Matthew 5:1-5 Jesus Calls The Spiritually Bankrupt Blessed

Greatness is easy to talk about and hard to define, until Jesus sits down on the mountain and calls the unlikely people “blessed.” We walk through the opening Beatitudes and get uncomfortably honest about what they demand: self-awareness, repentance, and a humility that stops ranking ourselves above the people around us. If you’ve ever felt stuck in conflict, tired of church drama, or frustrated by your own patterns, this message names the real issue without leaving you in shame. 

We start with “poor in spirit” as spiritual bankruptcy and explain why joy doesn’t come from pretending we’re fine. Then we dig into meekness as power under control, the kind of strength that doesn’t pop off, doesn’t intimidate, and doesn’t need to win. That runs straight into the real-life stuff: harsh words, half-apologies, gossip, and the slow way relationships rot when we forget how much grace we’ve received. 

From there we move to mourning, not only personal loss but grief over sin and the wreckage it creates in families, churches, and our communities. We talk about the God of all comfort and why he comforts us so we can comfort others. Finally, we unpack what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness, both personal holiness and the justice God loves, and why the Word of God is not busy work but daily nourishment for a malnourished soul. 

If this connects with you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more people can find City Life Church San Diego. What’s one area where you want Jesus to reshape your definition of greatness?

Transcript

Welcome And Why Community Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the City Life Church podcast. We hope it encourages you. If you'd like to learn more about City Life or our mission, connect with us online at CityLifeSandiego.org. And while podcasts and Sunday mornings are helpful, they are no substitute for deeper personal relationships in the church.

The Beatitudes Read Aloud

SPEAKER_01 0:37

When he, Jesus, saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, which is the normal way a Jewish teacher would teach, his disciples came to him. Then he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. This is God's word, friends. Will you pray with me? Father, as we study your word, as we listen to the wisdom of your son Jesus, we know in our bones that he is right. And yet we see violence everywhere. We see people wanting to dominate other people, we see hatred for every reason that we can invent. We all say that we love peace and mercy, and and then we fight over parking spots and politics, and um, we see these resources that you have provided to the world as finite and only for us. We see disturbed children with guns as enemies, and so we mourn today, we lament the brokenness of this world, but first we recognize our contributions are not minimal. We see how corrupted our own hearts can be without your intervention. Would you cause us first to weep over our own sin? Would you lead us to understand that our selfishness uh contributes to all of this? But let us not stop there. Would you let us feel your grace and mercy, and then would you send us to the world, armed with a love the world cannot fathom or take away? We don't want this good news for ourselves. Now that we've received it, we want it for everyone. We ask that you would arm us with grace and truth and love, and that you would equip us and send us out this morning. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you. We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. Now,

