Blessed Are - Part 2
by Kevin Allen
February 26, 2026 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Matthew 5, Matthew 5:3, Matthew 5:4, James 4:9-10, Psalms 34:18-19, 2 Corinthians 7:10, 1 John 1:9, Psalms 51:3-4, Psalms 51:10-12, 1 John 1:9, Psalms 51:17, Ephesians 4:17-19, Psalms 95:7-8, Matthew 5:4, Psalms 147:3, Isaiah 57:15, John 14:16-18

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--blessed-are-part-2
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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We are in the middle of a series that we kicked off this past Wednesday night discussing the biatitudes Matthew chapter 5 which is the beginning of the sermon on the mount and as I had said last week the best message that was ever preached by the best preacher that ever preached which was Jesus says he was starting his ministry and from the very beginning of that ministry I just love how Jesus was defining blessings in a way that was so countercultural. It was it was not what normal people thought about when it come to using the word blessed. Instead of talking about power or success, status or comfort, he spoke about things like humility and being surrendered, mercy, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness and being faithful in the face of opposition. And with these words, Jesus was not trying to have a motivational talk. That's not the goal behind what he was doing. But instead, he was inviting ordinary people like you and I into an upside down kingdom where hearts are transformed and lives are changed when we learn how to posture ourselves before the almighty God. And what looked like weakness was actually strength in disguise. So, what we're going to do in this series is intentionally walk slowly through the biatitudes to discover that Jesus is revealing far more than just a simple list of virtues that are there to live by.

He was he was showing us what truly kingdom values look like in living for him. Now, biatitudes is a different word. It's a word that we don't normally use in our common everyday conversations and it simply means blessed. is the Latin word beatatus meaning divine divinely favored or spiritually fortunate. And as we learn about this word, a goal with this series is that we have a better understanding of why it's important to embrace things that maybe on the surface don't seem natural to embrace. But having an understanding, a kingdom understanding has a way of changing that for us. So we started this past weekend journeying through the biatitudes discovering that Jesus as he's opening up with that sermon and begin to talk about strength. He didn't start with success. He didn't start with confidence but he started this way. Matthew 5 verse number three. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And we learned last week in that lesson that the kingdom begins when we recognize that you and I we bring nothing into the relationship with God but emptiness. We're empty. Blessed are the poor in spirit. That's what it means to be poor in spirit. Is to understand my desperate need to have a relationship with God. Because I don't bring anything into the equation, just myself. That salvation doesn't start with achievement. It starts with surrender.

It doesn't start with strength. But it starts by you and I being honest before our God who already knows everything about us. Why would we pretend to be anything different? Why would we pretend that we know it all and we have it all together when he knows good and well we don't? So let's be honest before him. God, I'm desperate to know you. I need you. I need you in my life. And I know in my own personal walk with God. Once I discovered that I don't have to put on airs with him. That he just knows me. It makes the relationship a whole lot more easy to have the conversation. I'm not having to work up to it. He automatically knows the things that I'm struggling with or I need to be helped in my life. Once a person truly sees their spiritual poverty, something naturally begins to flow. Which is going to lead us into where we're going tonight with the second one of the biatitudes. Matthew 5 verse number four says this, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Now, I'm going to be honest at first glance this this sort of seems backwards to me. Why would you be blessed if you're mourning? Happy are the sad. Right? That doesn't seem like a t-shirt or bumper sticker you're going to see out there. If you did, you'd be like, "What's wrong with you?

Happy are the sad." That doesn't doesn't seem like it's right. Favored are the grieving. Blessed are the brokenhearted. None of this makes sense on the surface. That's why it's important that we take the time to unpack this. Morning and blessing don't seem to belong in the same sentence. I don't think anybody wakes up in the morning says, "You know what? I hope today it is full of grief. Right? Anybody have that cross your mind? No. That's not what you what what what we would consider to be rational thinking people. That seems odd. Something's wrong with you. No one walks into a funeral thinking what a blessed experience this is. There's loss. Something's taking place. So, what is Jesus talking about? because I feel it's important because if we misunderstand this verse, we're either going to turn a relationship with God into an emotional misery or we're going to skip over what I feel like is one of the most powerful promises that Jesus has ever given us. So, in my natural way of doing this, and for those that have been with me for a while in my teaching and preaching, you know, I usually like to ask questions when I read through the scripture because it helps me helps me define what it is I'm reading and how I can apply it to my life. And often times when I'm trying to discover the meaning of something, it's usually a good place to start with what it's not.

