 Well, today we're looking at Matthew chapter five. We're going to look at verses one through three, but as we do so, I'm going to read to you Matthew five beginning at verse one, and I'm going to read you up to verse 12, and we'll get into our study. Matthew chapter five, verses one through 12, concentrating on verses one through three, and we're going to be looking at an introduction to the Beatitudes. So beginning at verse one, Matthew chapter five, reading to verse 12, Matthew writes, and seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him, then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are you, when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I'm going to begin this Bible study by asking a simple question, because it's a question I think that is being asked today throughout the United States, perhaps even the world, it's really a simple question, the question is, what is a Christian? There are many assorted answers to this one seemingly simple question, what is a Christian? Now I was interested in how people would respond to that, I've spoken to people before on the street and all in conversation, what's a Christian in all, but I thought I'm going to do something, I'm just going to basically Google this question and see what happens. So I went to the almighty Google and I just wrote the question out, what is a Christian and as those of you who know how to use your computer and you know how to do this kind of thing, you know that what happens is you'll get an entire page or several pages where people have responded and they have their own information that you can gather from whatever it is that they've written. And also I just went to the top, the first one that responded to the question, what is a Christian? And so I opened that up and it has one of those categories where it says best answer. And how many of you Google, just so I know I'm not talking to myself, how many, yeah most of you do, not all of you, you know some of you are old like me and you're still into, well anyway. So you know what is a Christian? I went to the first site, opened it up and under best answer I thought, well I'll just go with the best answer in this particular site. Now I didn't intentionally seek this response, I didn't look for something in other words to kind of make a dramatic point. I just went to the first response that they said was the best answer. And this was chosen as best answer on this particular site and it was written, the response was written by a woman. And the woman wrote this response, this was her response to the question, what is a Christian? She says, I'm a bisexual, pro-life, pro-choice Christian woman who believes my God loves everyone equally and is not going to damn anyone to hell for falling in love, who tries to live the best way I can, do no harm in love and accept all for who they are. No matter if they are of a different race, sex or religion and does not push my own beliefs onto other people, that's what being a Christian is to me. But I also believe that each and every one of us in the world believes differently. We are all too unique to believe exactly the same. We travel different roads, have different experiences and it all makes us who we are. So in closing, I don't think any two people in the world will have the same answer. Well, this obviously is an extremely confusing, it's an incoherent answer, but it's not unique. There are many who believe in one form or another pretty much like this woman does. The fact is, for them, God is what they have created in their own minds. And ultimately, the God they worship is just like them. This woman has created a God and the God that she has created does not care about one's sexuality. This God allows you to believe in abortion and oppose it simultaneously. She loves everybody equally. He loves everybody equally and is not gonna judge people for sexual choices. She believes in a God who rewards based on our making our best attempts to be good as long as we harm no one and accept people for who they are. And she believes in a God who rewards you from refraining from sharing the gospel with other people. So the question has to be asked, is she right? Is that the proper definition of a Christian? And where do you get that definition from anyway? I wasn't saved more than a very short time when I went to visit my sister-in-law and I wanted to share with her the gospel and so I lived in Norwalk. She, at that time, was living in upland. And so I drove out there with the purpose of just sharing the gospel with my then sister-in-law. And she was in another part of her home while I was seated there in the front room and while I was seated at the front room, she had one of these family bibles on the coffee table. All of you know what a family Bible is. It's that 500 pound Bible that you have and it was a huge Bible, big old 500 pound Bible sitting right there on the coffee table. And so I was waiting for her and I was a new Christian. I hadn't been saved more than maybe two weeks, three weeks. And I was really hungry to know the things of the Lord. And so while she was in the other room, I began to open the Bible up and started to look at it. Now, I need to say this very quickly. I was raised as a Roman Catholic and when I got saved, I didn't make this intentional decision. Oh, I'm going to bash Catholics. And that's not what I was about. I just got saved. I just want to know what God has to say. But she had a Catholic Bible. She was also a Catholic and so I opened up the Bible and I had made a decision in my mind. If it's in the Bible, I'll do my best to believe it and practice it, but if it's not in the Bible, then I'm not going to do that. It's got to be in the Bible. If it's not in the Bible, then why would I believe that? Why would I do that? Now, remember in context, I'm a 20 year old man, just got saved and spent five years in alcohol and drugs and