Redefining Greatness Through Brokenness

SPEAKER_01 2:58

this world tells us a lot of what it means to be great. Like greatness. Like be funny, but don't cross the line. You'll be great. Be charismatic, don't be cult. Be kind, but don't be a pushover. Be a great leader, but don't try too hard. Be good at repairing stuff while I'm out. Be good at sports, dang. Read a book a day. Oh dress nice, well, but not too nice. But guys, while some of these things are nice, these are not what Jesus would define as greatness. They're not. See, greatness, I would say, based on the words of Jesus, starts with the understanding of our own brokenness. Like so many of you in this room have overcome addiction, jail time, gangs, abuse. And broken people, guess what they do? Broken things, don't they? But greatness is when we lean on Jesus and we recognize that we are not better than our neighbor. We are trying, and so are they. So many of you have been mistreated all of your life, and now you've come to faith in Jesus, and it's beautiful. It's beautiful, friends. We've baptized so many of you, but your trauma and your addiction and your bad habits they don't magically disappear, do they? They stick around. But I gotta be honest about one thing, too. Like, church, we are constantly fighting. Constantly. Refusing to forgive, refusing to see the best in another beautiful soul made in God's image. I'm so tired of having you guys beef, and then both sides stop showing up to church for weeks at a time. And and that's a childlike faith, but not in the kind that Jesus talks about. It's not, it's not the good kind. And and your friends who bring you to faith, um, your friends who you bring to faith, they're gonna learn that from you if you're not careful. But let me say a positive first before I go too far into that. You are in each other's business, and that is a good thing. Like I want to say, the fact that you guys know each other well enough to offend each other is a positive to me. Because you know what that tells me? Tells me you know each other. So that's a that's the positive, that's a good sign. But but here's the thing once you realize the brokenness of your neighbor, once you once you realize that shiny polish wears off and you start to see the darkness in your neighbor's soul, which the it's there, okay? You're gonna see it, you're gonna find it. Once you see that, you have to be ready to forgive. You have to be ready to forgive. You have to understand your need for salvation. Guys, we don't hold our good behavior over other people, do we? We need to understand that we are often wrong, that we look through a lens that is broken and we see brokenness, but sometimes it's our lens. And and we need to understand that when we're often wrong, we need to apologize real apologies. Real apologies, not that I'm sorry if you were offended, crap. None of that. Not that I did my part, so now I'm gonna go seek my peace. We don't do that here. No, don't you understand? Jesus sends us the extra mile. That's what he does. He walked the road to death so that we wouldn't seek our peace, but instead so that we would seek peace, radical, unselfish love. Now, if anyone had the right to self-care, it's Jesus, right? Can we can we agree on that? But if you belong to Jesus, you are a new creation with a new vocabulary. And when we are in the middle of God's will, we will learn to use two of the most important words on this planet. I'm sorry. And we can do it without bitterness, with God's help, without qualification, without expecting an apology in return, and then and only then we are in step with Jesus and his sermon on the mountaintop. If you can listen to these sermons, which are destroying me already, by the way, as I work through them, and you can listen to them without being gutted, you aren't listening. Jesus is challenging everyone in the room, not the person next to you, you, me. There's no exceptions.

Blessed Are The Self-Aware

SPEAKER_01 7:19

So today I'm gonna give you three people that Jesus says are blessed in the kingdom. Three people that Jesus says are blessed in the kingdom, and the ver first one I give to you today is the self-aware. Blessed are the self-aware. In verse 2, it says, Then he began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. See, Jesus saw this massive ocean of humanity, and he climbed up to where he could teach his disciples and still be heard by the hopeless, by the arrogant, by the people with broken limbs, people with mental illness, people hoping to be delivered from demons. They were all listening and um they were struggling, right? And then he said one of the most important phrases in our faith blessed are the spiritually bankrupt. That's a term we're using for porn spirit because um we gotta like reorient our brains to understand what he was really saying. Those who understand their dire need for God, those who are humble and aware of their brokenness and their imperfections more than they are aware of the sins of the people around them. Humble. Jesus used this word blessed. But many translators would actually argue that this word uh back then was closer to happy, which is like weird for me. Um, these things don't sound like happy things, do they? It sounds like a description, though, of what we would call today joy. Joy. Joy goes beyond circumstance. It is in spite of circumstances, it is grounded in the love of God and not what is happening around us. But it's also uh likely it contains like an eschatological meaning. And I like to use the word eschatological meaning because it makes me feel like I know stuff about things. Um, but it's a big word, it has a big meaning, but it's more about the forever, the later. All of it is to say some of what Jesus says here might also be focusing on the not yet. So you are blessed when you mourn, but maybe not in the moment sometimes. But you can be, but maybe not always. He uses the word blessed and he uses it with joy. And he and then he says, Blessed are the humble, but also I would say other translations would use the word meek. You guys know I love the word meek, for they will inherit the earth. Our translation in the CSB is humble and it's not wrong, but either way, this is a rejection of self-importance in relation to God and others. Now, does anyone here remember our definition of meek? Is there anyone

