0:00 Our heavenly father we praise and thank you for this evening morning for some for this time when we can come and gather in your presence. Thank you for your great 0:19 love for us Lord. Yes Lord you are our strength and our refuge. We thank you that we can find comfort and strength in you. We pray that you'll speak to each one of us, Lord, as we spend this time at your feet. Open your word to us. Pour 0:36 your Holy Spirit into our hearts, Lord. And give us willingness to follow in your footsteps. We ask in Jesus precious name. Amen. It's such a joy for me to see you all and praise God for this opportunity he 0:55 has given us that we can spend this time in the Lord's presence. Uh in the past uh few weeks here in our church NCC NCCF here we've been 1:11 meditating on the sermon on the mount. Um we've been doing a series on that and we know we are familiar with the beatitudes. Many of us have read it from our childhood. 1:29 So I thought I'd share a little bit just a little bit just a taste a teaspoon of what there is in God's word and that'll give us an appetite to come to the Lord and know and hear more from him. 1:47 I remember when uh in my church when I was growing up in India, we had some special meetings and uh we used to have an annual convention every year and uh that partic one particular year the 2:03 morning Bible study was led by a a pastor who was doing a study who was doing studies on the sermon on the mount And I was just born again and I had such a hunger for God's word and I was very happy that we could have a Bible study 2:21 on the sermon on the mount and in the evening there would be devotional messages. So he did verse by verse Matthew 5 all these verses and he explained it in such detail. It was like a Bible school lesson like so much of theory and 2:40 references and all that. But I was so disappointed because at the end of it he said all these verses show how high God's standard is and we can never reach those standards but thank 2:58 God that Jesus is our righteousness and he's everything. He has clothed that with his righteousness. So we don't have to condemn ourselves. He's everything to us. So don't worry about all this. So I was a little disappointed. I thought 3:15 after the Lord has spoken so many verses about it and there's so much of scripture and Jesus took the trouble to speak that and in the end if it is just that oh you forget it I've done it all. It looks like we are coming for an exam, 3:33 a big important exam and then the examiner says all of you have passed because I'm going to give you a pass mark. So I was a little disappointed but the next year the speaker was one who was had the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and when he 3:53 spoke he br produced a desire in our hearts a third thirst in our hearts to know more of God and to experience more of God. So I praise and thank God that it's uh there's more. It's not that uh 4:11 we have to listen to the scholars who say um Jesus has done everything for us and we go empty-handed empty but we can come to the Lord and we can experience the fullness and the richness of all 4:29 that God wants to give us. You know when we first come to the Lord and [clears throat] we read verses like this which we read in Matthew 5 and it's so challenging but when I first read it I felt like 4:48 the Lord had opened the door of my heart and I had a peak inside and all that I could see was a heart full of clutter. I mean Jesus has cleed it, cleansed my heart and come inside. But there was so many things in not in order and I said 5:07 Lord how will I ever work reach the standard which you have for me I but then the Lord gave me this assurance you don't have to do it alone you and I Jesus and me he will help me to put everything in order. So at first when I 5:26 read Matthew 5 and all those verses that heaviness and discouragement was there a little bit but as the years have gone by and I responded to the Lord and I surrendered 5:42 more of my life to the Lord I find such a satisfaction in my life and I say I don't have to be condemned that I'm not like that. The Lord has helped me so far. He has helped me so much and given me so much joy in my life, so much peace 6:00 in my life. So, it's worth it that I took God's word seriously. So um I wanted to just share a little bit of what we have been studying and meditating in our church over here and my husband has um if you have the time 6:19 and the chance you can look at the YouTube messages um in NCCF website and maybe you'll get more. I'm just giving you a little bit of what I learned. Uh, and now I just quote what my husband 6:35 said about um the new covenant and the old covenant. In the old covenant, God asked Moses to come up to the mountain and he gave the the ten commandments on tablets of 6:53 stone. And Moses came down and taught it to the children of Israel. In the new co covenant, Jesus who himself