Blessed are the poor in spirit | Living the Way | Week 1

Living the WayBlessed are the poor in spirit... • January 7, 2024Teacher: Adam Barnett\_Matthew 7:28-29_\> "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law."> “The realm where God’s way is done is the ‘kingdom of God.’ It is from everlasting to everlasting. What changed with the birth of Jesus was God’s gift of a way in. To those who receive Christ as king, he gives the power to become powerless—to give up supreme rulership of our own little kingdoms and become like children. Children of the King, happy to follow in the Father’s footsteps and ready to trust him with our lives.” - Grace Pouch> To serve, or not to serve?> “The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete description anywhere in the N.T. of the Christian counterculture. Here is a Christian value-system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, lifestyle, and network of relationships — all of which totally oppose those in the non-Christian world. And this Christian counterculture is the life of the kingdom of God, a fully human life indeed, but lived out under the divine rule.” - John Stott\_Matthew 5:1-3_\> "Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”> Living the way of the kingdom is admitting that God's way is better than our own.> Living the way of the kingdom of God involves a present responsibility and a future privilege.