In this inaugural episode of our fifth season, Bob and Nathan delve into the transformative power of God’s love, exploring how it creates a sanctuary for authentic self-reflection and spiritual wellness. In a world that often demands perfection, God's unconditional acceptance allows us to embrace our imperfections, setting the stage for profound personal growth and inner peace.

The hosts examine Jesus’ teachings, particularly the Sermon on the Mount, focusing on the first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3, NIV). This powerful statement challenges our tendency towards self-centered living and invites us into a journey of other-centered living, mirroring God’s own nature.

This episode encourages listeners to embark on a spiritual journey, regardless of their current state—whether broken, lost, or struggling. By acknowledging our need for divine intervention, we open ourselves to the healing love that God offers, paving the way for authentic faith and spiritual transformation. The hosts emphasize that recognizing our spiritual poverty is not a weakness, but the first step towards experiencing a truly flourishing life shaped by God's transformative power.

loveshaped.life

Speaker 1 0:00

Nathan Stearman, see experience, live, love, shape dot life.

Nathan 0:12

Hey, I'm Nathan, and I want to welcome you to the love shaped life podcast, where we talk about our big dream to see experience and live in the center of God's radical love. I'm here today with my friend Bob, and we are in season five, and we're calling that this season. We're calling it seven principles for a flourishing life.

Bob 0:34

Yeah, it's exciting to be here Nathan again, once again, sharing about the God that we know, the God that is love, and just who he is, because once you know God, it's an honor and it's a privilege, and he just wants to wrap himself around you, and you can live in the rhythm of that love on a daily basis. So it's exciting to be here again to with you in the studio and to share this season, season five of love shaped life podcast. Yeah, super

Nathan 1:06

exciting. We want to encourage you to hit that subscribe button to follow us if you're listening on a podcast platform. Doing that isn't just because we want likes, but it actually helps get the word out about love shaped life, because we want others to experience the life changing power of God's love like we've experienced it and like you're experiencing it. So you can help us by spread spreading word. Leave a good review, share it with a friend.

Bob 1:31

You can look at it like sharing some love with somebody exactly

Nathan 1:34

Pass, pass on the love. And so we're in this fifth season, and it's connected to season three, which was our last teaching season. And season three was was titled Love defined. And we're just going to talk about that whole season kind of in a nutshell, so you kind of understand how this season is kind of the next step, or the next piece, as we're looking into experiencing flourishing in the wonder of God's love. So the big pieces we began was this idea that love is much bigger, deeper, more powerful than we kind of see it as we use love in our pop culture, yeah?

Bob 2:26

Because the Bible tells us, in first John 48 that God is love, right? So it's saying that he is love. It's defining what love is in regard to its God himself. The problem is, is that, like you mentioned in our culture, especially the English language, we use the word love so loosely, right? I love chocolate, I love that outfit you got on. I love football. I love my wife. I love God, right? So it's very confusing. And then, if you've you know we've been around as pastors, we've been around people who've been on abusive relationships, and oftentimes the abuser is saying to the person they're abusing that they love them. And so it's all this warped out picture, really, of love. A lot of our songs we love, love songs, right? Talk about love, but sometimes it's not really clearly defining what love is. So by looking at God and looking at the Scriptures we love can be defined Yes, and

Nathan 3:24

most of the time, the way we look at love is I love myself, and my love for you is really just an extension of how I love myself, whereas the biblical picture of love is this radical, other centered love that is directed toward other. And whether or not there's reciprocation, whether or not it comes back to benefit me, is not part of the equation of God's radical love. He loves just to love, not because of what he's getting back, not because of how we're going to respond to him. He loves because that's who he is, that's how he operates in the universe. Is this faithful self, giving being

Bob 4:06

that's just so powerful, just the thought of that, right? Because we're so we live in a world that we don't see that, yeah, but this is really who God is, and this is who God He's inviting us to experience that love for ourselves coming from him, right to change our lives, and then we can then reciprocate that by loving the same way with an other centered love towards other people.