Meekness As Power Under Control

SPEAKER_01 9:50

willing to shout it out? Power under control. Yes, you guys are getting it. And I always use the idea of a Dodge Viper because it's the coolest car on the planet. Uh, and I don't care what you have to say. Um, a 1998 Dodge Viper going 65 on the freeway. Dude, can yes, a V10 truck engine, beautiful car. Now, can and it sounds beautiful too, if you've ever heard it. Oh my gosh, but that that Viper can go faster than 65. Nobody is on the freeway driving next to a Dodge Viper and going, that thing can only go 65. No, it doesn't need to prove anything to you. It's fast. It has no need to prove anything. That is humble, that is meek, nothing to prove. They know where their strength lies. It's in that V10 engine, right? But if we've tried meek, it often comes with suffering. It means you don't pop off even when you think you're right. Now, usually, uh, to our husbands, I like to speak about meekness as well. I'll speak to the wives as uh also, but to the husbands, I would say this. Usually you are physically stronger than your wife, and you have the ability to hurt her. Now, in our church, we have some ladies that I think could take some of their husbands for real. But usually the husband has the ability to hurt his wife physically. He's often stronger than her, not always. Um, he also has ways to hurt her mentally and emotionally. But a meek husband knows he is married to his wife to help her flourish. He is supposed to help her thrive physically, spiritually, emotionally. He can hurt her, but a disciple of Jesus will do whatever he can to help her grow rather than use his power over her. A man who hurts a woman rather than serves her, we have a word for that. It's child. It's a child. He needs Jesus and his church to deliver him from a childish attitude towards women. Men in this church, we protect women, right? We protect women. We would never use our physical strength to intimidate them. Why? Because we should be meek. Now, wives, you have the ability to hurt your husbands with one word, don't you? You wives, you have the ability to hurt your husbands with one look. You know this. Now, what would a meek wife look like? It's one who seeks to encourage her husband to draw him to Jesus, to not tear him down. Is she weak for that? No. A woman who uses her power to hurt her husband, she needs Jesus to deliver her from bitterness and all that's hurting her. Friends, it's tough out here, isn't it? It's tough to be meek. Like I've had people in our neighborhood spit in my face, spit in my face, yelling at me. And I I keep in that moment have to think about the meekness of Jesus. They could be screaming in my face. And I've had people try to hit me with their car. I had a guy sideswipe my car last week with no ID, no insurance. And I have to like go to the Holy Spirit and like be like, God, help me in this moment. How am I gonna respond? I want to be meek. I am not. Friday, um, she's not here right now, she went to the first service. Friday was Irene's graduation from USD. She graduated with her master's degree in leadership. And uh uh we went to see her graduate, it was really, really fun. Um, no, nobody says a graduation is fun, but we like seeing her. Um, but but the thing is we went to the parking structure afterwards, and I don't know if you know what happens to a parking structure when everyone is leaving at the same time. It's not fun, okay? And so what happens is you never move because there's or someone else is always pulling out in front somewhere along the line. And I remember my wife uh was driving the car because she thought maybe I'm too aggressive sometimes. So, you know, I've learned my lesson, just drive, drive, lady. And so she was backing out and she had room, and then it was one of those things where it's like, oh, she could go forward to get back in so that someone could come across, so that like it wouldn't like totally close the street. But when she started to go forward and then back back in, the dude started like honking behind us, like on his horn, and he's doing this stuff, you know, like come on, what are you, you know? And and I'm just like, okay, it's okay, honey. You know, it's like good thing she's driving, you know. Um, good thing she's driving. That's all I was thinking in that moment, right? Like, but I just keep seeing his hands and like the horn and the like he's clearly saying stuff real loud, his windows down, and there's just some point when I'm like, okay. Like, first off, dude, when you're gonna talk to people, when you're gonna yell at people, don't be stuck behind them. So I just like get out the car and I like I'm got my hands behind my back. I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to start anything, right? I'm trying, I'm asking God, help me to be meek to this man. And I'm just walking out like, hey man, I'm wondering, you know, if like rolls up the window on me. He's like, but I will tell you, he actually looked quite scared. He did. Like he had no idea that someone was just gonna come talk to him. Now, my desire was to be meek, okay? Like, I don't pack, I don't do any. No, I'm like, I want to be meek, but I will just tell you, like, this dude was a chihuahua. You know what I'm saying? And chihuahuas, they will, they will just they got a lot of fight in them until the moment when like they they see a pit bull. Now, meekness is a pit bull, right? Have you seen, like, you'll see a chihuahua at times just like chewing on a pit bull, and the pit bull refuses if it's a well-trained pit bull, refuses to respond because it knows that it could just snap the neck of that dog like that. That's the thing, like that's what meekness is. And so there are times when we're gonna be called to be meek, and I just tell you, man, a guy laying on the horn, I was starting to get that thing where I was like, I need to like shut my ears. Like, I actually did later because an alarm started going off, and I was like, I'm out, I just gotta like go into my like special place away from here. But like the thing was is that like he was not showing meekness, and I know me. Without Jesus, there would be no meekness going on right there, there would be something else, and so I praise God that that he works through me even when I feel a certain way, and he's teaching me to be meek. Now, Jesus shows us what we have to stand on in every fight we get into. What is that? Nothing. We bring nothing to God's table, and that's okay. I don't have to be better than anyone, I just have to recognize I'm not better than anyone. Jesus saved me by grace, grace that I didn't deserve. So, how could I make demands of anyone else? Friends, we have been forgiven from so much. Can I get an amen for that? Jesus knows everything that you've ever done or said, even your thoughts. He knows your worst, most embarrassing moments, and he still chooses to love you, to pursue you, to forgive you. How can we not bask in that grace of God completely unmerited, completely undeserved, unearned grace? But when we get that kind of grace, it means that we need to give that kind of grace. Now there