gave the ten commandments, Jesus came down and he went to another mountain and he gave us 7:11 the new covenant which is actually the fulfillment of the old covenant. Jesus said, I haven't come to destroy the old covenant and the law, but I've come to fulfillment fulfill it. So Jesus came to the went up to the mountain and he 7:29 showed us the new covenant and he spoke the new covenant and he writes it not on tablets or stone. Even though our hearts are so stony he writes it in our hearts with his finger. The finger of God is the Holy Spirit. He writes it in our 7:47 heart and he's given us the new covenant. And so we we come to the new covenant and we uh read these um verses and we say Lord thank you that you fulfilled it. You're writing these laws in my heart and not only that you've 8:04 written it but you're giving me the power to live that to live and fulfill it to live the way you want me to live. So here we read in uh Matthew 5, if you can open your Bible to Matthew 5, we read in verse one that Jesus, he saw the 8:23 crowds and he climbed up the mountain and disciples came to him and then he opened his mouth and spoke to the disciples. I was wondering the cl crowd of people were there. Why did he have to speak to the disciples 8:41 and uh tell them? because I felt like the crowd was not ready and prepared to hear this. Jesus disciples were close to him and he realized the disciples are ready to hear this message and the day will come like we read in Matthew 28 9:00 when the end when Jesus gave the great commission he said to his disciples go and teach all nations teaching them to observe and obey all that I have taught you. That time he gave them the commission. Now you can tell them all 9:16 these things which I taught you in Matthew 5 and all the subsequent chapters which I have taught you. Now it's your turn to go and tell you teach that to all nations and make them into disciples. So the Lord spoke first spoke 9:32 to the disciples and he told them this and uh we read in uh the first I just want to say the first one of these uh biatitudes that's in verse three he says blessed are the poor in spirit for 9:51 theirs is the kingdom of god now today I just want to speak about that one um um of those biatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of god now uh just [clears throat] as an introduction 10:11 all these biatitudes have two parts the there's one part which is a blessing I mean it's a promise like if you look at all these there's a promise the promise is you'll be blessed you'll be blessed and there are two 10:29 promises is actually one is that we'll be blessed and the second in this case it is we'll the kingdom of our heaven will be ours the two parts to it and the command is be poor in spirit it's so wonderful when 10:48 the lord gives us a command to do something the promises double I'm just quoting you what what I heard in the eating uh from the different brothers. When he gives us a command to obey, his promises are double. It's like I've 11:07 given you twice the number of twice the quantity of energy and strength. My promises are there. Double promises are there even for each little commandment command I give you. So I praise and thank God for that encouragement that 11:25 he's given us um along with the command he's given us promises promises that we'll be blessed. Now what is the I looked up in the amplified Bible what's the meaning of this word blessed blessed are so and so blessed are you when you 11:41 do this blessed blessed in the amplified Bible there are many meanings given there blessed means you'll be truly happy you'll be a person who will be admired by others you'll be spiritually prosperous 11:59 you'll be winning God's favor ever you'll be so satisfied regard regardless of whatever your earthly situation is. Those are a few u meanings of that word blessed. We 12:17 we'll be true supremely happy. It's not just like a casual. Oh, you'll be just a little bit happy. You'll be supremely happy. There'll be no there's a kind of heavenly happiness which we are going to get. If we follow this, I praise and 12:33 thank God. There's so much of depth in God's word. So blessed are those who do these things. And what's the meaning of poor in spirit? Poor in spirit is one of the things is those who rate themselves in is insignificant. 