Saturday 12 January 2019

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (Matthew 5.4)


Introduction

So we’ve started a series of talks on Matthew 5.1-12, taking us through to the end of February, and we’re going to be focusing, one by one, on the various blessings that Jesus promises in these verses.

Briefly, for the benefit of those who weren’t here last week, and for those who were here but who struggled to stay awake (it was me preaching after all), we saw that before these verses say anything about us, they tell us a lot about God and what he is like. Our God is a God who blesses and who loves to bless.

The word ‘blessed’ (used nine times in this short passage) comes from the Greek word makarios. It says ‘blessed’ in our church Bibles but it literally means ‘happy,’ and in some versions of the Bible that’s the way the word is translated. 

To be blessed by God, and know it, is to find life’s deepest satisfaction and contentment in Christ.

The Greeks used to call the island of Cyprus hé makaria (which is the feminine form of this same word, makarios). It means ‘The Happy Isle.’ 

And they called it that because they thought that Cyprus was so beautiful, so rich, so fertile an island that you have all you need there for a perfectly blissful, happy life. There was nowhere better on earth. Obviously, they hadn’t been to Canvey Island or Redcar…

But Cyprus, and its lovely, sun-blessed climate, its stunning landscapes, its delightful views of the warm, blue Mediterranean Sea, its exotic flora, its wonderful fruit, and its valuable minerals and natural resources to the Greeks was everything you need for a happy life.

That’s a material picture of what God wants to give you spiritually.

Remember, those who tended to hang around Jesus were outcasts. Unreformed alcoholics, unloved prostitutes, unemployable rejects, untouchable lepers, unpopular traitors, unfortunate losers… they didn’t feel blessed at all.

But Matthew 5.1-12 is a list of the kind of downcast and dispirited people the Lord wants to bless.

These blessings speak of a life that pain and grief and sorrow and loss are powerless to spoil.

Nothing in life or death can rob you of what God wants to give you, especially if life has been unkind to you. And Jesus said to his closest followers, “No one will take away your joy.” Blessed, blessed, blessed are you.

Mourning

Last week, we saw that God blesses people who are poor in spirit, meaning those who in their utter helplessness and spiritual bankruptcy, put their whole trust in God. 

If you’re poor in spirit, Jesus says that the inexhaustible riches of the kingdom will all be yours; the things we all want and need, (but money and wealth cannot buy). Mercy, forgiveness, joy, inner peace, eternal life… all come to those who are poor in spirit. 



This week, the blessing we’re looking at in v4 is really strange. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn.” It’s almost to say, “Happy are those who are unhappy.”

Remember that Jesus first spoke these words over ordinary people in first century Galilee. For the last 600 years they had been almost constantly oppressed and put down.

They were harassed and hounded by the Philistines, then they were attacked by the Assyrians, then they were beaten up by the Babylonians, then they were ground down by the Greeks.

And now the jackboot of Imperial Rome was at their throat. Anyone who stepped out of line could be crucified and many were. It could hardly be worse. This is who Jesus is speaking to and he brings good news. …

There are futurologists now predicting that some babies born today will live to the age of 130. It’s not easy predicting the future.

In 1962 Decca Recording Company declined to sign a band saying, ‘We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.’ That band was called the Beatles.

In 1977 Ken Olson, Chairman of Digital Equipment Co., said, ‘There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.’

But one thing it doesn’t take a futurologist to work out is that people will always die, even if they live to 130 or 150. 

They might argue over the birth rate in 100 years’ time, but they all agree that the death rate then will be the same as it is today, and always has been; 100%. 

It was Benjamin Franklin who said in 1789, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Although, as Private Eye pointed out after Ken Dodd passed away last year, in his case not taxes!

But this side of eternity, there will always be death, so there will always be grief.

The word used here is the strongest one there is for ‘mourning’ in the Greek language. The root of it is the word you would use to describe a glass that’s been dropped on a stone floor; it means utterly shattered or smashed to bits.