Nathan 4:34

And I think it's helpful to contrast that with, again, the idea that often what we call love is really an extension of loving myself. So an example would be that I'm dating someone. I mean, I'm happily married, but just using dating as an example, I'm dating someone, and as long as my relationship with you makes me feel better about myself, as long. My relationship with with this person I'm dating enriches my life. Then I'm okay with it, then I stick with it, but once it starts costing me and I'm not getting out of it when I'm needing or wanting to get out of it, then I just move on. That's not love as we understand in the biblical story. Yeah,

Bob 5:24

it is love, but it's not, it's not a god love, right? It's a human love. That's the way we love as human beings that have been affected by sin we live. We love from a selfish standpoint, right? I'm only loving you as long as I can get something in return. Yes, right? So, but when we look at God, it's like you mentioned, it's a completely other, centered love. He does everything for with with no selfish threads whatsoever. He's a completely unselfish being, yes,

Nathan 5:54

and that's how he built us. He designed, when he brought the human family into the story, he designed that first human family to live giving and receiving love in this beautiful rhythm of other centered love. And that was intended to be the foundation of a flourishing human civilization. And then they joined the rebellion, and the rebellion starts with this angel who begins to turn towards self and self interest, and the condition of our world today is the result of joining that rebellion. We thought that human beings would be better off, at least our parents, ages ago, thought we'd be better off if we took care of ourselves. Well, turns out this mess is the result of a love that puts self first. Yeah,

Bob 6:53

and remember, in that season, what we looked at was how that in the Genesis story, yep, there was this being who is a serpent, who comes into the picture, who we know was that fallen angel? Yep, right? And he introduces this lie to Adam and Eve that that God isn't who he really says he is. Right, very subtle, right? He's very subtly, just planting it in their mind. God isn't really who he says he is. He's actually a selfish being. You can't trust him, and he's a liar, so he plants this in their minds, and they buy into this lie. And that changed them. This is huge. It was it just changed the Adam and Eve. They no longer loved each other from unselfish standpoint of view. They were blaming each other. And they also had changed their relationship with God. They now saw God from a different perspective. But we did see in that series that God didn't change. Hmm, that's the beautiful part. He still loved radically. Still loved radically. He comes looking for them, even when they had bought into this lie about him, even though they were afraid of him now, not because he caused that fear. It was just that lie caused that fear. They didn't trust him. They they fear developed in them. It was, it was a new experience for them, but God remained the same, same thing. Today, God has not changed, right?

Nathan 8:15

And it also occurs to me that today, we still tend to believe that lie. I was talking to some friends where we are, that we're journeying through the Bible together, and in our conversation, just acknowledging that often even reading scripture, our knee jerk reaction is to assume the worst about God, which is the remnants of this lie continuing to be present today. I mean, look at how often when religion comes up. I have friends that call themselves refer to themselves as recovering from religion. You know, often their childhood religion left scars, and they consider themselves recovering from that religion, again, we live in the shadow of these lies that continue to cause hurt, continue to drive people apart, continue to cause dysfunction, and lies fundamentally about the nature of who God is.

Bob 9:17

So that Fallen Angel, right, known as Lucifer, or that we call him the devil in our modern age. So so he takes who he is, yes, that he's a selfish being Yes, and he's out for himself, and he flips that characteristics on God. So oftentimes, through religion, there's this picture of God, and we're singing songs to God, but in that picture, is a selfish being that leads us, instead of to trust, is to distrust. So we have these apprehensions, we have these fears. And like you mentioned, I know people too. They're they consider themselves recovering from the religion. I mean, how sad is that? That's sad, right? And. And but all sometimes even family members, even parents, can give their children a wrong picture of God. Yep. So what we looked at, what I looked at in that season, was when Adam and Eve bought into that lie, and God then changed. He then comes along and he makes a promise, yes,

and that promise is Jesus coming, and Jesus coming would bring restoration about the truth of God's character, because Jesus, as he lived his life on Earth, was the revelation of the heart of God in three dimension, with a beating heart, with skin that could be touched, a voice that could be heard, visible among the human family. We're going to talk about that more in this episode. But that was God's answer. Is to come himself into the middle of our story. Yeah,

and that's huge. I think it's to know that if you want to know what God is like, Jesus came to reveal the truth about God, yes, that he is a completely other, sent, other centered being completely unselfish. Jesus did everything for the good of others, compassion, kindness, sympathy, you name it, forgiving, yes, even when he was on the cross, forgiving those who nailed Him to the cross. It just completely unselfish being he, he revealed

the heart of God, yes. And we believe, by the way, that the love shaped life is driven and unfolds within the wonder of God's radical love. And the point of season one, which has an accompanying booklet, is inviting us to live our lives in the light of God's radical love,

in the daily rhythm. Yes, I like that thought daily rhythm of being loved and living in the light of that, and that really is transformational.