12:52 I'm nobody. I'm just a nobody in your eyes, Lord. So many times we have exalted ideas about ourel. I am somebody. I'm educated. I've got so many degrees. I've been a Christian for so many years. We have an 13:09 exalted opinion of ourselves. But if we have to get that um uh blessing from the lord that being blessed by the lord we have to rate ourselves as lord I'm nobody. I'm insignificant. I will come 13:28 to that more. I'll explain more of that here. uh I and in this I also want to bring you uh a verse a wonderful verse in Isaiah 57 which says where the Lord says Isaiah 57:15 13:47 the Lord says I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. So God dwells in the most high in the heavens but he 14:07 also dwells in the heart of those who are humble and who are poor in spirit. So that is the one of the wonderful promises that we have and the kingdom of heaven we know and a definition for the kingdom of 14:24 heaven is we if you look at Matthew uh Romans 14 verse 17 it it's the kingdom of heaven is in our mind we may think oh it's when we reach heaven we'll be in the kingdom of heaven but it's more than 14:40 that right here on earth we can live in the kingdom of heaven we can have that heavenly life even when we are living on earth if you look at Romans 14:E1 17 the we can read this verse um 14:59 the kingdom of heaven is righteousness pe is not eating food and drink but it's righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit righteousness. We know that uh if we break down righteousness, 15:17 it just not that we are made righteous because Jesus has cleansed us and washed us. That that the beginning, the first step of righteousness is when we are sins are washed away and we are clothed in his righteousness and we are 15:34 justified. But there's more than that. When when we are living upright life, when we have right when we have righteous when we're living lives that are pleasing to the Lord, that is the righteousness that the Lord wants us to 15:50 have in the kingdom of heaven. We can't just say, "Oh, I'm clothed in his righteousness." Like I told you in the beginning how that preacher was saying, we don't have to do anything. Christ has done it all. No, it's more than that. We Christ has done 16:08 given us salvation not for us to just be lazy but to do our part to live righteous lives to be pleasing in his life in his sight to be upright in our life to live uprightly and there's no 16:26 hypocrisy in us what we what we are in our heart people will see outside our outside life, outer life and our inner life will be more more and more matching. It won't be like we are one 16:43 person inside and we are different outside. The Lord wants us to be without any hypocrisy. That's the meaning of being the righteousness of God. And the kingdom of heaven is peace. Peace on earth. When Jesus was born, the angels 17:01 sang, "Peace on earth and good will to men." Jesus came down to earth to give us that peace. True priest peace with God where all our sins are forgiven and we live we live in peace with people. We're not the fighting type of people who want to pick 17:20 up an argument or quarrel with people. We we are women of peace in every home situation in our lives with our husbands with our children. We want to be women of peace. That's the that's the kingdom of God. When the kingdom of God is in 17:39 our hearts, we'll be that type of person. And joy in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gives us true joy. Whatever earthly situation is, whether we're rich or poor, whether we are plenty or whether we are having times of 17:58 difficulty or sorrow, sickness, whatever happens, there's a joy in our heart which the Lord gives us. That's the joy of the Holy Spirit. So the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. And the Lord wants to give us that, 18:13 wants us to inherit that kingdom. And he said you'll be truly blessed if you get that kingdom in your hearts. You know Jesus when he was on earth he brought a child and he said kingdom of heaven belongs to uh children like this. You 18:30 have to be like a little child without any hypocrisy without any acting. We have to be like little children then only we can have the children of uh kingdom of God in our lives. So God Jesus came to came on earth to give us 18:47 that not only when we reach heaven but while we are on earth to experience that kingdom of he heaven in our daily life and we can live as citizens of heaven even while we are living on earth. It's so wonderful. We don't have to wait till 19:05 we have um till we are dead and we leave this earth to enjoy the joys of heaven. But while we on earth, whatever our circumstances, we can have that heavenly life while we're living on earth. And I 19:21 was wondering Jesus used this first beatitude. It's almost like this is the key to the kingdom of heaven. This is the most important thing. The first thing that we need to enter God's kingdom to be poor in spirit. 