Forgiven Much So We Love Much

SPEAKER_01 16:40

was a time in Luke 7, 37, Jesus is sitting at a table with some religious dudes. He's at a religious dude's home, actually, and this woman from town, who was known for being a quote, sinner, stood behind Jesus at his feet, weeping, washing his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with perfume. And if you think Jesus' feet were probably clean because he's Jesus, you don't understand. He was walking in a dirty, dusty street with animal poop everywhere, like it would have been gross. This is not the beautiful image that you might expect. It would have been gross and smelly. And this woman understood how very much she had been given in Jesus. And when this uppity religious dude hosting the dinner party saw this, he said to himself, This man, if he were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman this is touching him. She's a sinner. Now, let's be honest, if we were there and it was a religious leader and there was a lady doing that, would you not be a little like, hmm, that's hmm, that's weird, you know? But Jesus knew this man's thoughts and he told a story. He said, A creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred bills and the other fifty. Since they could not pay it back, he graciously forgave them both. So which one of them will love him more? And the religious man answered, Well, I suppose the one he forgave more. You have judged correctly, Jesus said. Then turning to the woman, he said to the leader, Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she with her tears has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she hasn't stopped kissing my feet since I came in. You didn't anoint my head with olive oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume, perfume. Therefore I tell you how many s her many sins, and he says, many sins, have been forgiven. That's why she loved so much. But the one who is forgiven little loves very little. Friends, we have a lot to be forgiven, and it should lead to us being more loving. This woman was humble and poor in spirit. This woman had a past that she had repented of. She must have felt so much freedom from Jesus, and she wanted to show her gratefulness. But people wanted to judge her. Rather than pretend she had always followed Jesus, though, rather than pretend she had always been awesome, she clung to forgiveness. She knew she was spiritually bankrupt, poor in spirit. She clung to her Savior's feet. She knew, like us, she had no right being there, but she put her trust in Jesus anyway. The problem with that table that Jesus sat at is that no one has the right to sit at that table on their own merit, but Jesus. And it it was only she who understood that. That religious leader didn't deserve to be at the table of Jesus. See, when we see ourselves honestly, though, we can reject the poisonous lies that destroy our relationships. Blessed are the spiritually bankrupt. Some of us need to have a funeral for our righteousness, at least our self-righteousness. We need to recognize it was never us. We need to bury our feeble attempts at goodness and self-importance. Now I realize this sounds like very bad news. I promise you it'll get better. It'll get a little worse first. You may also feel like I picked on some of you guys a bit, but I have the same need as you. Until we are able to rightly look in the mirror, recognize our sinfulness, enjoy this free grace. We will never find true freedom in life. Now, Pastor William Barclay, he once said, The way to the joy of forgiveness is through the desperate sorrow of the broken heart. Now, our second person Jesus says is blessed in his kingdom is this the grief stricken.