So what is mourning not? Before we get to what it is, let's talk about what it's not. So I want to be very clear. Jesus is not saying blessed are the depressed. I don't want you to read this scripture and think, is that what he's saying? Because that's not what he's saying. He's not saying blessed are the emotionally fragile or blessed are the people who enjoy being sad. This isn't about a personality type. It's about natural g and it's not about natural grief alone. It's something that's a lot deeper than that. Because every one of us, every one of us, if you live long enough, you're going to face some sorrow, some sadness. There's going to be something happened to you in your life and you're going to grieve. Many of you in the room know exactly what I'm talking about. There's probably some people in the room right now that are grieving. That's a part of the human experience. So, this is not going there. I feel like that's where we naturally go when we talk about the word mourning. We mourn when we lose things that are important to us. When we lose our loved ones, when we lose our health or we lose opportunities or when life breaks out of our expectations. And I want you to know God will comfort you in those moments. But that's not what this is. Jesus is going to be there, but he's talking about something deeper than just situational grief.

Again, I go back to a word that I used earlier about understanding poverty. It was spiritual poverty is what he's addressing. And in that same theme, he's talking about a spiritual mourning that should be taking place. Blessed are they that mourn. It's a spiritual morning. So what is this morning really about? If I dive into it here, the the G Jesus uses the word for mourn the Greek language pantheo. And it's a very strong in fact it's the strongest Greek word in describing grief. It's the kind of word used to describe deep sorrow that someone feels at the death of someone who is the closest to them. So, this isn't something that's just a mild sadness or a momentary feeling of regret. I think we we we all understand that. There's been things that we've done we've regretted or we've been sad about something, but not that's not it's not surface level stuff. It's not casual. This is something that goes deep down to the core of where we are. this Jesus is showing us first poverty comes and when it comes into our life as we discovered last week it's helping me discover the reality that I I can see the need in my life to have God more than I'm broken more than more than I I've messed up and I've made mistakes you those those things are good to identify but to truly understand it is to is to see how desperately I need him in my life.

And that desperate revelation or that desperate need leads me to the level of mourning that hopefully I can unpack because mourning is feeling the weight of that truth. Does this make sense? Blessed are the poor was last week. The poor in spirit is identifying that I bring nothing into the relationship with God. I He brings everything. I need him. The next sentence is, "Blessed are they that mourn because the the understanding of how desperately I need God brings a revelation into my life of I I I'm I'm I'm so sorrowful for my condition. It's a weight that that that that weighs down." And James, I feel like maybe articulates this better because good old brother James, he he doesn't sugarcoat anything. He says this in James chapter 4 verse number nine. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Did you notice the order that was there that first comes lamenting then mourning and then humility. And when those things come then then who lifts you up? Who lifts you up? >> The Lord lifts you up. So again, we we we can sometimes get down in the King James language with this and we can we can miss the principle that is here. It's not that God's happy that you're sad.

That's not what this is about. And I and I feel like I'm having to go slow here to make sure I get this point across because it can be misunderstood. It's not God's desire that you're emotionally sad. He's saying, "Blessed is the person who understands how desperately it is they need God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn because the mourning is I I see my condition." And it brings this sorrow into my life. James says, "You need to lament and you need to mourn. You need to be humble. And when you do those things, he will lift you." So that's where we're going. I'm I'm I'm going ahead and telling you where I'm going to head in this in this lesson tonight is to talk about why this is important so that the end goal is that you allow God then to bring a healing and a restoration into your life that only he can give you. There are some things that happen in our life. There are some circumstances and one of those is understanding your own spiritual condition. I I'll say it this way. , you know, I've been in ministry since 19. So, 30 whatever years it is now. , I've been doing this and been been full-time since I was 28 years old in in in full-time ministry. I'm 50 now. So, I' I've been around a while, pastoring 12 years.