19:41 It's almost like to enter into God's kingdom and to have the rest of the blessings of the beatitude. This most important thing is to have that poverty of spirit. And it's not like something which we can 19:58 act and say oh Lord how will I I want to be poor in spirit I should do like this I should dress in such a way I should talk in such a way is far more than all that we can only learn it from Jesus because Jesus said in Matthew 11 you 20:15 know that verse Matthew 11 29 come to me and learn from me I will teach you Jesus is the one who can teach us. On earth, we see different people who are poor in spirit and we can learn a little from them. We admire them. But when we come 20:34 to Jesus, we learn that true humility, true power of spirit from Jesus. Jesus said, "Come to me. You're weary and tired of living your own life and you just come to me and learn from me 20:51 for I am meek and lonely and learn from me. And it we just come to the Lord. And how do we come to the Lord? When we read his word and when we spend time with him in prayer, we read his life, earthly life on earth. And whatever he spoke, we 21:10 read that and meditate on it and that hunger comes in our life and say Lord I want to learn from you this poverty of spirit. We read in um um Philippians 2 these wonderful verses. I've written it 21:28 down. Philippians 2 about Jesus. He Philippians 2 6 to8. Jesus humbled himself. He didn't count equality with God as a thing to be grasped. He was God and is God. But when 21:46 he came to earth, he put away that uh divine nature and he took the form of a man. He didn't he emptied himself of that um divinity and found him we find 22:02 he took on human form but inside was God and he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on the cross from the birth from the time of his birth you know how he when he was born he chose to be born in 22:19 a manger the poorest and humblest birth from the time of his birth till his death he he took on humility that's the poverty of spirit which the lord wants us to learn from him and we can come to 22:37 him and learn from him and and say lord please teach me what it is to be poor in spirit don't let it be a acting or drama in my life that I act like as if I'm a poor was poor in spirit. Make it reality 22:55 in my life. Lord, make me make change me Lord. Let me have your nature to be poor in spirit and the Lord will satisfy us. And it's not by our own strength. It's by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "I'll send you a helper. He will help you." 23:14 And the Holy Spirit gives us power to be like Jesus. change us to have that quality of poverty or spirit. But we have to choose. We have to choose and say Lord I want it. Unless we ask him and choose it. He's not going to just 23:33 come and give it to us in a platter. We have to say Lord please give it to me. Stretch out my hand and say Lord I want to empty myself of all my pride. Please give me that poverty of spirit. Another thing we learn about Jesus is he did 23:50 nothing of his own strength. I mean he could have done but he said I came to do my father's will. I do nothing of my own. I came to do my um um father's will that also we read in Philippians 2. And 24:09 [clears throat] >> and he voluntarily humbled himself and um you know that example my husband gives about the zeros you remember that uh multiple zeros you know we have to rate ourselves as zero 24:29 if you read in Daniel 4:35 Nebuchadnezzar says when he was humbled he said all uh I have come to realize that everybody on earth is a is nothing compared to the Lord. We have to come to the point where 24:48 we realize Lord I'm a zero. Whatever my education is, whatever my past experiences, I've been a Christian for so many years but I want to be zero. And the only value we have is when Christ is with us. You know we are a zero when 25:05 when Christ is next to us we become 10 and more people come we become 100 thousand you know that that example if you can look up in the YouTube you can uh find that I don't want to spend time talking about that 25:23 and thank god that we we can uh learn that from that example to count ourselves as zero through and there's nothing in God's sight. Then 25:39 um I also want to say that we have to remain poor. It's not like we come to the lord and say lord I'm a zero and just like a one one time experience we have to continually 25:58 remain poor. Yeah, we have to realize that every day I have to come to the Lord and say Lord I need this poverty of spirit. I want to empty myself for Yes. Like a beggar you know we we 26:16 have beggars in India every day we come to the they come to our gate and ask for something to eat because they are really poor. I'm using the illustration which my husband used and uh we can tell the beggar yesterday I gave you some food 26:33 why do you come again yeah yesterday's food was for just for yesterday I need more food just like that we if we want to be poor in spirit every day we have to come to the lord and say lord I want to be poor in spirit today I want to 26:52 empty myself what you gave me yesterday was enough just for yesterday. Today I want to be poor in spirit. Daily I come to your feet. Just like we read in the proverbs, knock at wisdom knocks at the gate. Every day, every day I come to the 27:11 Lord. Lord, I lack uh wisdom. I need that. I am I'm I need your help, Lord. Without you, I can do nothing. And every day