Live Free with Josh Howerton - Blessed are the Broke | Ep. 140 | Friday, August 18, 2023

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

Have you ever felt that fulfilling joy and happiness are just beyond your grasp? Tune in as Pastor Mike unpacks the paradox of being “poor in spirit” and how it can lead to profound happiness. Pastor Mike explores how acknowledging our spiritual need and humility paves the way to joy. Join us as we translate the profound wisdom of the Sermon on the Mount into modern, practical lessons for life. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the podcast. My name is Mike, and we just started a discussion last episode about chasing happy. I mean, lots of people are. So we thought we would go to the source of true happiness and see what he has to say about it all. You know, Jesus gave this amazing talk called the sermon on a mount. And you can read it in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 in the New Testament section. And he begins by talking about finding deep fulfillment in life and how it's not found in externals, but it's. comes from inside of us. It's in a section commonly referred to as the beatitudes, which is just a word for describing deep, lasting joy. In last episode, we suggested that

Jesus kind of lays all this out in a progressive nature with each of these internal things building upon the one before it, kind of like rungs on a ladder, if you will. So let's just start at the bottom rung today, and this is the foundational step to finding true inside out the happiness. The word blessed comes from the Greek word macarius, which simply means happy, and when you insert the word happy into these verses, the first time you read them, they all sound like contradictions. For instance, he says, blessed or happy, fortunate, is fulfilled, approved by God, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are the poor in spirit? What? See what I mean? Now, even though we in America are comparatively some of the

richest people in the world. We still know poor. And we know all of it's synonyms, broke, busted, impoverished, needy, destitute, bankrupt. Some of us have experienced all of those. Now put one of those synonyms with that phrase in spirit. And you can see what Jesus is talking about here. He says happy, fortunate, blessed are the spiritually busted. Blessed are those who like reach into their spiritual pockets, turn them inside out, and all they got of these little lent balls in there. Been there? Happier are those who will acknowledge that they are spiritually bankrupt and that they have a deep need for God. That's where it all begins.

Remember, happiness is not determined, but what's happening around you, but rather what's happening in you. And so Jesus says the first thing that ought to be happening in you is a sense of brokenness, a humble acknowledgement that you can't do this life on your own, but you desperately need God. There's an annual contest the Washington Post runs where people submit what's called neologisms words that are kind of smashed together to form one new word, such as, I like this one, parent-noid, that's the fear of becoming just like your parents. Yogi, the only guy in the yoga class. Crappatite, craving things that are in reality worthless.

I like this one, abdicate, to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. This one made me laugh. Bitarianism, the belief that when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there. I like this one, Pokemon, a Jamaican proctologist. Right, Pokemon. Here's one I made up, after years of working with people. Hypofine React. That's someone who knows they're sick, but they keep saying, I'm fine, I'm fine. I've always thought how the self-help section of a book store seems kind of like an oxymoron. I mean, if self-could really help you really need self-help. I mean, all self-can help you do is dig yourself into a great

big self-centered hole that you can't get out of by yourself. It's a good day, Jesus says, when you realize that you need help beyond yourself. If you want to be truly happy in life, Jesus says, it begins and ends with humility. Bill W., one of the founders of AA once wrote, selfishness, self-centeredness, yes, that we found is the root of our problem. and to get well, we had to quit playing God. When you and I quit playing God and humbly acknowledge that we need God, that without Him we are spiritually busted and destitute, that opens the door for God to come in to bring freedom, healing, forgiveness, and true happiness.

So maybe today, maybe even right now, just humble yourself and acknowledge how much you need him. It's the pathway to a deeply satisfying life. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you,

would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe. live.