And here's what I have noticed is that there is a good number of people who are are claiming to follow after God and they're doing a lot of right things in their life, but they are spiritually immature. They're not really where they should be considering the amount of time that they have lived for God. At some point, and I don't I'm not quite sure. I' I've I've asked God to reveal this to me and it's one of those things he's been quiet on, but at some point I don't understand why they just kind of level off. They don't they don't continue to grow. They don't continue to deepen themselves in understanding. They and and the problem with that is they remain spiritually poor. They remain immature in what they do. And I feel like what Jesus was trying to do, and again, we got we got several weeks to go into this beatitude series, but we have to take them in order because he gave them to us in order. He talks about blessed are the poor in spirit. Again, I'm not going to rehash that lesson. Go back to listen to last Wednesday's night, but I am going to play off of it because they all go together. When you understand how desperately you need him, the next step is identifying how sad that makes you because of your spiritual condition. And what I have realized by talking and counseling with people through the years is is people we all raise my hand.

We're really good about lying to ourselves or we're really good about not feeling like we're as bad as we really are. when I when I'm studying this out, and again, I'm I'm hoping that I can draw this conclusion with you through scripture tonight to make this point stick because I want to I want to not give you Kevin's opinion. And I want to give you what the word of God has to say because I but as I was studying this out, I was seeing a connection and a correlation by being honest with me and and and for you to be honest with you. If we're really open and honest, I dare say that there's not a one of us in this room that is not aware of something you can be doing better in your life. And what happens is, and I'm going to get to this, by us not being honest with oursel, it causes us to become blind. And the very thing God's trying to work out in our life, we're not paying attention to it. And I feel like Jesus is coming, right? He's starting his ministry. This is the sermon on the mount. And he's he's talking in a in a very countercultural way saying this is not about you checking off a box of rules that you follow because that's how the relationship with God had had developed over time by everybody doing the law.

But a checked box is not a relationship you checking a box. Now here here's the deal. you know, , a couple years ago, I got this this this this tracker on my phone, this app thing cuz I wanted to lose some weight, and you had to you had to put in what you ate. Well, I found out, you know, you don't have to put everything in there. And then when I get to the end of the day, I'm like, I got calories to burn. Yeah. But but we know that's not really doing me any good because I'm not doing what I know I'm supposed to be doing. And and as silly as that example is, I have seen so many people take that same mindset in their relationship with God. They'll they'll they'll willingly point it out in other people. Oh boy, if they would just do that, their life would be better. But the the small things in their own life, they're not checking to make sure they're doing them correctly. So Jesus is coming in and saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn to bring back the reality of there should be an understanding of you of how desperate you need to have God in your life and just how sad your spiritual condition is." The beautiful part about this is God doesn't pull away from any kind of brokenness.

Instead, he moves towards it. Psalms 34:18. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Did you catch that? That he's near to the brokenhearted. What happens, ladies and gentlemen? I see this and I'm going to again try to unpack this but what I see this and whether you believe it or not it's the truth is that by us not dealing with what we know we should really deal with there's a sense of pride that enters in our life and let me ask you the question to you theologians in the room who fights pride who resists the proud are you going to win that fight. No. No. And you say, "Well, I'm I'm not dealing with that, Pastor Kevin." Well, just hang on a minute. Let me let me let me let me dive in a little deeper here before you just write this off. God is near to the brokenhearted. There's something about honesty and humility that he can't keep himself from. And the very thing we need is him, right? I need God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. But because I'm not willing to mourn and have a right attitude, it keeps him at bay. When I have so much scripture, I'm going to give you some more.