Jesus is talking about a deep, inward pain that takes hold of you, and crushes you, leaving you shattered and bereft with the gnawing, aching emptiness of loss…

But Jesus says there’s a blessing for those who walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

I want this morning to speak this blessing, in Jesus’ name, over three different kinds of people. Maybe you will relate to one, two, or perhaps all three.

1) Those Who Mourn Life’s Sorrows

Firstly, it’s a promise for anyone in Christ who is literally afflicted by the pain of grief. 

People felt about death in the ancient world just what they think of it today.

The poet Theocritus (3rd Century BC) wrote: “There is hope only for those who are alive, but those who have died are without hope.” (We still say today, “Where there’s life, there’s hope” which derives from this quotation).

And here’s an extract from a letter of sympathy sent 2,000 years ago to a friend grieving a close relative. “I was sorry and wept over the departed one... but nevertheless against such things as death one can do nothing. Therefore comfort one another.”

The tone is one of resignation. It speaks quite pitifully about those whose job it is to comfort - but who have no consolation to offer.

This is the world into which God sent his Son. Our world of cancer and dementia, and heart disease and funerals.

Isaiah saw the ministry of the Messiah as one that would: 

“…bind up the broken hearted…
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
provide for those who grieve
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

Jesus, the anointed one, speaks blessing on the stricken and crushed.

Perhaps because of the huge anti-climax of Christmas, and the overwhelming thought of having to face the realities of another year, statistically, New Year’s Day sees the biggest spike for suicide in the UK.

Three weeks ago, on Boxing Day, somebody I knew committed suicide. I didn’t know him well; I met him on three or four occasions, but he leaves a bereft wife and two young children. It’s just all wrong.

And this blessing for those who mourn is not just for those walking behind the coffin as it’s carried into church. It’s also:

·         for the child who laments their loss of innocence through sexual abuse
·         for the teenager who’s being relentlessly bullied at school
·         for the single person longing for intimacy but overwhelmed by loneliness 
·         for the deserted woman whose husband left her someone else
·         for the couple who are infertile and cannot have children
·         for the man living under the dark cloud of depression

There are so many afflictions in this messed up world. The Bible says that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. Satan and sin just ruin everything. But God’s plan is to bless.

1 Thessalonians 4, written to Christians says, “We grieve, [yes, we do grieve] but not as those who have no hope.” Even Jesus grieved at Lazarus’ tomb. As soon as he saw the grave, he welled up and he wept.

“Jesus wept.” The shortest verse in the Bible. People say it casually, almost as a swear word today, but it’s a precious and holy thing; Jesus enters our deepest, rawest, bitterest human experience and he says, “I know” and he weeps too at the utter ugliness and wretchedness of death. 

The Gospel singer Sheila Walsh once talked about a present she received from a friend.

She says: “When I opened the gift, I wasn’t quite sure what it was. The small glass bottle was a beautiful cobalt blue, about two inches tall, covered in sliver filigree.”

A note explained that it was actually a tear bottle from an antique store in Israel. Tear bottles were common around the time of Christ. Mourners would collect their tears as they walked toward the graveyard to bury their loved one, a keepsake to show how much that person was loved.

She says, “I treasure this little bottle because it reminds me of a profound spiritual truth David wrote about in Psalm 56, at one of the lowest points of his life. David had been captured by enemies in Gath, but he found comfort in the fact that God saw everything he was going through and caught every single tear he shed.”

Do you ever feel alone? Have you ever thought, ‘No one on this earth understands the depth of my suffering?

David knew that God notices every tear and sigh from his children. Do you question that God loves you that much? Or can you rest in that truth today?

We have a heavenly Father who keeps track of all our wanderings and catches in his jar every single tear we cry.

So often in prayer ministry, we see tears begin to silently fall as the Holy Spirit tenderly brings comfort to the afflicted.

2 Corinthians 1 speaks about “the God of all comfort.” Notice that word “all.” There is nothing beyond God’s power to console and bring light. The Holy Spirit is called in Scripture “the Comforter.” This is what he does. The Lord lifts up the fallen.