Mourning Sin Without Blaming Others

SPEAKER_01 20:28

The grief stricken. Verse 4 Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Now, this mourning idea, it car it carries a lot of weight and it means a lot of things. So we're going to touch on that a little bit. Jesus spoke of the broken and the hurting. Jesus showed his love for them and his desire to comfort them. But this may not be the mourning that we always think of. Now Zambian pastor Joe Coppolo, he says the term mourn is commonly associated with pain and grief caused by bereavement. But mourning can also be caused by recognition of wrongdoing and its consequences. See, you're starting to see that this this grief is like a big term here. Now many of us have conversations about the sins of the people around us. We grieve their awfulness, don't we? Like we talk about the ways they've gotten it wrong. We forget what it means to be spiritually bankrupt for us. Many times we will need to lovingly help someone back on track as they struggle. But dang, if we shouldn't sit first in our own sin and grieve at first, doesn't mean we don't help people get back on track. It means we mourn our sin first. We need to be people of grief. We have to reject apathy and attack our sin. Repent and find forgiveness in Jesus alone. Now, Dr. Tony Evans says sin and its consequences surround us so that we are tempted to become numb. Instead, we must pray that God would give us the emotions of his heart so that we can experience the comfort of God to encourage and strengthen. Strengthen us. Guys, I cannot tell you how painful it is to hear people gathering and talking about my failings. To know there are text threads and hangout groups that sit and talk about me. That hurts me. And as a church, we get lots of things wrong all the time. We're going to continue to get things wrong, but friends, when we are grieving and mourning over our own sins, there is a lot less room to point out the problems of other people. Now I encourage you, when someone talks badly about someone who is not present, say something nice about that person. When someone talks badly about someone not in the room, draw attention to your own sins and struggles. Now I have family members who are mad at me for not denigrating someone else in the family. Mad at me for not denigrating someone else in the family. But I refuse to get caught up in that gossip. I have someone who doesn't want to talk to me right now because I won't say to them that someone else in our family sucks. I won't do it. I don't need to worry so much about someone else's sin when mine are in front of me all the time. But friend, this grieving is so grand, it's so large, it's so all-encompassing. Like I need to be able to grieve the shooting at the San Diego Center for Islam. I should grieve that. We need to grieve that loss. We also need to grieve the Nazi indoctrination of these kids that they received online. And we should grieve for their families and with their families. We should grieve the spread of illness like Ebola and the Hantavirus across our world, that the war happening across our world. We should grieve when sin is celebrated in our streets. We should grieve when poor communities like ours are targeted for unhealthy food, for liquor, for weed. We should grieve when our society is taking black fathers away from the homes. We should grieve the lack of jobs, education, and recreation opportunities in Mount Hope. We should grieve that, and we should be mad about it. We should grieve when our children have such little access to quality health care, but they have easy access to abort and unwanted child. Look around. Addiction, pornography, prostitution, abuse. We should grieve these. They should hurt our hearts, right? They should pain us. They should paint us to a way that only the Holy Spirit can comfort us. No TV show, no friend hangout, no like wine and book club things. No, no, no, no. We need the Holy Spirit. It should be that kind of grief that only the Holy Spirit can fix. Only the Holy Spirit can comfort us in those things. Now, 2 Corinthians says this in first uh one three.

Comfort From God That Overflows

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. He comforts us all in our affliction so we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction. See, we are comforted by God in our affliction so we can comfort others. Now I've met folks who recognized and grieved their own sins, who realize how very messed up they are. And those folks never want to serve in the church because they are not worthy yet. And I'm like, hey, hey, grieving over your own sin, repenting and taking it to God, fighting against the flesh and worries of this world, that's the right way to go. You're on the right path, just don't stop there. There is hope after grief. And I know a guy, I know a guy who might as well have the name hope, because he's the only chance that we have. Jesus is hope. Yes, we bury our sinful self in baptism, but we are raised to walk in newness of life in Jesus. This is the beauty of the gospel that no matter how big our debt with God was, Jesus was willing to pay the price with his own life, with his own blood, so that we might be able to walk in his righteousness. I said, His righteousness, right? Not ours. And when we walk in his righteousness, we do things that we could never do before. And also we understand that that we know that we have been forgiven much because um he had to die, but also he shows us the receipt by by rising again, rising on the third day, showing he was bigger than sin and death. Guys, this is the beauty of our whole faith. We are not good enough, he is good enough. But we have to follow him, we have to walk through this, and we have to do it in a way that is humble, that is meek, that understands our sin is ever before us. To those who come to faith in Jesus, if you could just go to Sunday services, though, like you've locked God out of so many things that He wants to be involved in in your life. Like God is watching your marriage and and and your He sees your anger and He sees your depression. He knows how insecure you are about losing your job. He knows how you feel like the worst person in this room right now. He knows that. He wants all of you though. Not not because he's mean, not because he wants to harsh your buzz. God is not a party pooper, a wet blanket, whatever you want to call him. He blesses those who seek him. Which