Yes, that's the space where we become lovers,

right? And we find healing in our own life, right? Restoration in our own life. And then we can respond to others from that perspective,

exactly. So wrapping up the season three podcast, we took a final episode to look at God's big dream. And God's big dream is to create a civilization of human beings, a society we're defined by human beings loving like God loves. And so God's redemption project is filling our hearts, forming our hearts, shaping our hearts into hearts that love like he loves, and then ultimately, literally creating a resettled planet earth in which only those kinds of people live, so there's none of the trauma and evil present in our world today. Those bad actors are not in the picture anymore. That's the long game God shaping us, and then ultimately resettling Earth with people living by the rhythm of that, and what a beautiful world that will be. Oh and unbelievably beautiful. Can

you imagine that, living in a society where everybody lived for the good of others, right? No locks on the doors, no alarms, no distrust, everybody completely trusted each other, yes, because the God of the universe, who's who's trustworthy. We his love just radiates to us all. Yes. And we live there that that's the storyline of the Bible, right? So you go from Genesis in the Garden of Eden, we can say it was eaten, lost, and then we come to Revelation in this new heavens, the New Earth, which God's going to create in this new society, like you talked about, is really Eden restored, yes. And I liked what you pointed out in the last season was in that Eden restored was God comes to live with us, yes, on the New Earth. And that's just Another identifying mark of who God is, yes, that he wants us to live in his presence, even today, in this love shaped relationship, right? So,

and one of the courses that we're adding to our course catalog at love shape dot life will specifically focus on developing or exploring this biblical theme of ultimately a resettled planet Earth. Beautiful. So this season principles for experiencing or living a flourishing life is fast forwarding to the life of Jesus on earth where Jesus is. On a hillside, gives this inaugural address where he is stepping into the stage the human story, and he's outlining the way his kingdom works and how human beings can experience the principles the flourishing life that Jesus envisions for citizens of his kingdom. So that's where we are. We looked at God's promise, the redemption project, promise of God bringing restoration. Jesus shows up. And so the story we're jumping into is Jesus' Inaugural Address. We're only going to get through a very small piece of it, but a very powerful and important piece that lays out these principles for a flourishing life. We're going to come through in future episodes to finish out this inaugural address, but that's where we find ourselves today,

and for those who are familiar with the Bible, it's referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, yes, and the point that we're going to cover in this season is what is known as the Beatitudes, right? That's what we're addressing as these principles, these seven principles, right to a flourishing life,

yes. And those you'll find in Matthew five, the first few verses of Matthew chapter five, we're gonna actually start right now in chapter four, where the author of the of the book, Matthew, lays out the groundwork. Sure, the priest, right the back story, you could say of this moment where the crowd is seated on a hillside, which is why we it's called the Sermon on the Mount religious, a churchy term, but that's where it came from. It was actually a mountainside speech Jesus gave. So why don't you read Matthew 423, through Matthew five, one, sure, one or two

says Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon possessed, those having seizures, the paralyzed, and he healed them, large crowds from Galilee, the capitalist Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Now, when he saw the crowds, he went up onto a mountainside, sat down, his disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them. Can

you imagine the headlines? Reuters, CNN, Newsweek, Fox News. Can you imagine the headlines that would that would hit the web, hit the nightly news, hit the news feed, if this was happening today? Can you I mean just the pilgrimage to wherever this guy was at, where everyone who shows up in his presence is healed. I mean, can you I mean, the the plane loads of crippled people, the plane, yes, the the boatloads of, you know, we talk about immigrants, and just the desperate struggle, the ships that sink these, these human beings searching for better life. Can you imagine the mass movement that would happen even in modern civilization, if this story had unfolded today, huge,

and you mentioned the news agencies, not to remember, Instagram, Facebook, oh, yeah, YouTube, right? You know the reels that would be coming out, right what was happening, right? It'd be huge. It would be worldwide. It would be so in one sense, it was that type of an impact, right? It was, it was that type of

with no social media. So we're talking about massive impact, and there is no instant communication. Then the fastest you get as a running horse.

