And I might show up, you know, it's my house. Heaven is God's home. You don't get in, lest he let you in. You don't have a right apart from the door. Jesus said, I am the door apart from the door. The thief comes through, windows and all, but. But Christ is the door. And here's the deal. You're like, well, how could God be so narrow to give me only one way? First of all, it's his house. Secondly, you ought to be grateful he gave us anyway. No, no, you're not hearing me. We feel so entitled. The fact he gave someone like me even one way is amazing. I was a street urchin. You hear what I'm saying? I was nothing. I was dead in my sin. I was in a horrible. You hear what I'm saying? But he let me in. And imagine me saying, well, because you didn't have enough doors. Well, you know what? I didn't like that Jesus, even though he was your only son, I had issues with Jesus and church folk and all. And for that reason, no, are you kidding me? God became a man, left heaven in all its glory, and there's no crime up there, no sin, no confusion, no pain. And then he became one of us. And then he walked and lived, breathed our air. And you say, well, God, how could there be suffering if you're a good God? You see, God is so good. He said, you know what? I'm going to give you free will. And I know you're going to make some bad choices, but I'm so amazing. In fact, the same pain you're in, I'm going to inject myself into. As a matter of fact, all the pain you have ever felt don't even come close to what I experienced on the cross. I am not sitting aloof and afar and just, you know, allowing all these bad things. No, no. I entered pain. And your free will was worth it. You don't understand that free will came at a price. Listen, when you're made in the image of God, there's responsibility that comes alongside it. But I was creating God's image. I'm an image bearer. There's a responsibility to bear the image of God, to be able to speak, to be able to think, to be able to sense, to be able to feel, to be able to exhibit the character and nature of God. And with that came responsibility. And God allowed each of us a choice. In fact, the Bible says that hell was not created for you and I. It said it was created for the devil and his angels. That's what Jesus said. So God doesn't send anyone to hell. We go there because we choose to keep following our Father. We keep. If you don't change kingdoms, if you don't move from the kingdom of this world and the God of this world and shift into the kingdom of His Son. Your destiny is the same as the devil's. God doesn't want you to go there. That's why he sent you his son. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Whoever believeth should not perish, but have everlasting what life? God doesn't want any of us. This is why I preach this gospel. This is why I stay on this point. This is why we go into the highways and the byways. I don't want anyone to go there without hearing the good news of Jesus Christ and all he died to give us and the price he paid. So Jesus begins his message. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And I'm sorry, mister, all this and all that, that I'm not as perfect as you might think you. But if you want to enter the kingdom, the first step, the ladder, this is the first rung on the ladder is you have to recognize your poverty and your need. You have to admit, without you God, I am nothing. Without your spirit, God. I could put on a show for people, but God, you see, all things are naked before the eyes of the Lord. Blessed are the poor in spirit who are the poor in spirit. The poor in spirit are those who can admit without God, life has no purpose. Without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance. Without significance, I have no value. And if we have no value, we have no hope. And until we empty of self, we cannot be full of God. He said, blessed are those that recognize their poverty. Those that have tried and failed, tried and failed. And now all they could do is look up and say, daddy, help me, dear God, but what's the promise? Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs only that group of people, not people who come to church, but folks that recognize their poverty. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Church. We do not enter the kingdom because we're good. The only prerequisite to entering the kingdom is acknowledging our need and trusting God's supply. Stripped of redemption, stripped of sonship, stripped of God's amazing grace. All I am is just one beggar trying to tell another beggar where he can get some bread. Apart from God's goodness. Thank God for Bishop, Doctor. Apart from God's goodness. You hear what I'm saying? I'm just one beggar telling another where he could get some bread because he listen, I know where I come from. I remember the horrible pits. He pulled me out of the miry clay, set my feet upon the rock to stay. Jesus paid a debt he didn't owe because I owed a debt I couldn't pay. And we live our life out of gratitude for the goodness and mercy of God. That Jesus became a bridge. That he became the ladder on which we can climb to go into the presence of God. That he reconciled a man and God and made us one and Brought us back. The Church is not just about you feeling good. It's about experiencing the Christ. And in it. If half the church understood this, we'd be the most humble people. And I know all of the motivational books tell you all that, but Jesus said, listen, don't start there. Blessed are the poor, those that recognize I'm not all that. You know, y'all are beautiful people, wonderful people, and I appreciate you all. But I do want to tell you all, y'all wake up with bad breath. I don't care if you go to sleep with mints in your mouth. But you notice babies aren't that way. Babies aren't that way. You see, no matter how good you think you are, you are still. Your sojourn on earth is still under a death sentence. All of us will die. We all have a death sentence. The doctors can't even figure out why human beings die. Well, I know we go back in the book, but here's the deal. If you're over 20, you're dying. You need God. You are not eternal. You are not immortal. You are not God. You need a savior. Matter of fact, if you died yesterday, even if you knew where heaven was, you couldn't get there on your own. God got to take you. The angels got to bring you. You are in poverty. You do not have strength in your own to make it to where you want to go. So now I recognize I'm not a beggar. I'm a son. I recognize I've been redeemed and I'm not a slave. But I also remember where I came from, and I remember my poverty. And listen, the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do you know the things we're afraid of? We're afraid most of losing the things that are most valuable to us. Many people don't have the fear of the Lord because they don't value his presence. You see, he's not talking about being trembling and fearing in front of God. He's talking about, the one thing I fear in my life is that God would lift his hand and his grace won't go with me. And the reason I try to live a right life is because I need him. And I don't want to hurt him, harm him. I don't want any distance, as much as it depends on me, between him and. You hear what I'm saying, Moses, you know, he was like. You know, God was saying, you know, go do da da, da, da. He said, lord, if you don't go with me, I'M not going. His greatest fear was to go without the presence of God. And there are many of you in here. You live every day without the presence of God, beyond the presence of God. You don't care about the presence of God. You just want to live your life. But when you recognize your poverty, there's a new respect. And Lord, this touch on my life, your forgiveness, it is of the utmost important and I fear ever losing it God. So whatever it takes, wherever you take me, Lord, I want to be found in your way. Lord, I recognize my poverty. But. But we watch too much Oprah and all the rest of the stuff and we, you know, no, you're not going to live your best life until you discover your poverty. Are you going to trust Jesus or the motivational speakers? And may God give you a revelation of what you are without him so you will never ever let him go. Jesus began the greatest sermon he has ever preached. In fact, people from other religions read this sermon and the first rung of the Ladder, the first step into the Kingdom was blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom and I want to be part of the Kingdom.