Where he is drawn in to brokenness, why would I hide it? Why would I be ashamed? When he already knows the condition and the state that I'm in, why would I just be honest with myself? God doesn't distance himself from a contrite spirit. He draws close. So when Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn," he's not talking about people who enjoy sadness, right? Because that's not a natural thing. You should not enjoy being sad. He's talking about people whose hearts are tender enough to feel the weight of sin, the brokenness, and the distance that has caused them from God and who bring that sorrow honestly before him. Because that's the kind of mourning that doesn't push God away. Instead, it pulls him in. It brings him into the equation because there's this kingdom value that he's trying to unpack in this message for you and I and for those who were there the day he preached it that goes so different to the cultural norms of the day. And this is where it hits you and I in our world today. Culture says, just go with me for a minute and listen to this. Okay? You think about the world we're living in today. You think about the current state of affairs of of where we are. I'm gonna break it down. the current state of our world living in Murphy'sboro, Tennessee, culture says ignore your sin, rename your sin, explain your sin, normalize your sin, even celebrate your sin.

That's our world today, ladies and gentlemen. So, you can see in his brilliance of knowing how we were going to react to this that Jesus says to us, "Blessed are they that mourn." That you don't celebrate. Instead, you embrace. The world tells us the worst thing that we can do is feel conviction. Our world doesn't want to feel any conviction. Our world doesn't want to feel any shame, any guilt. They want to explain away. They want to say, "Who are you to tell me what I can do and I can't do?" That's our world today. Our world today is so caught up in how they feel and what they desire. and they want to justify why it is that they can do the things that they do. Regardless of what you say or or especially what the word of God has to say, they're not going to give any place for that. No, not no space whatsoever. No, no room for that to even be considered. But then we get into a dangerous place because he's drawn to the brokenness when we're honest before him. The kingdom of God says something completely different. The kingdom of God says you need to recognize when it's there. You need to confess it. You need to grieve it. and you need to bring it to God. So culture, our world avoids sorrow at all costs. But the kingdom of God uses sorrow because it knows it will heal your soul because the sorrow that leads you to God is not destructive.

Instead, it's transformative when you bring it to him. The Apostle Paul explained it this way in 2 Corinthians 7 verse number 10. For godly sorrow, everybody say godly. Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation. Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. In other words, there's a kind of sorrow that pulls you away from God. And then there's a kind of sorrow that pulls you to God. Godly sorrow does not destroy you, ladies and gentlemen. It changes you. And I this isn't my Bible study today, but I'll just give you the give you the end result. It changes you to be like him. We call that sanctification, disciplehip. You've heard me teach on that before. And we're all in the process of being sanctified. I'm not sanctified. I'm not a finished work and neither are you. You're a piece of work and so am I. But we're not a finished work. Why? Because we're still breathing down here. But one day, we're going to be over there with him and it will be complete. But between here and there, we're in the process of being sanctified. which means I got to do work every day. That's what oftentimes I feel like frustrates people especially in our culture and climate in a world that loves experiences. Love to do this, go a big vacation, have this trip, do these things and have these experiences.

So, we have these memories and if we're not careful, we will lump our relationship with God into the experience category when this is not an experience. This is a life lived for the one who purchased you and I. You were bought with a price. Did you know that? Which means according to the Bible, you are not your own. >> So, it's not that I just don't want to. You're probably never going to fully want to do all the things, but it's not about you wanting to do them. It's about you getting to do them to honor him. Let me move on. Godly sorrow doesn't destroy you. It change you. It leads you to repentance. It leads you to restoration. It leads you, ladies and gentlemen, to salvation. And when we bring sorrow honestly before God, the word of God says this in 1 John 10:9, I quote this verse a lot. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's faithful. That's the difference. The world says, "Hide it. Don't talk about it. Bury it. justify it, be proud of it. But the kingdom of God says no, bring it. The world says suppress it. The kingdom of God says confess it. The world says avoid it. But God uses that very sorrow to heal the heart and transform the soul.

