Matthew 5:4–6Scripture
A lot of times when we look at this text and it reads, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Often times what we do is we go we look in this particular sentence for where the blessing is and we say, "Well, if we suffer for a little while, then we'll be comforted."
And so we go, well, I'm going to mourn so I can gain comfort. We're trying to get access to the good thing. But do you know that it's good to mourn? That's a blessing to be able to do that.
It isn't now, hey, I mourn and now I get access to the good stuff. The mourning is the good stuff.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 0:44
That a heart would go from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh and now be able and capable to mourn for the things that break God's heart.
Those things that break God's heart did not affect you until he called you and redeemed you and saved you. Then he softened your heart. Now you are capable of doing something you were not once capable of doing. The blessing is as in is in as much the mourning as it is the comforting.
Right?
You don't need to be comforted until you mourn. And you can't mourn until you've been changed.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:26
And I think that's important. So I think it's important for us not to just look at what we label as the good thing and understand that the thing that gets us to what we think is the good thing is a good thing, too.
All right. So, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Introduction
I named this sermon when the kingdom gets in you. Everything changes. When the kingdom gets in you, everything changes. I wrote in my personal devo time, the biatitudes are not a ladder that you climb to get into heaven. I think that's important to note today. They are a window that shows what happens when heaven gets into you. And that's more important, isn't it?
What's more important is that heaven gets into you. I mean, when Jesus teaches us to pray in a few chapters here, he says that thy kingdom would come to earth as it is in heaven. And how does his kingdom how does heaven come to earth? How does it begin to live and move and interact and invade your homes?
How does it do that? By getting into you. The kingdom is trying to get into you. And the biatitudes really quite honestly are a window of how that happens.
And Jesus is not describing how to get the kingdom, how to get into it. He is describing what happens when the kingdom gets in you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 3:12
The world says this, "Blessed are the bold, for they will accomplish things.
Blessed are the rich because they are going to have opportunity. Blessed are the confident because nothing will thwart them in life." Jesus steps in and he preaches a sermon on the mountain on a hillside and declares the absolute opposite of everything that we've come to know about life.
He says, "Blessed are the broken. Have you ever been broken? Blessed are the grieving. Have you ever grieved? Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." He basically takes everything that the world thinks about life and about success. He flips it upside down and he says it's actually the opposite.
If you're going to be a kingdom woman or man, everything that you think is success is actually the opposite.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:22
He's describing people the world would never notice. Actually, when you go to a party, they're not the people that are spotlighted in the party. They're the people who are quiet, who hold their tongue, who And I'm not saying you have I'm not saying meekness is weakness. I'm not saying that humility is being invisible. I'm not saying that. But you can tell a lot about a man or a woman by the words that are coming out of their mouth.
The Bible actually says that it is that the mouth reveals the heart of an individual. For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth utters, speaks. Some of you are going to begin to look at this list of biatitudes and you're going to get a picture of what it is to see an individual whose heart has been transformed.
And then you're going to begin to look at your life and your heart and evaluate, hey, does my heart look like this list?
Am I a kingdom man or woman? Am I what God says I will be if I have been changed by him? So you'll begin to evaluate. But the Bible teaches us that the way that we evaluate an individual's heart is by listening to their mouth. Track with me here. You could tell a lot in a conversation over dinner, whether somebody's meek, whether they pursue righteousness, whether they're humble, whether they mourn over the things that God mourn over.
They speak these things over dinner. And you can tell about an individual's heart by what utters out of their mouth, what they utter out of their mouth. Are you with me today? You can tell whether or not a person pursues righteousness or not by what they speak in their life.
We want to be flippant with our tongue. But God says our tongue is revelatory of our heart and it's our heart springs out and we speak what's in there.
And it's important.
He's describing a people the world would never notice. People who have been undone by God and rebuilt by grace.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:57
This is not the path you take to earn God's blessing. Hear me today. What I'm uttering to you today, these three things that are mentioned by Jesus when he preaches on a hillside is not a list of things you do to get something from God.