So leading up to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is going through he's healing people with no agenda. There was no agenda. He wasn't saying you can become, if you sign up to become a member of my kingdom, I'll heal you, right? If you sign up to to to follow me, I'll heal you. If you become a member of my group, I'll heal you.

Make a campaign donation, right? Make

a campaign donation. Sign

off that you agree with the seven principles of my kingdom, right?

He didn't, it was none of that, nothing. He just healed people of all various diseases. You're talking about demon possessed people, right? You're talking about people were paralyzed, you name it. He was healing them completely from an unselfish perspective, which is the heart of God,

which is love, giving away love, no agenda,

no agenda. So these people were seeing these miracles. They were hearing about these miracles spreading. Wide. But there was also something else going on, because people had an anticipation of someone who was to come and who was that, right?

So that's Jesus, but the and, and now that, I mean, let me just re, re, sort of backpedal on that a bit. It would be Messiah. And the reason I backpedal a little bit is because of the cultural context. The cultural context is is Jesus, listeners, the people. Jesus is healing. They're living a life of survival. They got to go to the well to get water, they depend on the rain, for the most part, for a crop. They they are subject, subject to the whims of the weather, not to mention the Roman Empire that has gobbled up nation after nation, the Kingdom where Jesus is the kingdom of Israel is an occupied territory. The Romans don't necessarily respect you as a human being.

So that's huge to realizing who is in the crowd. Yes, right before we talk about what they were expecting, but who was in the crowd? Right? Because they came from various regions, right? Like the we read in the Scriptures, they came from various regions. But also a number of those people, they had had land passed down, farmland passed down from generations. And now the Roman Empire comes in and takes their land from them, right? And but they're now farming their land that's no longer really theirs, but they're doing it for the Roman Empire, the

occupiers. I mean, think of how much we resist today. I mean, it's on the news today, right? One power, whatever one that is trying to occupy expand their territory, and today we resent that. Human beings resent their land being taken. These folks, their their land has already been taken. It's not a war in progress. It's a done deal. They are an occupied, oppressed people. So

then taking that to the next these people were oppressed, like you mentioned. They were broken. Their spirit was broken. I mean, they were slaves, right? They once had their freedom, and now they're slaves. And also, you know, they were full of resentment, and that resentment turns to hatred and bitterness. So their lives, you think about it, they're going to bed at night, probably angry. They're waking up in the morning angry every time they saw a Roman emblem or a soldier, it probably made them angry, because it reminded them that they were slaves. They paid taxes, they sustained the Empire. So these were the people who come are sitting on the side of the mountainside. And there was others. There was the religious leaders. I'm sure they were there. And I'm sure there was Roman soldiers there, because they were checking out what was going on. This huge crowd is following them, and they come to listen.

And there were non, non Israelites, non Hebrews there as well, coming from other regions. Syria's mentioned that the capitalist, which was a 10, a 10 City region, these individuals had been touched in one way or another by Jesus, and they are flocking to hear him. One of the echoes that is, or maybe not an echo, but one of the ideas that's held very close in the heart of the Hebrew people at the time is this prophetic story of a coming Messiah. And we're not talking about a messiah who's a philosopher. We're talking about a Messiah who raises up an army, a revolutionary leader, who raises up an army that's capable of throwing off the throwing out the oppressor, and restoring the political prowess of the Hebrew people, that's what this crowd is largely anticipating, is a deliverer, a Savior, a political savior, yeah, in

the sense of the physical kingdom, right? Right? Literal, physical kingdom that they would now be the rulers. They're on top. They're on top. And they're really excited. Can you imagine? Because he was healing these people, he's creating miracles. So they knew, if he could heal people, he could deliver them, yes, from the Roman Empire, right? And he could flip the kingdom, and now they would be the rulers, and he would be the king. So there was this huge excitement in the air and expectation,