Some of you may be here this morning broken hearted, carrying the heavy weight of pain and grief. Maybe you haven’t properly mourned a loved one. Maybe you have but you still can’t yet find any relief, any light and hope. The Lord wants to bring release and comfort and healing today. Blessed are those who mourn.

2. Those Who Mourn Over Their Own Sin

Secondly, “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted” is a promise for those who grieve over their own sin.

This doesn’t mean that God wants us to be morbid and melancholy; miserable sinners, and the more miserable the better. No! “The joy of the Lord is your strength” the Bible says.

But you can never fully appreciate how wonderful God’s love is until you have really understood how desperate you are for God’s mercy over your life.

Sandra here, when she was a brand-new Christian, for weeks and weeks, she just sat in church and wept all through the service every Sunday.

The night I became a Christian in July 1979, I’ll never forget it, I just cried and cried, shaking uncontrollably.

I had had no peace with God, I had been a restless wanderer always looking for more, for reality. I was sick of my superficial life with no depth, no integrity. Layer upon layer of vanity and of my fake, wasted life, the sheer mess I had made of things, just came pouring out. Sin is ruin. But, in minutes, those tears became tears of joy. 

In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about this. He says to the Christians in Corinth, “You became sorrowful as God intended… Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

Is there anyone grieving over the emptiness of life, who wants to come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life today. Give your heart to Christ today? Why would you not?

3. Those Who Mourn over society

Thirdly, “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted” is a promise for those who weep over the tragic injustices of society.

The godly Victorian Bishop of Liverpool J.C. Ryle once said, “Others may think it enough to mourn over dead bodies. For my part, I think there is far more cause to mourn over dead souls.“

I’ve seen grown men at prayer meetings bent over and moistening the floor with their tears as they prayed for God’s mercy to fall on their broken, messed up city.

According to the United Nations, an estimated 40 million people are victims of modern slavery; a quarter of them children.

Worldwide, $2.4 trillion are spent annually on an industry that creates or manages violence (the arms industry), while a tiny proportion of that - $175 billion - would eradicate world hunger with one investment.

In Psalm 119 the writer says, “Lord, I weep rivers of tears because your law is not kept.”

Jeremiah, the longest book in the Bible, is a book drenched with tears. He is called the weeping prophet. “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night” he says, and he goes on to list all that’s broken in the country he loves; murder, unfaithfulness, lies, deceit, slander and no fear of God.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem and its stubborn unbelief. It was grievous to him. He saw they were going to reject him, their Messiah, and so forego the only opportunity they’d get to be made right with God.

The Chaplain General to the UK prison service said that when he first went into the prisons, he thought he would take Jesus in with him. He thought they’d be so dark, so hopeless, so Godforsaken that when he came in as a Christian, people would see the difference.

But do you know what he said? He said, “I realized, after about a week, that Jesus was already there!” Already present with the lowest of the low. God is doing amazing things in our prisons, did you know that?

When we grieve and look to Jesus, he sends his Spirit to enfold us in love. Prayers do effect change. Jesus is coming back. And when he does, the Bible says, “God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”

Ending

A testimony to end. In 1994, as civil war wreaked havoc in Burundi, a nurse in the public lavatories of a hospital spotted something moving in the toilet. 

It was a premature baby that had been thrown away. Somehow it was still alive. She fished the baby out of the toilet bowl, washed it in water, and contacted a Christian missionary called Chrissie Chapman.

Chrissie took the baby, five days old, and weighing 5lb and named her Grace. Grace had to have antibiotics because the open end of the umbilical cord had been in contact with the toilet water. Sadly, that probably led to Grace losing her hearing. She was totally deaf.

When Grace was 6 months old, a travelling evangelist came by and offered to pray for her. He anointed her ears with oil and prayed for Grace’s hearing to be restored in the name of Jesus.

It seemed to make her worse! For the next three days, Grace screamed every minute she was awake. Nobody knew what to do.