we come to the Lord and knock at his gate and he will give us that poverty of spirit. It's 27:29 like it the poverty of spirit is the greatest riches we can have. It's like a paradox. If we are poor in spirit, we'll have the kingdom of heaven. If we think I'm rich and I have everything, then we won't have the kingdom of heaven. In 27:46 God's uh kingdom everything is the opposite of what the way we look at it. And if we want to remain have that poverty of spirit we have to keep on emptying ourselves you know daily every day we live in this earth and we 28:05 accumulate some amount of pride or some amount of riches and say yeah I have experienced I have done this before I've lived this life before and that a little bit of pride comes so every day we have to keep on emptying ourselves of the 28:21 pride that we got. Yeah, I'm a mother. I've been in the church for so many years. I know everything. There's the chance of pride comes and then we have to keep on emptying ourselves. Lord, I want to empty myself of every pride, 28:37 every bit of pride that I have. Keep on emptying ourselves. Another way we can keep um retaining that poverty of spirit is when we don't look down on others. We can learn 28:53 something from everybody whom we meet. I read a a story of a Catholic monk and it was a monk who was at one time very rich and he decided to take on uh poverty, you 29:12 know, live a life of poverty and he gave up all his riches and he wanted to follow Jesus. And then he one day he saw a rich man [clears throat] riding on a horse with rich clothes and he was tempted to think like w look at 29:31 that rich man. But the Lord spoke to him and he felt in his spirit even though I'm dressed in these poor clothes that rich man under his riches rich clothes he may have a humbler 29:47 spirit than I have with these poor simple clothes. The Lord spoke to him don't judge others by their outward experience appearance. They may have rich clothes. They may be riding on a horse. 30:04 But inside their in their heart, they may have a humbler spirit than you have. And that often comes to me. Sometimes I when we dress simply and we wear simple clothes and we look at others with their 30:21 posh clothes and their styles and their modern appearance. We don't know what makes them dress like that. Maybe >> maybe it's their um job situation they have to dress like that. Maybe there's some reason why they have to do that. 30:40 But we in we if we judge them and we are critical about them then we are losing that poverty of spirit. God sees poverty of spirit in them and are pride in us. So that's why it's so so subtle. We have 30:59 to always keep judging ourselves when we look at others. Don't look at them with jealousy or they have more than me. Don't look at them with pride. Don't look at them judging them or despising them or in any way looking down on 31:15 anyone. If we start looking down on anyone, then we lose that poverty of spirit which the Lord wants to give us. And you remember that story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and he asked him um 31:34 Lord I want to what should I do to inherit God's kingdom? And the Lord said, um, keep all the commandments. And the rich young ruler said, yes, I've kept all the commandments. Then the Lord told him, there's one thing you you lack. You give up all your 31:52 riches. You're too attached to your wealth. Give up all your riches to give them to the poor. Don't give it to me, but give it to the poor and come and follow me. And he couldn't do that because he was so rich and he valued his 32:08 wealth so much. And that was the Lord when we come to the Lord and say Lord I want to inherit your kingdom. I want to have the power of spirit. The Lord looks at us and he says there's one thing you lack for us. Each one there may be something 32:27 different. In our case, it may be that we are too attached to earthly things or we are too uh bothered about what people think of us or we are too taken up with our profession or the testimony which we want to have 32:46 before people wanting to please people to have a name of being a generous or hospitable person whatever it is the Lord if we ask the Lord Lord Please look into my heart. See what there is, what you see in my heart. 33:05 The thing which I am lacking, which I need to set right so that I can inherit the kingdom of God. So that I can have that power of spirit. Then we come to the Lord and open our heart to him. He will show us, yes, my child, 33:22 this is what you are. Last year you were like this but this year you become cold. You lost your first love for me. You have taken up with earthly things. You have taken up with household things. You're spending less time with me. 33:39 Your Bible reading and prayer time is becoming less. You're going or whatever it is the Lord will show us. or you're taken up with too much of your health or eating habits or your loving food too much. Whatever it is, the Lord will show 33:56 us. Each one's case may be different. But we need every day to come to the Lord and say, "Lord, at any cost, I'll pay the [clears throat] price. Give me poverty of spirit." And the Lord will begin to show us that. And just like we 34:14 read in James, if any of you lack wisdom, let them come to God and ask. Ask in faith. Don't Don't be double-minded. Don't be doubting. Don't hesitate. God will give generously. 