yeah, and if their soldiers got wounded, we're not going to lose anybody on the battle, because they'll be healed. They'll be resurrected whatever it takes. We're we're good at some point in the story, probably after this. But Jesus feeds a massive crowd of people, 1000s of people. So. And if there's been food miracles, which you know, there's been a small one, at least at a wedding Jesus. Jesus made more wine for the wedding goers, so they already know he can also extend food supply. So he can heal you physically, he can create miraculous food supplies. I mean, what better revolutionary leader than somebody who has a following and the power to heal,

that was exciting and provide food. Yeah. And like you said, for those of Jewish descent, they believe that this was the Promised Messiah would come. And they had a misunderstanding, because they were taught by the religious leaders that the Messiah who would come would be a physical deliver right would rule, as with, you know, a kingdom that would crush another kingdom. So

it's not so different. I just want to pause and recognize that it's not so different today. How many, at least in the American system, or any of our national systems where there's voting, how much political thinking goes into answering the question, which political leader political party can come on the stage to help address the problems I face, health security, food security, national security, border security. These, these desires for our own lives being easier, reduction in taxes, more benefits to the retired, etc. These, the experience is different, and yet, in some ways, there's similarities where we we also have ways in which we suffer more or less or experience disadvantage under our current political system. And there's that desire for somebody, or some group of people, to come on the scene who can bring a measure of relief. I mean, we're thinking in Jesus day, it's astronomically bigger, but it's not so unfamiliar to us. Oh no,

not so unfamiliar again. You know, we looked at, we talked about that last season. We looked at the story and the lie that Adam and Eve brought in, you know, bought into, and the destructive path that is brought on our world, right? Right? So we're living in a self centered world, and as a result of a self centered world, all the evils that we see, the tensions, the hatred, the war, is the result of self centered living, right? So we see that throughout the world, right, but also back closer to the home, when we talked about the United States, we we're seeing in a political environment, things that we've never seen before, as far as just a dividing line between political parties, but the hatred is often just right on the shirt sleeve, right? Yeah. I mean, it's not just necessarily disagreement. Sometimes there's a lot of hatred and a lot of tension. And the thought is, if my party could rule, then we'll be better. And the other one still thinks, if Marty Party could rule, then we'd be better. So it's similar in the sense of the people. And then there's broken people. We live in a broken world, right? People are hurting all kinds of brokenness in our world, just like that crowd that came to hear Jesus, yes. And so keep going, yeah. So it's really similar to today in so many ways, and what Jesus is about to say is just as needed today as it was then, right? And

it's radical. It's radical. So I just was thinking as well about Hollywood, the stories we tell ourselves are stories of the person or people with the most power are the ones who save the day, correct, right? So, so even in our even in our imaginary, the imaginary worlds we create the superhero movies. We create the deliverance comes because somebody with a bigger gun shows up in town to save the day.

It's what the superheroes are all about, right? Right? From Superman to Batman to you name it, it's always they're coming in with power and might and force to save the day, right? Yeah. So that's the whole concept that we are so used to same thing with earthly kingdoms, right? It's the earthly kingdom those who have the power and the might rule. Yeah.

It was just noticed the other day that the US Marines are getting a new amphibious, amphibious assault vehicle, again, trying to stay on the cutting edge of military power. That's the stage they're on, that the only hope of deliverance, yeah, is somebody with a big gun, somebody with somebody who can, who can hold an audience, somebody who can rally the crowds, somebody who can sustain the army to come. And save the day. That's the only way out.

And this was the atmosphere on the sermon on mount. This was the excitement. It was in the air. It was in the air. They thought there was gonna be announcement that day, that Jesus was gonna make an announcement that, hey, we're going to take this kingdom, right, right? So he steps down there, and he starts off, yeah, and I know we might, we might not even get through this first one. They will carry into the next episode. But he starts off, and he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He's talking about a kingdom now, right? He's talking about a kingdom that he came to establish. And he said, Blessed, which means flourishing, flourishing or

happy is another one. I like flourishing. I think that's my favorite of the options. There's something about

the Word flourishing, right? That just kind of sends off endorphins or something in your brain, right, right? Living a life like that, so happy, or, excuse me, happy or flourishing are the poor in spirit.