This is the posture you find when his blessing has already found you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:20
He has changed you. He is still working things out in you. Can I get an amen? He's still doing a work in you. You're not perfect. You're not You're not You don't do everything right, but you also don't make excuses for yourself when you step into idiocy.
You repent. You feel bad and convicted for the fact that these things on this list, there are moments in your life where that is not indicative of your heart.
And so we feel remorse for those things. So let's just jump right in there. Let's talk about three ways the kingdom get into you and what it does to your heart.
Point 1Blessed are those who mourn, not moan
Number one, he says, "Blessed are those who mourn." Now, point one for clarification. Blessed are those who mourn. M O U R N, not moan. Have you ever Have you ever met a moaner in the house? Oh, my knee. Oh, it's just been such a bad week. Oh, I'm so tired. Oh, whoa, is me a moaner.
That don't make you holy.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:39
Makes you annoying. Right? Is it bad to moan? I'm not saying it's bad to moan. I'm saying in a morning. And don't you think just because you are a proficient professional moaner that you are exhibiting a blessed attitude that must have been given by God.
There's a difference between a moaner and a mourner. A moaner complains about the all the little inconveniences in their life. A mourner grieavves over the corruption of sin and what it has done in their life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:12
A moaner says, "Well, life's unfair to me." A mourner says sin is offensive to God. A moaner blames others for the pain they feel.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:28
A mourner takes responsibility for the pain they cause. Now notice a sign. Notice something that's happening here. One is very mecentric. The other is very a moer wants relief from discomfort.
A mourner rep wants repentance from disobedience. Okay. A moaner looks for someone to listen to their complaints. A mourner looks for someone to cleanse their heart and help them live a disciplined and lovely life before God and men.
A moaner vents on social media. A mourner falls on their knees and cries out to God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:24
There's a difference. There's a difference.
A moaner seeks sympathy from anyone that they can find sympathy. A mourner seeks sanctification.
A moaner feels sorry for themselves and a mourner feels sorry for sin.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 10:49
And Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn, not moan." For they shall be comforted. Some of you are going, "Well, actually, I'm a professional moaner, and I feel comforted every time I moan and somebody comes and pats me on the back and feels sorry for me." So, I beg to differ.
I get more satisfaction from moaning than I do mourning. And rich people get more satisfaction for being wealthy today than having eternal wealth because immediate satisfaction oftent time trumps eternal satisfaction.
But that don't mean that one day you won't regret you valuing immediacy over eternity because it will be regrettable.
And Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." He's not talking about self-pity or depression.
He's talking about a heart that feels what God feels.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:58
This is a blessing in and of itself because when you begin to feel what God feels, that's a blessing. You are exhibiting his character. Only God could do that in your heart.
As a believer, it's bonkers when someone does something that's offensive to you. And you mourn for them. That doesn't make any sense. Only God can do that because I want to stab him in the face, but God does something in my heart that says and breaks my heart for them.
Guys, it's nice to be comforted. It's better to have a changed heart.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:56
The comfort is in the morning because otherwise if mourning isn't a comfort in and of itself and he does comfort those who mourn.
But I want you to understand there's more there's more connection here than you might imagine. Because for many of us who don't have a broken heart for those who offend us, our only comfort is found in that person getting theirs.
But if God breaks my heart for what breaks his and I mourn for that person, I'm comforted by that in the midst of my mourning.
And I don't need necessarily for that person to get theirs because my heart has been changed in turn in a way from needing retribution to having a heart that has compassion for them.
I don't know if that makes any sense, but it is amazing what God is doing in the heart of an individual. Do the things that break the heart do the things that break the heart of Jesus break yours? That's the question. Or have you grown numb to the things that break Jesus' heart? It is amazing because there's these t-shirts coming out.
I'm a Christian and I blank a little bit. We're numb. And we create pathways for us to continue in old behaviors when he's changed our hearts and we make t-shirts about it.
Track with me. This ain't going to get any more comfortable. But he calls us to mourn. He's call He No, he's not calling us to mourn. He's telling us if we're saved, we'll mourn.
Our heart will break over the things that we used to once celebrate.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:06
H Why are we trying to mix this and bake some kind of weird Christian cake with recipes that don't belong?