34:32 Whatever quality you asking for at this time, I'm we asking the Lord, Lord, give me that humility and the poverty of spirit. And the lord will give us that was not by any uh effort of us. All that 34:48 we do is to obey him. He humble ourselves and ask in sincerity and he'll give it to us without any uh without scolding us. That's what it we read in James 15. So I praise and thank God. And 35:06 uh I want to say how important it is for us as uh sisters that poverty of spirit is a asset is something that we as sisters need so much in our lives and it's so valuable for us to have that 35:25 it's not like a extra like a extra degree we can get. It's the essential thing for us as sisters. You know why? Because to take our place in the home, to be submissive, to take our place in the church as sisters in the church, we 35:45 need that poverty of spirit. At least we can easily lift ourselves up, be like a second pastor in the church or be like a Bible teacher in the church and give orders in the home and forget our true place in the home and in the church. 36:03 That's why we need power of spirit. It's most essential for us as sisters for us to ask Lord Lord give me power of spirit because as a sister I need it. I never want to feel that I've graduated 36:22 out of this level. Help me always to remain poor in spirit. And it's very essential for us as sisters to have it because after being in the church for so many years and we hear these truths and we think like ah I 36:41 have it I I know all about it. I don't need it. And that's why we need to always come to the point say Lord let me never think that I've heard it and I don't need it. I want to 36:59 be like a beggar coming to you asking you for poverty of spirit and if and one way we can have that poverty of spirit is if we are truly thankful you know a [clears throat] person who's really thankful to the to people like if 37:16 somebody has done something for us even if it's a small thing and we we had that gratitude my she took the trouble to come and do this for me or she sent her child to do this for me. Even if it's a small thing, if we have that attitude of 37:33 gratitude in our heart, then we will have uh we'll be able to get that poverty of spirit. If we think like huh I deserve this, I need uh I I am somebody. I need her help now. I am a sister in the church and she should have 37:52 done this. I deserve it. or my children should do this for me. If we have that attitude then we'll have less and less of that poverty of spirit. But if we remain grateful for the smallest thing that anybody does, the 38:11 smallest thing that the Lord gives us, we wake up in the morning and say, "Lord, you given me a new day. You've given me health and strength. I can get up and do my work. You've given me a clear mind. You give me so many facilities. 38:27 I sometimes think how my life was when in the early days when my children were small. How I used to struggle. They had to do so much of physical work and sometimes things would be very difficult, expensive. Even to keep our 38:43 house clean was so difficult. Water problem, electricity problem, food shortage, so many things. And God made life easier and easier for me as the years went by and I took it for granted 39:01 and I say Lord let me think of those days when life was a struggle and you made it so much easier for me. I'm really thankful to you. All that helps me to come down from my high horse and come down and have power of spirit. 39:20 It's not like a false sense of uh humility just to show others oh I am a humble person. It's not that in my spirit I want that poverty. Poverty is not in outward. We may be rich or poor. Rich people 39:38 can remain poor in spirit if they don't think of their riches and if they are not covetous they can have poverty of spirit. Poor people can have poverty of spirit. You say Lord even though I'm poor I don't want to be covetous. I don't want to be 39:55 thinking of money. Give me poverty of spirit. Whatever earthly stat state stat stat state stat state stat state stat state stat state status poverty spirit it's in our spirit not in our outward life. And we must watch out. We must watch out 40:11 that any uh moment there'll be a leakage of that poverty of spirit in our lives. If we allow proud pride to come into our life then little by little little that poverty of spirit leaks out and become 40:27 proud. Our human nature is such and say Lord don't let me