I mean, can you that's like a just, I mean, I'm thinking of the, you know, we use the saying like a lead balloon, you know, just letting the air out of the room again, the build up is like Superman, revolutionary leader about to make his campaign rally speech. I've come to deliver you. I'm gonna reverse your misfortunes, not only political, but financial, even if it wasn't overthrowing the Romans. I'm here to to to make it so you don't have to live from hand to mouth, that you're not scraping by every day. I'm here to give a buffer. And so they're looking for that. And Jesus utters these words, blessed. Or the one who is poor in spirit is one who is flourishing. Now

it's talking about poor in spirit, right? So oftentimes we hear this word, poor? Was it talking about financially poor?

I mean, there's probably a piece of that. But clearly the big push of Jesus was the heart, an attitude of the heart. So something internal, something internal. What's fascinating about the kingdom that Jesus was building, which the people did not expect, was a kingdom that started on the inside. Everything they knew was a superpower of some kind, a revolutionary power of some kind, on the outside, forcing organization and structure, etc, onto the human family. Jesus introduces a revolutionary principle in his kingdom is to change the heart, and by changing the heart to build a good and beautiful society.

So he comes along, and he's talking about a kingdom, yes, starts on the inside, right? So Blessed are the poor in spirit, right?

And there's so much here of the idea, and I just, I want to pause here before we continue that. And the idea that Jesus there is a sequential nature to what Jesus is introducing, that Jesus is starting its at this with, at square one, or at the foundation level that a flourishing life is grounded in begins at this place of recognizing our brokenness. We don't, we don't like to recognize that.

So you're saying poor in spirit is recognizing our brokenness, yeah, coming

to terms that I don't have what it takes to live a beautiful life, that a life of radical love is not something that I scrape up from within my own resources. Well,

clearly the society then and the society today, doesn't have what it takes to live that type of love shaped life, right? The society doesn't have the ingredients, and we've because

of that to ourselves, over and over and over all

the whole history of the human race, yeah, right, all

of our best ambitions to create a sustainable civilization have all crashed and burned. Think

about it. You know, we can send people up into space, yeah, all right, travel around the earth and come back now, people can actually pay for a ride, if they have the money to pay for that, right, right? But yet, we can't change the human heart. The human heart. Human beings cannot change the human heart. You can't change your your heart. I can't change mine. Nobody can do that. So Jesus comes along and says, Blessed are happy. Are those who sense their need? Yes, right? For there is the kingdom of God. So it's the poor in spirit. Is those who sense their need of God, those who sense their need of change. Change. What

comes to mind is a modern program here in America that we call Alcoholics Anonymous. There's different variations of this, but the first of the 12 steps in Alcoholics Anonymous goes like this, we admitted we were powerless over alcohol. Now Jesus is not repeating the 12 steps, not starting the 12 step program, but clearly he's pointing to the starting place of acknowledging our powerlessness to get it together, to love well, so

could we say that our first step Blessed are the poor in spirit? Would be saying that we are powerless against living self centered lives? Yes. So we're so consumed because of the fall of Adam and Eve that this nature this had passed down, down to us that it's impossible for us to break out of our own of this self centered living. We need to acknowledge that, yes,

and here, here's the amazing thing about Jesus speech. So there were plenty of folks in the crowd, probably majority of people in the crowd who were taken back. The wind was just, just taken out of their sails. They were this full of anticipation, and all of a sudden, Jesus says something completely unexpected. Turns their expectations on the head. They're looking for an outside deliverer, a deliverer, a revolutionary figure, and he says, the people who own their brokenness, they're the ones who get the kingdom. They're the ones who truly have the flourishing life. And so there's a lot of folks in the crowd who are disappointed, but they're those folks who are in the crowd who come to that speech feeling like losers, and Jesus has, in that moment, extended to them this declaration that they actually have the key experience at this beginning step to experience a flourishing life, they're actually more in line with his kingdom dream than Pilate or Herod power figures in the day, or the Emperor of Rome, then these, then the soldiers or the centurions, these leaders, or the rich religious leaders, or the rich neighbors, the the people in power that the people on the sidelines admired and envied that actually, the ones on the sidelines who were conscious of their brokenness were closer. In fact, just doesn't just say closer. He says yours is or theirs is the kingdom you get it. All these people in power that everybody else thinks has it, they're actually farther than you are. And I'm