It was only when someone accidentally slammed a door and Grace suddenly jolted that they realized her tears and screams were because she had been healed and could now hear everything around her.

That was 1994. Grace has matured into a beautiful and intelligent young woman, full of faith. She finished school with good grades and was awarded a University scholarship.

Grace says that God has big plans for her life. She’s committed to praying and working for the healing and transformation of Burundi.

Our God brings life out of death. “Blessed are those who mourn. They shall be comforted.”

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 13 January 2019


Sunday 6 January 2019

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit (Matthew 5.1-3)


Introduction

According to Nicky Gumbel, there is an article you can find online that lists all the qualities that people want in their church leaders. The conclusions are based on the results of a survey that asked people what they think the perfect vicar or pastor should be like. Do you want to know?

Well, here is what the study reveals: 

·         They give spiritual leadership from 8am until midnight every day, but are also the caretaker
·         They are twenty-eight years of age, but have been preaching for thirty years
·         They wear fashionable clothes, buy good books, drive a new car and give generously to the poor – all on a low salary
·         They make 15 calls and visits daily to the housebound and hospitalised, spend all their time evangelising the un-churched, but are always in the office when needed
·         They bravely confront sin, but never upset anyone
·         They preach for exactly twelve minutes
·         They are also very good-looking!

Fortunately, the good people of All Saints’ have much more realistic expectations.

The Sermon on the Mount

Today, we’re starting a series on the first 12 verses of what’s called the Sermon on the Mount (which is Matthew 5-7). It’s called the Sermon on the Mount because, as 5.1 and 8.5 say, Jesus gave this teaching on a hillside near Capernaum, on the north east shore of Lake Galilee.

You can identify the spot pretty well today, not least because someone has gone and plonked a hideous-looking church building there. If you’ve been there, I’m sure you found it as hard as I did to visualize the scene, given what’s there today.

Some people think that what we have in these three chapters, which is about 25 minutes of speech, is actually several days’ worth of preaching condensed and pressed down into this more digestible format.

How’s that for an idea? One sermon that basically takes up a full Bank Holiday weekend! So much for the twelve-minute sermon of the perfect pastor!

The God of Blessing

But, over the next couple of months, we’re just looking at the first 12 verses, or what have become known as the beatitudes, which is just a fancy bit of Latin – it means blessings. As you can see, verses 3-11 all start with the word “blessed.”

The first thing I need to say about these verses is that before they tell us what we should be like, they tell us what God is like. Our God is a God who blesses. Some people think that God is a curmudgeonly and grumpy old skinflint who wants to inflict misery on the world.

But the Bible shows the complete opposite. From the beginning to the end, God delights to bestow his goodness upon us.

The very first words spoken over Adam and Eve after God gives them life and breath are words of blessing. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number’.”

When God called Abraham he said, “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

When God instituted the priesthood, he said to Aaron, “This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.’ So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

The first Psalm begins with blessing. “Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on it day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”

On and on it goes; I don’t have time to labour the point, but this golden thread of blessing throughout the Bible, continues until the very last chapter of the last book which says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city [of God].”

The Sermon on the Mount is the first recorded public teaching we have of Jesus’ ministry - and look, the very first word on his lips is the word “Blessed.”

And when you read these beatitudes, it’s really good news; you see that they are blessings for the kind of people who feel diminished by others, for people whom the world dismisses, for people who might consider themselves unfortunate – or even cursed, blessings for people who typically feel too unworthy, too low, too insignificant. “God wouldn’t bless me! Why would God bless the likes of me?”

No, there’s a blessing for you - especially for you, because Jesus notices those no one else notices. He sees you, and wants to speak blessing and favour over you.

The blessing for this first beatitude is possessing the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

God always trying to give kingdom away. Jesus said, “It’s close at hand, it’s among you, it’s within you, and your heavenly Father is pleased to give it to you.” The devil wanted to usurp it. But God wants to give it away. 

If you’re poor in spirit your life will have the fragrance of heaven; you will experience his presence, his reign, his glory, his power...