Hunger And Thirst For Righteousness

SPEAKER_01 26:55

means the third person blessed in Jesus' kingdom is this the plate cleaner. I was trying to find another way to say that. Um, some people call them a snack goblin, but uh Barclay, he has a spiritual title, it's much better. The starving spirit. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Now, Jesus didn't just want us to think about our brokenness, did he? He didn't just want us to think about our sinfulness. Man, that's rough. He wanted us to seek a better way for our blessing and for his glory. But we needed to hunger and thirst for these things. Now I know what it is to hunger and thirst. Not for righteousness, but but but for food. Now, um, when we lived in Orange County, actually, uh in Irvine, which was like the worst place for me to live, if you know me, um, there was a place called Golden Spoon. Um, has anyone ever been to Golden Spoon before? It's like a frozen yogurt place. Yeah, my wife. Thank you, honey. Golden Spoon is like a it's like a good frozen yogurt place, it's fine, you know. And um we went to Golden Spoon, and back in the day, um when we were in our 20s, we would do this weird thing. Like we would go out to eat with people or do something with people, and then after we were done, we would just stay and like hang out. It was so weird because like you know, uh like my bedtime is like seven now, you know. Like, so we would we would go, we would get frozen yogurt, and then we would just stay for hours and hours and talk. And I remember um we stayed uh after they closed, but there was a place to eat outside, and this lady showed up, you know, in workout clothes, and I remember she went to open the door, kick. Hey, pop pop pop pop hey pop pop. This is my dinner. And they're like, sorry, we're closed, sorry, can't no. She's like, No, it's my dinner. She starts hitting that like this is what it means to be hungry, but she's hitting on the door. Like, you know, she was doing reps, and she was like, 58, 59, just one more, and I can get my golden spoon. She shows up their clothes, she starts banging, she's like, I know they keep summon the machines. You're gonna throw that in the trash. Let me have it. Like she's screaming at them. This is the kind of hunger that I'm talking about, okay? Like crazy lady in Irvine hunger. Now, now I'm the type of guy who would win a food eating competition. I don't know if you know that about me, not on purpose. I know what it is like to hunger, uh, not for righteousness but food. I'm the type of guy who uh is particularly susceptible to a couple things tamales, cereal after nine, ice cream, rice crispy streets, pad siu, Korean fried chicken, ube waffles. Now you put a plate of any of those things in front of me and you distract me with something else, I will eat it all until I'm sick. Like I looked it up online to see what the like there's like a hormone or something in your body that's released to tell you to stop eating. I don't got that. And I was gonna try and pronounce it for you, but it's a long word. I'm not gonna do it. But it's why I'm very careful not to take my ice cream home because it doesn't last, like, doesn't last at all. I'm a hungry person. And um actually, I went on a date with my mom this week and she took me um to get some Thai food, and then we went to get ice cream. And I don't know if you know this, but my mom knows me. Um, so then she's she's buying me ice cream like a like a mom, and then she's like, Hey, you want to take a pint home too? Like a sociopath. Like, why would she say that to me? We want to take a pint home. You know how bad that is for me? You know how like I'm gonna eat it. Yes, absolutely, yes. Like, didn't you raise me, mom? But yes, of course I took it home, and it was like, and then like one day I opened the fridge, looked at it, it disappeared. Jesus looks at us devouring waffle cones and our sushi and our tamales, and he sees us like like pounding ice torchada coffee drinks that give us diabetes, and he's like, Why are you hungering and thirsting for things that turn into waste? I have something so much better for you. Come and eat. Now we get this. Most people hunger, yes, but what does it look like to hunger and thirst for the kingdom of God? Not the kingdom of this world. Now, Indian pastor Dr. Brian Wintel, he said, the hungering and thirsting need not be just for our own personal righteousness, but for justice to prevail everywhere. You see, when we understand God's righteousness, we see brokenness everywhere, don't we? And we want to do something about it in the power of God's spirit. You can't just read the Bible without seeing how much he treasures the poor and calls us to do the same thing. You can't do that. You can't read God's word without seeing the way he desires to use your hands and your feet to bring justice and holiness to this world, to care for the people around us. His word and his church, they fire us up for these things, they make us hungry for these things. And you can get some of God's word through social media. I don't suggest it. It's diluted, it's full of short quips, things taken out of context and lots of opinions. I say we should take Jesus at his word here. We need to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Replacing Junk Faith With Real Formation