everything that went with that. And now I'm saved and I want to please the Lord. That's what being a Christian is as far as I understood. And so I opened up her Bible and I began to look at it and read it and then I discovered that if you turned it all the way to the very back that they had Catholic doctrine from A to Z. And so there's all of this from A to Z and I'm thinking to myself, I wonder if the things I've been taught are found in Scripture. I'd like to find the Bible verses that back these things up. And so I looked at the assumption of Mary. You know, where does it say that in the Bible? And it's not there. It speaks concerning church tradition. And I began to look at things like that and limbo. You know, the place of unbaptized infant souls and all. And is there a place in Scripture? There's no Scripture. And I began to say, well, if this is not in the Bible, I'm not going to believe it. The only thing I found in the Bible that has something that's contemporary in the Protestant churches is the interesting enough, it's purgatory. But purgatory for us is junior high ministry. That's purgatory. That's not in the Scripture either. And so what I chose to do is I chose to just hold fast to what I could see the Scripture said. It's not because I wanted to bash something. It's because I wanted to be free in Christ. And so here's your thing. As I lay this down, how do we know what a Christian is? Well, it certainly isn't our opinions. It's certainly not how we see things. It's got to have a different source. And so the source has to be Scripture. You see, we need to have a relationship with God that is based on the things that are found in the Word of God. And so what we have here in Matthew chapters five, six, and seven has been what is called the foundational truths of the kingdom of God. In the Sermon on the Mount, which is chapters five, six, and seven, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out the basic truths of the gospel. And in one message, he gives to us a picture of a Christian. Now the first several verses that we have in chapter five, the first several verses have been called the Beatitudes. The reason they're called the Beatitudes is because the word Beatitudes speaks of blessing. And so you'll notice that the first several Scriptures begin with the word blessed. And so we're gonna examine each saying that Christ gives closely over the next few studies to see what the blessings are that he is giving to those who believe in him. Now interestingly enough, in the Old Testament, the revelation of the Old Testament closed with a curse. When you look at the last book of the Old Testament, it's a book called Malachi. And in Malachi chapter four, verse six, it says he will restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and smite the land with a curse. So the Old Testament closes with a curse, but the first sermon in the New Testament begins with a promise, a promise of blessings from the King who is Messiah. And so in this sermon, the sermon on the mount, Jesus is gonna reveal something to us. He reveals that the work of Messiah is an internal work. It's a work of the heart. You see, the Jews at that time were looking for a political king and a physical kingdom that he would rule over. So Jesus let him know that the kingdom is spiritual and it's moral, it's not political. You see, his concern was for what men are because what a man is is what a man does. So to alter a person's behavior begins first with altering their hearts. And that would be called the result of regeneration or the result of being born again. In the kingdom of God, the least becomes the greatest contrary to the way the world thinks. So we're gonna see that humility is the key to greatness in the kingdom of God. Now people don't necessarily, especially today, but it's never been popular. They don't necessarily exalt humility to be a great virtue. There are many people who think that if you are humble, you are also weak and they try to take advantage of you. But the bottom line is in the kingdom of God, humility is the beginning. It's where everything begins and you'll see this in just a moment. Humility is simply lowering yourself in relation to others. It's taking the lower seat. And in a spiritual sense, humility is simply seeing God for who he is and seeing yourself in comparison to him. And the closer that you draw to God, the more you see of yourself. And as I've said many times, everybody is beautiful at three o'clock in the morning in the dark. We all look good in the dark, but in the full light of day, then what we really are is going to be exposed. We can all stay in the dark and we can all say how good we look in the dark. But what happens is when you begin to draw an eye to the Lord, then his glory is going to expose my need. And it's going to reveal that I have spiritual blemishes that need to be cared for. And what happens in that, as you draw nearer to the Lord, then you begin to see yourself in the light of what the Lord is. And that produces humility. Somebody once said humility is to think of yourself as God thinks of you. It is to feel that if we have talents, God has given them to us. And let it be seen that like freight in a vessel, they tend to sink us low. The more we have, the lower we ought to be. Humility. Now this message is going to run contrary to what was accepted as popular wisdom at that time. You see, the Pharisees were legalists. They were extreme conservatives and extremely legalistic. And so they got very caught up with the outward observation of ritual and tradition. So Jesus is going to simply point to them that his kingdom is internal. It's an internal spiritual life, not outward ritual. Then you had the Sadducees. The Sadducees would be considered today the religious liberals. They didn't believe in the supernatural. They actually modified scripture to suit their own opinions. But Jesus is going to