In this sermon, we begin a series going verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Jesus is proclaiming God's Kingdom, its presence, and is teaching His disciples what it means to join that Kingdom. The Beatitudes are the beginning of this teaching and we explore how we can approach them. They are counter-intuitive, confusing, yet beautiful announcements of what is true about this Kingdom. We begin to explore them with the first beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." We dive into what it means to be poor in spirit and why such people are called blessed.