It's kind of like a a child being told not to play with a thing, you know, the precious item, something, a piece of china, something that's that's there, and the child ends up breaking it. Then there's regret. But what I'm talking about in mourning is not regret. Because a child maybe regrets that they disobeyed, but when they see the impact it had on mama because they realized it was something that was precious to her, then all of a sudden the mourning kicks in because you see the sorrow that is there. See, that's part of understanding the poor in spirit is is I don't bring anything to the equation, but God died for me and he died for you. So there's a hope for me. But blessed are the morning is for me to realize what a sad state I was in when he found me. And oh how that had to grieve him. Do you do you ever think about how it grieves him? Not not that you got caught, right? And that's what happens sometimes, and I'm going to get into this in a minute, is because we we get to a place where we're we're desensitized because of what we do, how we compartmentalize, how we push it, and instead of thinking about how it grieves him. Now, for those in the room, which is a good portion of us who have our own kids, I dare say there's not a one of us parents in the room that at some point or another had a child that did something that caused us to have sorrow.

They they broke our heart. They did something that broke our heart. So, you know what I'm talking about. So it's it's that mindset. Blessed are they that mourn is to understand that what I have done grieves him. Again, that's not taking away from salvation. Don't misunderstand me. It's not about that. Where you like, pastor Kevin, why you why you stuck on this? Well, I'm stuck here because I I feel like you're going to see in just a minute. I'm going to show you. It's important that you don't desensitize yourself to the point that when you make a mistake that it's not just that you got caught or that you feel conviction, but that you understand you grieve our father's heart. That changes things, you know. And again, I I use this example. I use examples of my marriage oftent times because it's the closest relationship I have here on earth. I love my wife and there there are things that we have at our house that I don't understand but they are precious to her and there have been times when I did not handle those things with proper care and I broke them. Now, to me, it didn't mean a whole lot because I didn't understand it to start with. But when I seen the look in her eyes and I realized that it grieved her because of my love for her, then it brought grief to me because I caused her pain.

I know it's a simple example, but it's the best way I know to say is Jesus is again, I keep going back to this because you had you have to view it through this lens. He's setting up this is his first sermon. He's setting up a different way to live. So he's going back to some very basic things. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. If we don't understand the why he says it's blessed. Why? Why is it a good thing to mourn? It's a good thing to mourn because it means you're still attached to him. >> You're still feeling what he feels. Because if we don't feel that, then it won't bother us when we do wrong. It's not about getting caught. It's not about regret. It's different than that. So, we see in here, mourning comes before comfort. Notice Jesus never said, "Blessed are they who mourn, for they will stay sad forever." Because that would be really depressing, wouldn't it? He says, "Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Comfort comes after mourning. I'm gonna say that again because this is the truth. Okay, here's your nugget. Here's your nugget in this verse that blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted. Comfort comes after mourning. You cannot be healed from what you refuse to feel. Did you did you process that? You cannot heal from what you refuse to feel.

You cannot be forgiven for what you refuse to confess. You cannot be restored from what you refuse to acknowledge. Morning, ladies and gentlemen, opens the door for comfort. David, one of the most popular people in the word of God. David, the man after God's own heart. It's always interesting that that title that is there considering what we know about David. You know, he's an adulterer. He's a murderer. He's a lot of things, but he's a man after God's own heart. I don't know about you, that kind of gives me some hope. Yeah. So, David's David's big mistake was what? What was David? What was the big one? You guys know this is a pop quiz. What is it? What was the big one? What was it, Scott? You know what was David's biggest mistake? Basheba. Sure. Yeah. So, for those of you that don't know the story, so David is is king. He's he's he's had an interesting beginning. I'm not going to get into that, but he's he's he's actually king of of all of Israel. He's doing well. He's he's God is with him and the favor of the Lord rest on him. He's everybody he fights he gets defeated and then there comes a day he gets comfortable. Not the kind of comfort I'm talking about that the scripture says he gets comfortable and he's not being mindful of his own spiritual condition.