sure there was a lot of people. Again, the Spirit of God speaks to all of us. So God is speaking to all of us that realize that the problem was not just the Roman Empire having dominion over us. The problem was their own human hearts. Because even in a lot of those homes and a lot of their relationships were broken because of self centered living. So

go ahead, are you talking about the the centurions homes, the wealthy? Is that what you're talking about that the wealthy are also in the quietness of their homes, experiencing, maybe not the same kind of brokenness as the beggar,

the same type of strife that might be from a Roman Empire having dominion. They were having strife between each other, right? Because oftentimes people want to rule over people or have more power than them, so even in their society and in their circles. That's why we see today a lot of broken homes, right? All the chaos that we see in the world is really boils down to self centered living.

So does that mean that the key in this kind of, this foundational step, is not holding it together, but owning the fact that I don't have it together. Well, it's

like you read from the first step in AA, right, that we're admitting that we need help, right? You talk to any addict and those who are being reformed, they'll tell you the first step was, had to they had to admit that they were an addict, right? So what we're doing is human beings are saying, really need to be saying, I need help from God to change the trajectory of my life, right? So Blessed are the poor. The Spirit Blessed are those who are sensing that everyone has a vacuum that only God can fill. Now, we fill that vacuum sometimes with material things. We fill it with all kinds of things, but ultimately, God wants to bring us to the point where we realize that vacuum can only be filled by himself, and he, a lot of times, will not allow circumstances to come our way, or perhaps the choices that we're making, the wrong choices we're making, we get into rough spots, and he uses those to help us to cry out.

So God doesn't create them, but he can bring you can help us through them, to see how broken we

are and to to realize we have a need, a need desperate. Blessed are the poor in spirit happy? Are those who see their need of God, so is Jesus theirs? Is the kingdom, right? So yes,

and and and we've talked about some amazing, this amazing message Jesus was communicating in those words, I want to I and that's going to come up. But are you saying that, or is Jesus saying that the real starting place is authentic acknowledgement that I don't have it together or have what it takes like is that really, truly what Jesus is saying, that I that that for me to really enter into this flourishing Life begins with admitting that I'm powerless. It

is, you know, we again, we have this term that's used a lot in our society. It seems like more these days being a narcissist, right? And a narcissist is just somebody who's self absorbed, right? Well, to a certain degree, because of the effects of sinner life, we're all self absorbed, right? So, so God is trying to tear back that, that self absorption to help us to see our need, right? Yeah, so it's the very first step.

So the hope of a flourishing life crashes and burns unless and until I'm willing to let god bring me to the place where I say,

Yeah, I don't have what it takes. Yeah, because back to what I was saying about a narcissist. I didn't finish my thoughts, sorry, but it was about pride. Doesn't sense a neat when we're so absorbed in ourselves, we don't sense a need. There's no need. That's where you follow the storyline of the Bible, the fall of Lucifer all the way back to heaven. It begins with his self absorption, right? So God is seeking to tear down that and help us to acknowledge see that we have a need, and that need is God. So Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who see a need of a God that can help them for theirs is the kingdom, and

that's the message of hope. Is specifically to you. If you're feeling like you just don't have it together, you're right in the middle of the place you need to be.

You are right in the middle of the place, and it's a good spot. It's not a bad spot, because Jesus is saying, yours is the kingdom.

Tell to now I said you, you made a comment about that before the episode. Who's he speaking to when he says, yours is the kingdom?

Well, he's speaking to to every human being, really. And he's, he's not even this. Remember this crowd? These are not the crowd that was in the synagogue once a week, or what we would call in church, once a week. I'm sure some of them were, but they weren't necessarily there once a week. So he's telling to these people, this people from all over the place, that are are broken and, and, and, you know, whatever circumstances that they're in, they're here. And he's saying, Blessed are the Poor's in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom. Yours is the kingdom of God. He's giving them hope. He's identifying them as citizens of the kingdom because they sense a need of Him. That's the beginning stage of their walk with God, so it's a good place to be. It's the perfect place to be, the perfect place to be.