Beatitudes – What Are They?

What are these beatitudes? Let me start by saying what they’re not.

They’re not platitudes. A platitude is a simplistic idea that is (a) accepted as true by practically everyone and is (b) completely untrue.

Here are a few examples of platitudes:

·         You're as young as you feel – no, actually, you’re as old as you are.
·         Every cloud has a silver lining – no, technically, only clouds that partially hide the sun have silver linings.
·         Life begins at 40 – no, it doesn’t; life begins at conception (i.e. minus nine months)
·         God needed another angel – no, he really didn’t; God doesn’t need anything and he has all the angels he wants in heaven 
·         Everything happens for a reason – no, some things in life are just utterly pointless
·         You can be whatever you want to be – no, for example, you can’t be a duckbilled platypus or a tea towel

Beatitudes are not platitudes. What are they then?

They are what Billy Graham called, “beautiful attitudes” – well, six of them are.

1. Six of them are attitudes of the heart that God looks for in people. 

2. The other two are circumstances of life into which he looks to pour out blessing (when you mourn and when you’re persecuted because of Jesus).

3. They are all perfectly modelled by Jesus. No one was meeker, more merciful, or purer in heart. No one mourned like he did when he wept bitterly over Jerusalem and its unbelief. No one has been a greater peacemaker; he made peace between a holy God and his rebellious, estranged creation. No one was persecuted like he was.

4. They are all pretty well a direct contradiction of society’s cherished values and preferred way of life. Society says “assert yourself, have a blast, flaunt what you’ve got, look after number one, get ahead, treat yourself, and take it easy.” That, according to Jesus is not the key to a blessed life.

5. They’re about kingdom values (i.e. they’re about what is eternal, what is going to last, not what is going to pass away). 

The beatitudes are about what you can expect if you follow Jesus. You can expect blessing. That doesn’t necessarily mean comfort. Don’t expect fame and fortune. Don’t expect popularity.

You might well experience things like grief, hunger and persecution. But you will be amply and abundantly rewarded. It may not all come in this life, but you’ll get so much heaven in your heart, you won’t have room for it all.

Poor in Spirit

Well, let’s look at the first one today. And it’s a bit of a surprise. You might think perhaps that it would be good to be spiritually rich but Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It’s not actually defined for us here. You have to look around the Bible a bit to build up a picture of what this looks like.

Back in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 57.15, God makes an amazing statement about where he lives. Where would you say God lives? Here’s what it says:

“This is what the high and exalted One says –
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
‘I live in a high and holy place,
but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

God hangs out in the breathtakingly glorious and awesomely majestic halls of heaven, far above us and way beyond us. But you can also find him absolutely at home in the broken hearts of lowly, self-effacing and simple souls, breathing fresh life and new hope into them.

In London’s National Gallery, I'm told there is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Filippino Lippi. It’s a depiction of Mary holding the infant Jesus on her lap, with two saints, Dominic and Jerome, kneeling either side.

But there’s something about the picture. The proportions seem wrong. The hills in the background appear exaggerated, as if they might topple and fall out of the frame. The two kneeling figures look awkward and uncomfortable; one is bigger than the other. All the figures look like they’re floating, a bit like adhesive stickers put randomly onto a background.

In fact, this painting was never intended for an art gallery. It was actually commissioned to hang in a chapel, a place of prayer.

And it’s only when you drop to your knees and gaze up at the painting from an angle that it starts to make sense. Some of the foreground merges naturally with the background. And Mary now looks down intently and kindly as you join the two saints in kneeling humbly before her Son.

For years, egotistical and self-important art critics wrote this off as one of Lippi’s minor works. But it wasn’t the painting that was wrong, it was the perspective of the people looking at it.

Only from the vantage point of humbly kneeling, and looking up at it from an oblique angle, can you appreciate the exquisite and perfectly proportioned masterpiece that it is.

This is what being poor in spirit is about. It’s seeing ourselves, and seeing Christ, from a true perspective.

