The Secret to True Blessing

LESSON: The secret to true blessing is found in spiritual renewal.

SERMON NOTES: You’d think you have to be a spiritual giant or some kind of saint to be blessed. The opposite is true -- you simply need to recognize your own spiritual bankruptcy to be truly blessed.

CHRIST PROMISES TO BLESS:

1. the poor [in spirit]
2. the hungry [for righteousness]
3. the weeping [over sin]
4. the belittled [for Christ]

RE: THE POOR: "You can be poor and a thief; you can be poor and be a saint. The question is: are you poor in spirit--do you recognize that you're spiriutally broke, without Jesus?"

RE: THOSE WHO WEEP: "Sin gives us great cause to weep. Sometimes we weep over our own personal sin; sometimes over the sinful conditions around us."

RE: THOSE WHO HUNGER: “Taken in its widest latitude, to ‘hunger....after righteousness’ means to yearn after God’s favor, image and paradise.”
(AW Pink)

RE: THE BELITTLED: “Great saints have always been dogmatic. We need a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God.” (AW Tozer)

RE: THE WOES

1. WOE TO YOU WHO ARE FULL
   You're about to go hungry.
2. WOE TO THE RICH
   You're about to go bankrupt.
3. WOE TO YOU WHO LAUGH IT UP
   You're about to weep;
4. WOE TO YOU WHO ARE WELL-ACCEPTED
   You’ll soon suffer rejection,
   like the false prophets.

Believers: You may be spiritually broke but you have all the spirituality you need in Jesus.
Keep trusting him not self.