be proud about anything. And in Luke there's Luke 9 there is these wonderful verses. Luke 9:23 40:45 it says if whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. It's a paradox. If I give up my self life and my own ego and take up the cross and deny myself 41:01 and say no and crucify my self life then I will have I will save that eternal eternal life. The life which God wants me to have, the uh life of 41:18 kingdom of God, the true life which I should have, the life that is worth living as a citizen of heaven. I'll have that kind of life if I give up my earthly ego, take up the cross and follow 41:36 that the wonderful life that the Lord wants us to have. It's a life of rest. Actually, if we see throughout the Bible, the Lord wants it's there in hidden in even in the Old Testament. If you read in Zechariah, it says, 41:55 "Behold, your king comes riding on a on a not on a horse but on a donkey. He's humble." We see right through the humility of Christ. King of kings coming riding on a colt or horses cold. There 42:11 we see humility throughout his life. The way he was a servant. Even on the last day of his life, he put a towel and he washed the disciples feet. Though I am the master, I am above all of you. I am your lord and master. But here I am as 42:31 your servant. Throughout the Bible, we can read if we look for it that poverty that uh secret of Christian life, the poverty of spirit. And in Hebrews 4, that is the true rest that 42:50 the Lord wants us to have. The Hebrews 4:11, it says there's a rest for the children of God. The rest which we can have when we are not struggling and striving and wanting to be big in this world. The true rest in our heart, 43:08 kingdom of God rest where there's peace and joy and righteousness, the true righteousness from God that comes, the true rest which comes with that. I praise and thank God. There's so much of 43:25 life uh uh so much the Lord wants us to give us and experience in our life. If we come to the Lord and say Lord make me truly humble let me have that poverty of spirit all the days of my life. Let me never get up and think [clears throat] 43:44 that I am a somebody and I've reached somewhere. As long as we remain humble and contrite, the Lord looks at us and he dwells in the heart of people who have that contrite and humble spirit. So there's so much more the Lord wants us to teach. 44:03 And just from that one verse, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Kingdom of God we can have on earth. experience that joy, that fullness of the kingdom of God even 44:20 while we live on earth if we have that poverty of spirit. So dear sisters, I have tried in a very feeble way but the the Lord after hearing these words in the church the Lord I said Lord every day I want to have that power your 44:38 spirit and since I heard that every day I say Lord I need power your spirit. I haven't I maybe I have just understood it in my mind but deep down in my heart I want to experience poverty of spirit every day so that I'll be a partaker of 44:56 your kingdom. I'll inherit the kingdom of God. So my dear sisters I want to share with you that challenge which the Lord has given me a little bit of it. Let us all ask the Lord every day of our life. Lord make me poor in spirit. Make 45:13 me poor in spirit. Help me to learn poverty of spirit from you Lord Jesus. You said come to me and learn of me. I want to come to you every day and drink of that fountain and I'm really thirsty for that fountain uh poverty of spirit. 45:30 So may the Lord help us. Shall we close in prayer? Our heavenly father, we praise and thank you for your wonderful word, Lord, for the words which you given to teach us and to encourage us and lift us up. Thank you for the gift 45:47 of salvation. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your life on earth which is an example to us. Lord, help us open our eyes to see more and more to see the secret of your life. Lord, your 46:06 humility and we want to learn from you, Lord. We want to come to you and learn from you. And Holy Spirit, write that in our heart. Give us that hunger to learn more and more and to experience that poverty of spirit in our life so that we 46:23 can partake of your nature, Lord. empty our self life more and more and get your divine nature. Please help each one of us. Lord, we pray, we humbly ask you, help us to learn that lesson and give us the grace 46:42 to be true witnesses of yours and to disciples of yours. Give us grace Lord to bring up our children in godly ways and to [clears throat] be in to lead our families Lord in the good direction. Thank you Lord for your grace is 47:01 sufficient for us. Thank you for the power of your holy spirit will empower us in our time of weakness. We want to empty ourself of all our pride and all our self and get your divine nature in us Lord. We ask these things in Jesus precious 47:20 name. Amen. [music]