Is it an easy place to be?

Well, because of the effects on our human heart from the story that we've talked about, we have a tendency not to want to let go. Right? But there's this pride, we would call pride, right So, but God is bigger than that,

yes, and, and just a note as well. When Jesus talks about kingdom, he's talking about building a society or a civilization, building people who love like he loves. When Jesus says theirs is the kingdom, He's declaring in this moment, especially that you're on the inside. You're on the inside of the thing I'm building there is later in in these, in these pieces of Jesus teaching the thought of a resettled planet, a literal new civilization on earth. But right now he's talking about a society within society that he's building of human beings whose lives move to the rhythm of God's radical love.

So he starts off again with this, with his inaugural speech, right? Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, if you sense your need for the kingdom is yours? Yes, it's yours. And he was talking about a kingdom. Remember, there's two parts to God's kingdom. There's the future part, when we talked about the end of the story, right? A literal resettle physical kingdom. But now Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven in you it he's seeking to change the hearts of man. Yes, unless our hearts are changed. No, no declaration, no, no peace treaty signed. It all means, nothing. The human heart has to change, and that's why the Jesus came to change the human heart? Yes, he came to provide an escape from self centered living into receiving a new heart in him, where we can love from the perspective of other centered living, we can be set free. Yes. So when you sense your need, Blessed are the poor in spirit. For there is the kingdom of heaven. That's that's the best place to be, so wherever you are. And I want to say that whoever's listening whatever situation you are in your life, whatever, maybe you you sense you're broken and you're you're just finding no way out. If you sense your need of God to cry out to God, because yours is the kingdom and and he will rescue you. He will rescue you. He is the greatest rescuer of all, so he's able to deliver, heal the brokenhearted, bind up our wounds, set the captive free, set the oppressed free, to open our eyes that we might see life from a different perspective.

Yeah. So we got to wrap up the episode, but I want to say one more add one more piece, and that is that the way of Jesus creates a safe space to own our brokenness. And here's how it does that, by telling us that God loves us radically as we are, there are no surprises that I'm going to that I'm going to acknowledge, like no mistakes I'm going to talk to God about, or somebody else about that God doesn't already know about. And love me in spite of Jesus is is inviting me to acknowledge them, so that my heart is open to the transforming power of His love. I can safely acknowledge those because his heart toward me is unchanged. I don't have to fear that if I own my brokenness, my failure the way I've disappointed others or wounded others, that somehow God's going to just shut down and leave me he's unchanged. His arms surround me throughout the process, so it's safe for me to own the truth of who I am.

That's beautiful. And I know the next episode, we're going to expound on that more. Yes, but that concept, I think, is huge for people to realize that the heart of God, that God is a safe place to run to him, don't run from Him. Yes,

exactly. So what do we see? Maybe that's what we see, a God who's a safe place to run to. Don't run from Him. He's the safest place to be, regardless of the darkness.

Yeah, that's beautiful. I also see that a God who realizes that his kingdom is established on a heart that loves from an other center, right? So what Jesus is introducing is this, if we sense and eat Yes, for a heart change, yeah, that that's what he's come to offer.

Yes, Blessed are the poorest people, right? And so the experience piece, then, is to come clean with God and others about the truth of who you are, no

and just the experience peace is by leaning in. To what God is offering, right? So I'm accepting, and I'm coming before God and saying, God, I need you. I need you, right? Remember the story of the Publican and the Pharisee that Jesus taught, and the Publican was saying, I mean, the Pharisee, who was the religious leader, was saying, I'm glad I'm not like that man, because I go to church every week, so to speak, and I fast, and I don't do this, and I don't do that, and the Publican wouldn't even lift up his head, and he said, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus said that man walked away right with God. That's awesome. So all we have to do is acknowledge and embrace what he's offering, and God will do the rest. That's right, he'll change your heart. He'll change your life. This is who he is. That's

the experience, and I think that also encompasses the living. It's just coming clean with God. Just own it, admit it, acknowledge it. You

want a flourishing life. Question. That's why you want to flourish. You want to live a flourishing then that starts with receiving.

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