SPEAKER_01 31:50

And I'm sure some of you remember we had a person in our church who went to a cult because of Instagrammer Johnny Chang had invited her to join him at the cult. And so she went. And and I remember talking to my mentor, Dehadi Lewis, some many of you met him from Atlanta, and uh he asked me this question. He said, What else are we offering her? He told me if someone has junk food in the house and you tell them to go on a diet, they're going to eat whatever is available. We have to replace the junk food with healthier options. And I remember, like, have we given her enough options? This is why we created our foundations a faith class. This is why we have several offerings this summer when city groups are on break. It's to keep you healthy so that you hunger and thirst for righteousness. June 7th, we are starting a new class. Um, it's called Practical Christianity. It'll be at 9 a.m. And our goal is to help you understand the ways we live out our faith while hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Now, here's the thing.

Stop Treating God Like Busy Work

SPEAKER_01 32:48

I talk to so many of you guys, you will miss church and you will feel sorry for me, and you will feel sorry for God that you hurt him. I talk to people who are ashamed of not reading the Bible or praying. But you know what? I've rarely met anyone who's ashamed of not eating any food for a couple months. Because they know that they need it. Now you ever see those movies, like they're in the desert always, right? And you have the same guy, like he's got the thing over his head trying to like avoid the heat, um, and his lips are all chapped and nasty, and he's like crawling through the desert. Like, how many movies have you seen like that, right? And then finally he crawls out of the desert, he gets to like some water, and then what's the first thing he does, right? What's what does he do? He drinks or he dunks his head in. No, that's not what he does. What he does is he says, You know, I've been away from water for so long. Kind of ashamed. I probably shouldn't drink any of it. I'm kind of embarrassed. No, you don't see that, right? Or how often does he say, Man, I don't really need this? No, he understands his need. He has he has a water bankruptcy in the moment, right? We understand we are spiritually bankrupt in the same way, and our hearts become dry and chapped. We're gonna die without God's intervention, just like people die apart from water. But Jesus made a way. He provided his church, he provided his word, he gives us prayer, he gives us his Bible. Friends, when you're missing out on prayer on Bible study, you're missing out on Christian relationship and worship, it's not something to be ashamed of. It's not something to be, it's something to be sad about. You're being malnourished with the things that you need. Guys, when we see ourselves honestly, we have to reject the poisonous lies that destroy our relationships. And then and only then will we hunger and thirst for Jesus who actually satisfies. Now, I remember going to school in high school especially, and I would get in trouble over everything. Like if you know me, I got in trouble. I mean, I was just always sent outside, sent to the principal's office. And uh the one of the things that really got me the most was busy work. Does anyone remember busy work? It'd be like, hey, we got three hours of class left, we're gonna watch this video about nothing. Cool, all right. Better stay awake. Um, or what would happen is you'd be like, um, you'd learn how to like multiply exponents, right? And they put the they give you the equation, you learned it two weeks ago, and then you did it again last week, and then the teacher's tired and it's Friday, and she's like, Okay, do 50 equations. And you're like, but wait, we like everybody knows this now, like everyone in the room knows this. Why do we gotta do 50 equations if we all know it? Well, because we gotta run the clock out. Oh my gosh, that's busy work. I hated busy work. I hated them running out the clock. Yes, I learned how to multiply exponents. I don't remember how to now, but I don't need it. But but I hated that stuff, you guys, and I bet you did too. But here's the problem. A lot of times we see God's word and God's church as busy work, like as just something you have to do, not something you get to do. We don't see it like water for a malnourished soul and food for a malnourished soul. We see it as something I just I guess I gotta do that. Get it out of the way. But here's the problem. For those of you who feel that way, like that's never