teach them that his is a message for man to follow the ways of God and not their own opinions. Then you had the Zalots. The Zalots were nationalists. They were political activists. They were revolutionaries. They resisted the Roman government. But Jesus was going to share with them that his was a kingdom of worshiping God. And when you worship God, it produces peace, not carnal revolution. His is a message. He's going to point this out as true righteousness. It's going to be true righteousness, not the best that a man can produce. It's going to be the best that God can do in a man's life. And he's going to be teaching them about true righteousness. And this is what we see in the Sermon on the Mount. And it begins in verse one to verse 12 with what is called the Beatitudes. Now, as we begin, notice verse one. It says simply this, seeing the multitudes. He went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him. Multitude, the word multitude in multitudes is a very common word in the Gospel of Matthew. He uses those words 42 times. And it speaks of a great amount of people that are showing up to listen to. This is taking place on a mountain. This is up in the northern area. And in that northern area by Galilee, just north of the Sea of Galilee, there were a lot of people who lived. There were up to two million people in population in northern Israel at that time. So there were a lot of people that he could minister to. And beyond that, there was a road that went from the Mediterranean into Syria. So there were a lot of caravans that would travel and there was a lot of population that would move back and forth. And so that's where the multitudes come from. Because oftentimes when you're reading your Bible, you'll see the word multitude and you'll wonder where do they all come from? Well, two million people in population and a lot of them in transition. And so there were a lot of people that would be coming by. So Jesus is there and he sees this multitude. And as he sees them, he makes a determination to do something. It says in verse one, he was seated and his disciples came to him. Don't let that get past you. If you want to know a little bit about the Bible, sometimes you have to ask yourself some questions. Why is it significant that he was seated? Why didn't he do what I'm doing right now and just stand and speak? Well, the reason that it says he was seated is because when a rabbi had something of great importance and wanted to speak with a certain authority, they would be seated. So this gives us an insight into what's going on. Jesus is seated there with authority. You're gonna see them make mention of that later on. No man has ever taught like this. He teaches with authority because Jesus is up there and he is now seeing the multitudes. He's seated. He has something of great importance to say and he's saying it with authority and this is what comes out of his mouth. Verse two, he opened his mouth, he taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. His disciples, his apostles have come. His disciples are all gathered together. The men who will eventually become his apostles are all there in a group and Jesus begins to teach and preach a message. And what he's giving is the characteristics of a Christian. And so the first one in verse three simply says this, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So as introduction begins by presenting how a person can be truly happy. How can a person be truly happy? I read in a survey, once again I consulted the Almighty Google concerning what makes a person happy. And one of the sites said this, this is the top three answers on the site. Family and relationships was the number one thing that makes people happy. Meaningful work was the second and having a positive attitude was the third. Coming in seventh on this particular poll out of the top 10 was religion or religious faith. And so people don't put a high value on religious faith not so much as they do on their own families or having a great job or having an optimistic way of looking at life. But Jesus would say otherwise. Say otherwise, he would say, listen, the key to the joy, the key to the happiness is going to begin with humility. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Now the word blessed means fortunate, blissful or happy. Happy are the poor in spirit. So he's saying that happiness is an inward sense of contentment that does not rely on circumstances. We do. We rely on circumstances. If everything's going well for us, we are happy. If things are not going well for us, then we get upset. That's human nature. We rely on our circumstances to make us happy. I had a job when I first got out of the military. I was working for a man. He was not a very happy man to be honest with you. And I was working for him and it was just a small business that he had. I was his only employee. His wife was the bookkeeper and he was the boss. And he had a couple kids and all. And I got to know a little bit of him as I began to work for him. And he was not a very happy man to be honest with you. So what I did is I had a conversation with him one day after work. I happened to walk into his office and on his desk was a book written by a philosopher. And as I was looking at the book of philosophy there, I realized that this is a man who likes to read and he's got some ideas and all. And I was a college student at that time. And so I began to speak to him. And I said, I noticed that you have this book on this particular subject. And he says, oh yeah, he said, you interested in that? Yeah, I'm fairly interested in those kinds of things. And so he began to speak with me and he began to speak to me as a college student and he himself is a college graduate and wanted to share some things and all. And we had a conversation. And so I finally asked him the question, what makes you happy? I said, because he said, I'm happy. I said, what