It’s not so much thinking poorly of ourselves, as thinking properly of ourselves. Being poor in spirit is an acknowledgment of personal spiritual bankruptcy.

It is the opposite of pride. Pride says, “I don’t need God. I’m fine.” Being poor in spirit says, “Without God I’m nothing.”

The 18th Century vicar, Augustus Toplady, in his most famous hymn Rock of Ages, sums it up perfectly: “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”

The Canadian Bible scholar Don Carson says being poor in spirit is the deepest form of repentance.

People who are poor in spirit don’t so much feel sorry for themselves, as at the end of themselves; they are the ones who know from personal experience that when Jesus is all you have, Jesus is all you need.

When Kathie and I were young Christians, about 17 or 18 years old, we used to listen to a record by John Pantry (who’s a radio presenter now) called Empty Handed. It probably sounds a bit cheesy these days, but the song’s simple words made a big impact on us. This is how it describes Jesus:

He lived among us and never owned much
And he laid aside his life to God's will;
And all we ever put in his hands
Was the cross he bore and the nails that tore.

And empty handed, that is how he wanted me
He commanded I leave my own plans at his feet
'Till I had nothing, nothing of my own,
Then he filled my life to overflowing.

Are your hands empty, and open? Because that’s the only way they can receive the blessing God wants to put in them.

The crooner and actor Frank Sinatra was a 20th century legend, a star. Ol’ blue eyes… He died on 14th May 1998 at the age of 82. His family, friends and countless fans mourned him.

His last will and testament contained about $400 million in assets: houses, cars, land and investments. He was decorated with 11 Grammys, 4 Golden Globes, an Oscar Academy Award, three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a stack of platinum and gold discs, one of which was for “My Way”. Contrast this with Empty Handed:

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain. 
My friends, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case of which I’m certain. 
I’ve lived a life that’s full, and travelled each, and every highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way.

When Frank Sinatra died, he left behind exactly what you and I will have to leave behind when our days on this earth are over. In other words - everything.

Just like every one of us will one day have to do, Frank Sinatra left this world to stand before the judgement seat of Christ. One day, Jesus is going to say to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me, so how do you think you did, Frank?”

The reply, “I did it my way” is just not going to cut the mustard. When we stand before the Lord of Heaven and Earth, all our achievements and accomplishments, no matter how great or small, will count for nothing.

Only “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling” will do.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

You might say, “Well, I want to be poor in spirit. But how do become like that? How can I cultivate that attitude?”

In James 4 there are some helpful exercises. This is what it looks like to become poor in spirit: “Submit yourselves, then, to God,” it says. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Purify your hearts… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

Ending

As I close, maybe you’re wondering to yourself, how am I doing? I don’t really know. How poor in spirit am I? Am I poor in spirit at all?  Is this a problem for me?

Maybe I can help you arrive at a self-diagnosis. I’m going to read out some statements with an option a and an option b. Where do you put yourself; towards option (a)? Or towards option (b)? Or somewhere in the middle? Here we go…

When others do better than me… 
a. I get jealous and want them to fail.
b. I feel really happy for them.

When other people’s tastes are different to mine… 
a. I tend to inwardly slate them as too posh or too common. 
b. I try not to judge or criticize other people’s tastes.

Number 3:
a. I see myself as quite a good person really. 
b. I see myself as a sinner totally in need of God’s mercy and grace.

Next one: 
a. I wouldn’t be seen dead accepting help or asking for prayer.
b. I need all the prayer I can get and I don’t care what people think.

What about self-image?
a. I worry and stress endlessly about my image and looks.
b. What’s most important for me is what I’m like on the inside.

When other people mess up… 
a. I just think “thank God I’m not them.”
b. I try to encourage them.

Attitude (a) is not going to land you a whole lot of blessing in life. It’s just not. That’s the way it is. Attitude (b), that is to say the be-attitude, (see what I did there) is one of the keys to living the blessed life God wants you to live.

Let’s stand to pray...



Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 6 January 2019