gonna get you where you need to be. Uh-uh. And what I say is if you have acknowledged that now, I'm kind of excited for you. Because what this means is, it means that the the world you're living in right now can only get better as you learn to embrace this. I'm so excited for the moment you have your epiphany when it finally clicks like a seatbelt, all this stuff, all these things we do, it's not God's busy work on your life, it's life, it sustains you. It's pure, clean water, it's God's blessing in your life. I need coffee in the morning. Nobody has ever had to tell me that. But before I check my phone, before I drink my coffee, I need God's word. And I will just tell you, back in the day, I used to be like, I'm gonna check my phone first. And um, I've come to the point now where I'm like, this little machine is gonna have a lot of really bad news. I'm not as excited to look at it anymore. But I am excited for the good news that I find in the Word of God. I'm excited in a way that encourages me and blesses me. And it's crazy how often we'll like still go for that bad news first. But for those of you who feel that way, it's okay. God has a blessing for you in his word, and and I need him to speak into my life. And I'll tell you, this job, it's left me with a limp. I have wounds that are still bleeding. But when I wake up in the morning and the suffering of the world feels like it's on my shoulders, when your suffering feels like it's on my shoulders, when I feel grief over my sin and the brokenness in the world, I get to go to the feet of Jesus. He comforts me, he reminds me that he is in control, he reorients my heart to make me grateful. Guys, the last few years I've marked up my Bible with notes, and often I will put the date. And it's often crazy to me how I will go back and I will see something totally different the next time, the second time, the third time, the fourth time. Now, the meaning of that Bible verse doesn't change, it just becomes more robust. It's like putting on new glasses to see all the details I missed before. You go back again and again and again, and there's gonna be days when you're like, wow, that was like tepid water, you know, like at Wendy's. But there's gonna be other days when it's gonna feel like it's really nourishing you. Both of them nourish you, by the way. Now, I don't hunger and thirst, though, for righteousness because I'm holy. I hunger and thirst for righteousness because why? I'm not holy. I hunger and thirst for righteousness because he is holy. I seek God because I am a failure. I am broke, I'm a broken man trying to love broken people. I can't survive this role without the love and compassion of Jesus, uh. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit actively working in my life. If I didn't have the word of God speaking to me and God's Holy Spirit, I'm gonna make up a word, meekening me, I would have punched so many people in the throat by now. That may be too real for some of you, but I remind you blessed are the poor in spirit. You need a pastor who recognizes his brokenness. You don't want a fake pastor, because then nobody else can be real. So I'm gonna always be real with you as much as I can, and as much as I can be honest with you, and you can use it against me, and I'm okay with that. Well, not really, but you know, it's worth it to me. Friends, those who who who mourn over the brokenness of the world and the brokenness of their sin, this is where we're supposed to be. But once we get there, we hunger and we thirst for righteousness. Now, there are a few people in this room that have felt starvation before. You've eaten out of garbage cans, willing to get yourself sick just so you eat anything. Many of you uh know what it's like to starve. But I think sometimes when it comes to spiritual starvation, like you guys don't understand what's going on here, just like I don't with food. Just like I don't know what's going on with food, and I just eat whatever I eat. I think sometimes you guys don't know that you're spiritually starving and you just do other things. But don't wallow in your shame. Listen to the words of Jesus when he says, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him. And so I

Key Takeaways And Final Prayer

SPEAKER_01 40:11

say to you, City Life Church and guests, Christian maturity is learning to grieve the wreckage of our sin without drowning in despair. When we see ourselves honestly, we can reject the poisonous lies that rot in our bellies and destroy relationship. And then, and only then, will we hunger and thirst for Jesus who actually satisfies. Let's pray.