makes you happy? I said, let me tell you what makes you happy. I said, what makes you happy is that you have a wife and your wife is faithful to you. I said, you have a business, the business is doing well and you have two sons who are doing well. I said, so that makes you happy. I said, the word happy is really the root word for the word that comes from happenings. And when you're happy and happenings, it's speaking of the circumstances that surround you. So if the circumstances surrounding you are good, your wife is doing well, your business is well, your kids are well. I said, everything about that makes you happy. That's why you're happy. But let me ask you a question. What is going to happen if your wife goes out on you? What is going to happen if your business goes belly up and what is going to happen when your kids become teenagers? What's going to happen when your family life is not making you happy? Where is your source of contentment going to come from? Because you are looking at your circumstances and you don't have a broader view. Because the Lord Jesus Christ can give to me joy in the midst of pain. The Lord Jesus Christ can take me through the deepest struggles and the most fiery trials that I could go through. He will be with me and not leave me. He gives me something beyond simple happiness. He gives me joy, the joy that comes from the Spirit. That comes from Jesus Christ. So he fired me. But it was a good conversation nonetheless. He really didn't. But the bottom line is, that's the truth. People are happy because their circumstances dictate that they should be. Their favorite team won if they were going for Ohio State. If you're an Oregon fan and I was with a couple on Monday, they were not happy. Because everything relates to your circumstances. But you could have joy. And God gives that. And Jesus is saying, listen, this is the key to having this. You want to have bliss. You want to have, be fortunate. You want to be blessed. Well, it begins with being poor in spirit. It begins with humility. Blessedness is contentedness that is based on the fact that my life is right with God. It's a spiritual reality, not a superficial feeling. That's dependent on what's happening at the moment. Paul said it like this in Philippians 4, 12 and 13. The apostle Paul said, I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation. Whether it is with a full stomach or empty with plenty or little. For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And so Jesus is making an amazingly important point. Happiness cannot be found in the material world. You save, you scrimp, you finally get that car that you wanted so badly and you drive it someplace. It's so nice. You climb out of it and you just walk around and go, oh, you're so pretty. I love you so much. And then somebody's shopping cart just weaves through all the lanes and bang or somebody climbs out of the car while you're sitting there worshiping your car and somebody just swings their door open and he hits you as you're seated there and you're going, what? I've only had this for three weeks. You try to find parking spaces even in the church, you know, that there's no cars anywhere and somebody comes and pulls right next to you. You can't even get into your driver's seat and you just love that car. But the bottom line is, and we all know that, that eventually you got that car and next year they bring out a new model. And you're looking at it saying, oh, man, I should have waited a year. That is so much nicer. It's got here because material things never do make you happy. It's so true. We all know that yet we don't. We think that a relationship, oh, if she says that she loves me or he says that he cares for me, then my life is forever just wonderful. It's gonna be great. They'll love me forever. Nah, it doesn't fill you. You know, my wife Marie loves me with all her heart. Thank you, Jesus for that. But I discovered a long time ago that human love doesn't fill the emptiness of my soul. It has to come from something greater. It comes from God. That's what makes me whole. Not the love of my wife, though I'm grateful every day for it, not the love of my children, grandchildren or friends. It has to be deeper than that because I have such a void in my life. There's gotta be something greater than the depth of that void. And Jesus Christ is greater than that. And that's why I have him in my life because he makes me know how deeply I'm loved. And so that's what it is. And here we are trying to get some education, trying to get a better house, trying to get a nicer car, trying to get a good relationship going. All of these things that we think are gonna make us happy in reality, they all perish with the using. The junkyard is filled with people's treasures that they got, that they knew was gonna make them satisfied. Every Christmas we open up the presents and the next year we've dumped most of them or re-gifted them to somebody else. Cause it doesn't. We know this. This is basic one-on-one life. We know that, but Jesus is speaking to a group of people who didn't. He's saying, happiness cannot be found in the material world. AW Tozer once said, Christians have every right to be the happiest people in the world. We do not have to look to other sources, for we look to the word of God and discover how we can know the faithful God above and drop from his resources. You see, it's not that physical and emotional needs are not important. Of course they are. We need food. We need clothing. We need housing. We need to be kept safe. We need finances, love friendships, all of that's necessary. Yet they by themselves will never be able to completely satisfy nor abundantly satisfy our needs. The psalmist in Psalm 23 said it like this. In Psalm 23, we read, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his namesake. Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now that's the secret to contentment. That's the secret to being blessed is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus would begin by saying, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessings begin by recognizing that you cannot make it on your own. They begin when you realize that you need his help. When he says blessed are the poor in spirit, that word poor speaks of shrinking or cowering. It speaks of cringing. It's a picture of someone crouching in a corner and your hand is out and you're begging. That's what the word poor speaks of. So he's saying happy are you when you recognize your spiritual poverty. Happy are you when you realize that you are lost in destitute. Blessed are you when you recognize your other dependence on God. Blessed are you when you stand empty handed before God in total need of God's grace. Blessed are you when you understand that without him you are nothing. It's like what he says in John 15 verse five, I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing. Dependence on God. Blessed is the one who understands that. Blessed is the one who doesn't see humility as a weakness. Blessed is the one who understands it's a key to greatness. Blessed is the one who understands that you can't do it on your own. That you need help. He puts that virtue first because humility is the foundation of other graces. Proverbs 29, 23 says pride ends in humiliation while humility brings honor. So the poor in spirit realize that they don't have a right relationship with God. And as such, the poor in spirit comes to God as humble beggars, humbly seeking his forgiveness. And until we understand how unworthy we are we will not understand how worthy he is. Americans have a tendency of lowering God and raising up men. They lower God and they raise up men. That's what we do as a society because we don't understand how great our God is. We don't understand as a nation what an awesome majestic God we serve in worship. In Luke chapter 18 verses 10 through 14 Jesus gave a story illustrating that. He said two men went up to the temple to pray, went to Pharisee, the other attacks collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but meet his breath saying God be merciful to me as sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Humility is the key. God has a way of humbliness doesn't he? I mean everyone in this room who knows the Lord understands his humbling hand all of us do. God has humbled me. He humbles me pretty much almost every day if not every day pretty much every day. In one form or another he has to bring something into my life to make me dependent on him and to help me to realize that without him I'm nothing. In ministry I can still remember one of the first lessons that I can remember that really impacted me and that I could use as illustration was when our church was fairly young. Over 30 years ago now a friend of mine, Raul Reese was going to Albuquerque. I have family in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And Raul was gonna go to do some ministry there and I was speaking to him and I said to Raul I'd like to go with you when you go to Albuquerque. And so he said, of course you're welcome. So I went with him and when I went with him to Albuquerque it was at the Kiva Auditorium in Albuquerque. Some of you may have heard of that or been there at the Kiva. There we were and Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque was putting on an outreach and Raul was gonna be sharing. And so I happened to go with him and some other guys and there I was seated out in the audience and I was talking to a couple of young ladies who were seated on my left. And after my right was my family that lives there in Albuquerque, after my left were two young women that I began to engage in conversation, just having a visit with them and as I was visiting with them Raul came out. And when Raul came out he said, basic things is great to have you here at all. I'd like to introduce you to some of the people who came with me on this ministry trip. And so I'm sitting there next to these girls and I'm thinking, oh, he's gonna have me stand up. And when I stand up, are they gonna be impressed that I was, I'm with Raul in the ministry. That's a true story, true story. I really thought that. Now they're gonna be impressed when I stand up. So Raul says I'd like to introduce you to Gary and my friend Gary stands up in waves and everybody claps and go, oh, they're clapping too. This is really cool. And then he has his brother Xavier stand and Xavier waves and he has somebody else stand and I'm just waiting. He never mentions me, he never mentions my name. I just sat there and the spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart, oh, you are so important, aren't you? They're really impressed, aren't they? I was just so humiliated, I felt so bad. Oh, God, you're too much. You know my ego, you know my need for attention, you know all of those things and you shot me down like a dog in the street. Thank you, Lord. I'm telling you though, the Lord has humbled me in so many ways for so long and he is faithful to do that, but it's a key. It's an important aspect instead of having to always be right. There are people who have lost their families because of pride. They've lost their wife, they've lost their children, they've lost everything, they lost their job, they've lost everything because of pride and God has been wanting to teach us, that's the key. That's the first, that's the form. You need to know that you're dependent on me. I'll help you through these things but you need to understand that. You can't save yourself as much as you'd like to. You can't save yourself. You have to humble yourself and then God says, and then I will lift you up like it says in James 4-10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Depend on him, it's so basic and yet it's so hard and that's why it's the first. If you think you