Now word of God says that he's it's a time when kings go to war. That's how it starts off where he should kings go to war. That's the term, kings go to war. But the king doesn't go to war. Instead, he sends his men and he stays back. And he goes out one afternoon on his little porch there, his rooftop, and he's looking out and he sees a woman who's taking a shower, taking a bath. And you know, here here's the deal. People in our world today walk around without clothes on. So unless you're never going to go anywhere, that's just the reality of the world. So for you to acknowledge, hey, that person is not wearing much. That's not a sin. The sin comes back when you're like, and I'm going to stay here for a while and take it all in. Therein is the problem is where David comes in. David's sitting there, he's like, I kind of like what I'm looking at. Again, he's not being mindful of his spiritual condition. So because of that he ends up lingering on the thoughts. Long story short, Bath Sheba ends up in his bed. Mistakes were made. Not only that, he tries to cover it up. It's a long tale. I don't have time tonight to go into it. I encourage you to go read it if you don't know the rest of the story.

It ends up this way where she was married. She was married and it wasn't like he couldn't get more wives, but he he he bypasses reasoning because he's not tuned in to what's going on. Has her husband killed, marries her, baby dies, and then things just start unfolding in his life. All because he had a momentary lapse where he was checked out. Because I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, we don't always know every domino that falls once we set them in motion. I'm gonna tell you, once you push them, you can't stop them. They start going. And that's what happened. The reason I bring him up after his sin with Basheba, after deception, after exposure, David didn't respond, and this is why, this is why I feel like in my opinion, he is known as the man after God's own heart is because of this. He did not respond with excuses. Instead, he responded with mourning. Psalms 51:30. For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. I love how David doesn't minimize his sin. He doesn't blame circumstances. He doesn't blame pressure. He doesn't say, "God, I was having a bad day. I was I was off a little bit. I woke up, had heartburn, stubbed my toe." He doesn't go anything.

Instead, he says, "I did it. It was me." And and when I read those words in Psalms 51 is there's a lot, you know, it goes into this verse number 10. Now, think with me about this. As you read these words, think about a man who's broken, a man who is identifying with the grief and sorrow he's causing his God. Listen to this. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. David understood that joy doesn't return through denial but only through genuine repentance. David mourned his sin and what followed forgiveness, renewal, and intimacy with God and return for joy in time. Now, there was still things that were set in motion because God will forgive you if we confess 1 John 1:9. He's faithful to cleanse us. But it doesn't mean that what you set in motion is still going to go in motion. If you would have told David, David, if you go out there and look at that woman and you don't walk away, if you don't run away from it, not only will you have an affair with her, you will kill her husband and your son will rape your daughter and your other son will kill that son and then he'll cause an uprising to try to overtake your throne.

David would have there's no way David would have done what he did. But you don't see that side of it. Sin never shows you the back door. It never shows you the back door. So Jesus is coming in this scenario as he's setting up this new way of thinking. He said, "Blessed are they that mourn that stay connected that my decisions that I make have consequences both for the good and the bad. And that if I make a bad decision, it grieves God." And that weight of grief of me causing him pain should prevent me from doing the very thing I know would cause that. Blessed are they who mourn because they will be comforted. David goes on in verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart. These, oh God, they will not despise. God does not despise a mourning heart. He instead he's drawn to it. He receives it. He embraces it. It's what he's looking for. But there's a danger that comes in. And I told you I was going to get to this. There's a danger because if we're not careful, if we're not aware, what will happen is if we leave it undone too long, we become spiritually numb. So, let me say this plainly tonight. One of the most dangerous spiritual conditions is not rebellion, it's numbness. Because rebellion at least knows you're far from God.

Numbness, ladies and gentlemen, thinks everything's fine. When sin doesn't bother us anymore, when conviction grows quiet, when we explain things away instead of bringing them to God, that's not maturity, that's drift. Paul warns about this in Ephesians chapter 4. He says this in verse number 17. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened. Did you hear that? Understand dark. being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lwdness toward all uncleanness with greediness. Did you catch that? Past feeling that they're being past feeling. It no longer bothers them what they're doing. That's the danger when the heart stops responding. The Psalmist said this in Psalms 95:7, "For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand." Today, if you will hear the voice, hear his voice. Do not harden your hearts as in rebellion as in the day of the trial of the wilderness. I want you to know a hardened heart does not happen overnight. It's not natural for you to have a hard heart. I'm sorry. It's just not. You know, we we Allens, we are always just, you know, that's our way.

