Sermon Tone Analysis
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Old saying that “God helps those who help themselves.”
Attrib.
to Ben Franklin but actually from an earlier source from the 1600.
In fact, different cultures across 100’s of years have had similar sayings.
From Buddhism, to Islam to truly ancient Greek sources there is a strand of thinking in our humanity that that believes we must take self-initiative in order to receive the favor of the gods.
It’s self-help on steroids.
If we’re going to ask God for help, shouldn’t we at least try to help myself first?
The fallacy, as we’ll see, is that we’re trying to get everything perfect before we approach a perfect God.
How’s that working out for you?
I thought so.
When we think this way, we live this way.
And the problem is that we then rely on ourselves as our first source of help and strength.
God becomes secondary.
This is completely out of order from a biblical perspective.
As we begin 2022 by rebooting our minds (as we discussed from Rom. 12.1-3), we begin where Jesus began teaching us as disciples - the Beatitudes.
His first statement blows the self-help, get right on our own philosophy out of the water:
It’s striking that Jesus begins by teaching the disciples what kinds of lives are pleasing to God.
Making God Happy
Blessed is hard to translate easily into English.
In its basic sense, blessed is the state of being we are in when God is happy with us.
It is a “positive judgment” from God.
We are happy, then, when we know that we are bringing joy to God.
When we are blessed, it is because we are approved.
Being Poor Is Good?
Jesus begins with a seeming paradox and brain twister:
Lot’s of room for misunderstanding what Jesus is talking about.
Too often, we try to turn this into a psychological mind-set.
Low self-esteem, false sense of humility.
In fact, it’s much deeper and more difficult than just acting like a “nobody.”
Jesus uses a word for “poor” here that describes beggars.
“the cringing poor” as one scholar has called it.
People in Jesus’ day who had nothing, expected nothing, completely dependent on others for their survival.
The word moved from an economic/social description to a way to illustrate a spiritual reality.
Jesus is telling us to consider our position before God as one who is spiritually bankrupt.
We bring nothing to God.
We need to understand that we can’t buy a stairway to heaven with our material assets, our talent, our will, our drive, nothing gives us a “right” to exist in God’s kingdom.
A Countercultural Lifestyle
When we pull God’s happiness together with our lifestyle, here’s what we get:
God is pleased with us when we completely rely on Him.
We KNOW we’re doing the right things, living the right way when we have put ourselves in His hands.
What happens when God is pleased with us?
Later in this same sermon, Jesus asks a penetrating question:
The Reboot
Recognize when you are trying to do life “all by myself.”
Learn to leave the stress of relying on ourselves and rest in the peace of Christ.
Realize that you are fully loved and pleasing to God.
He desires to bless you.
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