could do it on your own, you will fail. My granddaughter Stella is a little over two years old and she likes to do a lot of things on her own. You know if she wants to climb up and downstairs, she wants to do it on her own. You reach down to help her. She doesn't want your help, she can do it on her own. And so I, as a grandpa, I'll be right next to her and I don't want her to fall but there have been times when she was doing it on her own and she did fall down because that happens. But then you reach down, can I, no, no. You know, she gets real, real like, no, you know. She's like her grandma and you know, no. Can I help you? But after she fails enough times, it's always true. I'll finally say, do you want Papa to carry you? And then she'll just reach up. And I see myself in that because I try to do it on my own. I've got the ideas, I've got the stamina, I can do this. I don't need help. I can do this. I don't need anybody helping me. I can do it on my own. That was my attitude for all my young life until I got saved and even into my salvation. I went to Biola, I owed them $1,000. I had to quit school. I had to go to work but I owed the school $1,000. I didn't have any money. And so Marie and I went to the accounting office there at Biola and I sat down with the guy who kinda helps you to figure out how you're gonna pay back your debt. And Marie is seated next to me and the man says to me, you owe the school $1,000. And I said, yes, and I wanna make good on that. And he says to me, can you afford $50 a month? And I looked at my accountant, Marie, actually started with 100. And I looked, can we afford $100? She goes, no. I said, no. He says, can you afford $75 a month? I looked at my wife, she shakes her head, no. I said, no. He says, can you afford $50 a month? And I looked at her, she goes, no. We didn't have $50 a month. So I looked at her, he said, how about $25? And I looked at her and she thought for a moment, she goes, we can afford $25. And so I have to tell you, it was the first time in my life that I can remember ever admitting that I could not make it good. And I have to tell you, there were times in my life I would have said, I'll pay you back. It doesn't matter. I will find a way. That's how I am to this day because I feel that your integrity is that important. But it's the first time I had to humble myself and say, I have to be honest with you. I don't have the ability to pay. I haven't got the money. I can't do this. I can't. That was so hard. But it was true. I can't. And so he wiped off several hundred dollars of my bill right in front of me. He says, we're gonna forgive you like $700. And now you owe us three. You can pay us that back at this rate, $25 a month. And I looked at Marie and I knew it was gonna be tight for us. I knew that was gonna be tight for us. But we walked out and I was so humbled by that having to admit I cannot make good on this debt. We got home and we got a phone call. This is God's truth before you as I speak it. And that is Biola. And they said, somebody called and paid off the rest of your debt. It's completely paid off. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. I have had that kind of thing so many times over the years where God has shown me His goodness and His greatness. But you humble yourself. God, I can't do it. It's not that I wouldn't do it. I want to do it. I want to be honorable. I want to have integrity. I want to pay my bills. I don't want to be one who relies on others. God, you know that. But I can't do this. Well, if it's true with my debts, how much more so with my sins? I can't pay them back. There's no way I'm not good enough. I could not do good for the rest of my life. That would in any way equal or surpass the evil that I've done in my life. I need help. And so Jesus says it. Blessed are the poor in spirit. The ones who understand that they can't. That they need help. The ones who are crouching in a corner with their hand out begging for help. He says, blessed is that one. So what do we do? Well, we need to remember that humility isn't something we create for ourselves. It's actually the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. See, if you could work to make yourself humble, then that's not real humility, is it? I had a guy I knew when I was first saved and he got saved shortly after I did. He was older than me as an older gentleman at that time. I was 20 years old and he was probably in his 40s. He was an ancient man. And, but he used to brag to me about all he was doing for the kingdom of God and it got tiring. And one day he was in my parents' kitchen and I was speaking to him and he was boasting again of the accomplishments that he had performed for God and all. And I said, you know, I said, humility is a good thing in the kingdom of God. You realize that, don't you? And he said to me, humble, humble? He said, I am humble. He said, I'll never forget this. I am the most humble man you'll ever meet. So he was proud of his humility and made no sense. Then it makes no sense now. And so what we need is humility and that comes by us realizing it's a holy spirit who does that work in us. He convicts us and he brings us to our knees. And we humble ourselves. We take our eyes off of ourselves. We put our eyes on him and then we pray that God will purify our heart like it says in Psalm 51-10, creating me a clean heart. Oh God, renew a right spirit within me. And by coming to God in humility, Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven becomes yours. Jesus opened up the gates when he died for us and he invites us in. It's like what he said in Matthew 11, 28 through 30, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Come to me, all you are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. We humble ourselves as we come to him. And it's been said, if you lay yourself at Christ's feet, he will take you into his arms. Humble yourself.