We're not criers and we're not I mean, just because you cry doesn't mean your heart can't be hardened. It takes time. You can silence that voice, ladies and gentlemen. You can, many of you know what I'm talking about. You can keep doing a thing so long that eventually the conviction goes away and you no longer feel that sting. You no longer feel that tug. Instead, it's you you just become numb. I'm going to tell you that is a very, very scary place to be. When you know what you're doing is wrong, yet it doesn't bother you anymore. You don't feel that tug, that pull, that thing in the pit of your stomach. You no longer mourn that it grieves your creator, knowing the way you're doing goes against what his desire is for you in your life. Oh, help us, God. When we get to that spiritual place where we become numb and we no longer feel the conviction that is there. Pain in your body means something is alive. Conviction in your spirit means God is still speaking. Thank God for conviction. You know, as a young man, I didn't like it, but thank God. I've realized how important conviction is. Life is like I'm so thankful that when I when I overstep my bounds or I do something that that is just wrong, I feel that because that means I'm still tuned in.

God's still working on me. He hasn't given up on me. there's still something there that lets me know, hey, that's not right. Don't do that. Don't say that. Don't act that way. Don't don't have that thought. It keeps us in check. Mourning isn't the problem. Mourning is evidence that your heart is still tender and you can still feel conviction and you can still have that ability to feel the trouble in your spirit. God can still interrupt your life like Siri just interrupted mine. It's not weakness, ladies and gentlemen. It's not weakness. You know what that is? I'm going to tell you what it is. It's a beautiful thing. It's called mercy. He's a merciful God. That's mercy. That's grace. So, every time you feel that, you need to be thankful for it. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. There's a promise there. Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Not maybe, not eventually, not conditionally. It's not what it says. It says they shall be comforted. This isn't God patting us on the shoulder saying try harder. This is a comfort that is real. It's spiritual. It's lifech changing. And he gives it to us. It's not for it's a forgiveness that wipes our slate clean. It's a peace that settles in our heart and it's a restoration of a relationship in his presence. Psalms 40 147 and 3.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Isaiah 57:15. For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I will dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. God doesn't just forgive the brokenhearted. It's more than forgiveness. He draws in close to you. Have you noticed that yet? Have you Have you Have you Have you connected the dots of the beauty about being in the altar and why it is the enemy tries to convince you don't to go when you know that's where you need to be. But when you come to the altar, I mean, every service, why why would you not come to the altar? Why would you convince yourself that that's just for the rank center or the first time? And I'm telling you, you need to be here. Because when you're here humbly, when you're here mourning, when you're here with an understanding of that I'm not good enough to go a week without going to the altar, >> what you find out when you get there is not only do you have forgiveness, but he embraces you. He's drawn into that. Do you know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking about. You know that feeling that's there.

It's it it's unique. It's different than anything else when when God literally scoops you up because of the brokenness you have before him. Again, not that you want to stay in a perpetual state of sadness or loneliness or depress. That's what I'm talking about. I hope I'm making this clear. It's an understanding of God. I know I've done some things that grieve you and because of that, I'm mourning and I want to run to you. I want to admit it. I want to embrace. I want to be embraced by you. I need that in my life. Blessed are they that mourn. They shall be comforted. There is no more comfortable place in this world than in his arms. Do you know what I'm talking about? Being in his arms. It's something money can't buy. It's something this world can't give you. You can't go find it on the store. You can't order it online. Amazon doesn't sell that. But when you come before him humbly, broken, mourning, he's drawn to you. He will pick you up. He will comfort you. Jesus later makes this promise in John 14. This is where it gets really good. Verse number 16, redlettered words in your Bible. And I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter. Everybody say comforter. That he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not.

Neither knoweth him. But you know him. For he dwells with you. Hello. And shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Beautiful mighty God in Christ. First passage right there that Jesus, even though they're not fully comprehending all he's saying to them, he's trying to explain to them, "Hey, I'm not going to leave you by yourself. I'm going to come to you. I'm with you now, but I'm fixing to be in you. I won't leave you comfortless. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." One of the greatest things about being right and understanding those things is that infilling of his spirit in our life, that Holy Ghostled, spirit-led life that we we enjoy. The comforter is sent to dwell with his people. And there's the connection is simply this. Pride keeps the comforter at distance, but mourning draws the comforter in. Again, they were struggling. I promise you, ladies and gentlemen, they were struggling that day. He stands up and preaches the sermon on the mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit. I'm sure there's a couple going, did I hear him right? Did he say blessed is the poor in spirit? Blessed are they that mourn, they shall be. Did he just say blessed are the mourn? Like this guy's like he's kind of crazy, but he was there to counteract the culture of the day because they had become very prideful.

They had become very arrogant. The elite in the religion high in the religious high hierarchy had made it so difficult to check so many boxes it made a relationship with God impossible. And Jesus says ah let me tell you how this really works. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Don't allow that pride to keep you away. Pride's an interesting thing. If you haven't studied out pride in the scriptures, I would encourage you to spend some time, do a Bible study on your own because I think you'll be a little surprised about how many of us struggle with pride and how it manifests itself in some very sneaky ways. Not what you think. I promise it's not what you think. The moment we stop pretending, the moment we come honestly, and the moment we grieved what separates us from God, he meets us. He meets us. He's drawn to us. Not with condemnation. No, there's therefore now no condemnation. That's what the word of God says. That's not condemnation. How does he come? With comfort. He embraces you. He pulls you in close. Tonight, as I get ready to bring this to a close, some of us are not needing more information. You're not needing more information. We We live in a world where we have mistaken information with knowledge. We are overwhelmed with information. We have so much at our fingertips, so much at our disposal.

We can't process all the information. You don't need more information. You need knowledge and understanding of what he was talking about when he said, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." If you are struggling and it feels like you have went a long time without a good connection in your life with God, I would encourage you to pray this prayer. God, help me see if there's anything in me that I'm not aware of that I need to bring before you. Anything that has caused me to be isolated, anything that is maybe preventing me from realizing how much it grieves you when I act, do say these things. Let him illuminate that. Let him identify that in his life. Stop justifying the things you know are wrong. Stop it. It's preventing you from being open and honest and humble. Because if you need to be comforted. And I dare say in a room this size, there are some of you who are desperate to be comforted in life. Stop pretending. Mourn. Get before him and just pour it out and mourn. We need to have tender hearts again, ladies and gentlemen. We should be tender-hearted. We should be the kind of people who see what's going on around us and it grieves us the condition of the world. But I'm afraid we become so desensitized and so sanitized in our little in our little comfortable places.

And there's a world all around us broken, as I say many times, desperate to know what you and I have. And yet we keep it locked up inside. Oh God, help us. Help us. Maybe you've gotten used to things that once convicted you. I don't know. Maybe prayer has become a routine instead of something that you desperately do. Maybe repentance has become rare instead of normal. But Jesus said, "Blessed are they who mourn. Not rejected, not condemned, but blessed because comfort is waiting on the other side for you." Will you stand with me? God, I'm always honored when we have an opportunity not only to be in your presence, but to open up your word and dive into the truth that is there. God, I pray that we would be people who are diligently searching our hearts and making sure that we are keeping a right spirit before you. We are aware when we do wrong things that we own them, not push them away, not justify them, not come up with some excuse for why it's okay, but be honest with ourselves. We desperately need you in our life. Let us become comfortable mourning before you so that the comfort that you promise will come. Pick us up, walk with us, embrace us, help us face the struggles in life. Let us be okay coming and bearing everything in front of you. In Jesus name we pray.