Have you grown numb?
Have we learned to sing louder in church so that we don't have to hear the cries of the lost dying and going to hell?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:25
Are we more interested in entertaining ourselves so that we can ignore what's really going on in the world? Could it be that we have dry we have dryeyed churches in a living in a hell-bent world? And could it be that the hell-bent world is infiltrated our dryeyed churches? Could it be that we have submitted tears of we've substituted tears of repentance for tears of excitement?
We become experts in enthusiasms, but strangers to brokenness. And so many of our gatherings sound like pep rallies, but feel nothing like prayer meetings.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:02
Where's the mourning in the house? Where's the brokenhearted men and women in the house?
Revival never starts with applause and cheers. It starts with tears.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:26
Where are the tears in the house of God? The good news is when his kingdom gets in you, tears aren't weird and mourning isn't strange.
Mourning is a way of life.
He comforts those who mourn, not those who perform.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:52
And when the kingdom gets in you begin to mourn what he mourns. And that mourning becomes your pathway to comfort. Okay? Blessed are those who mourn, not those who moan.
Point 2Blessed are the meek, not the weak
Number two, blessed are the meek, not the weak. And there is a difference. The world tells you to stand tall, fight back, prove your strength. But Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Now, for clarification,
Meekness is not weakness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:22
Meekness is scary power under control. Matter of fact, it takes which is harder, to pop off at the mouth or to hold your tongue?
I mean, come on. Have you ever had somebody say something that set you off and you had a few things to say to them back, but you just held your tongue?
That's meekness. You had the power to crush somebody, but you didn't.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:02
And you applied that power to control rather than punishment. This is the heart of God because he can take all y'all out and you deserve it.
You've profained his name more than using it in vain. You profane his name with your life. And all he has to do is speak a word and squash He created the whole He created your life with a word and he can take your life with a word because he's the king of kings and the lord of lords and at his word you either live or you die at his word but he holds his tongue because he loves you.
And this kind of demonstration of meekness is seen in the hearts of those who are made like him. Blessed are the meek, not the weak. It is a strength of a lion wrapped in the what I've heard this before.
It is a strength of a lion wrapped in the gentleness of a lamb.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:14
When God wants to make a man powerful, he does not crown him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:20
He breaks him. Now track with me. When God wants to make a man powerful, he does not crown him. That makes a man weak. When you crown a man too early, it makes him weak. The last thing you want to do is give a child too much power and especially give a child too much power before that child has become a man.
What we need is we need a child to experience a little breaking so that when he's given the crown, HE handles IT like God would with humility, with patience, with meekness, with gentleness, with righteousness out of his the foundation of his heart. That's what we need. So we don't need someone crowned before they've been broken. We see this demonstrated all through Scripture.
G Jesus is the king of all kings and the lord of all lords. But he was broken for your sin and broken for your iniquities and the chastisement OF HIS OF your peace IS upon HIM.
I want YOU TO understand something. And now he is crowned king of all kings. But that came postbrokenness. He didn't get a crown before he got some suffering and some breaking. And the way the kingdom breaks IN IS BY breaking YOU. YAY. Sign me up. That's what he's talking about. And what we try to steer clear of the breaking, what WE TRY TO pray oursel OUT OF, the breaking, what we TRY TO RUN away from in church, THE breaking IS THE very thing that gets YOU access TO THE thing your heart most desires and needs.
And we want to preach people out of the blessing and out of a kingdom life.
Everybody wants a breakthrough, but God's just trying to break the kingdom into you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:36
When God makes a man powerful, he doesn't give him a crown. He breaks him. He strips away his comfort, his pride, his plans until all that remains is what he has been what has been ignored.
What that man has buried beneath a bunch of egotistical things he thinks he does well. And God doesn't do this to punish that man. He does it to reveal in the man the thing that needs to be fixed.
You cannot surrender to God what you keep hidden beneath an entourage of strength.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:21
Meekness is the posture of someone who's wrestled with God and learned that the victory only comes through complete surrender.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:26
That's what a man needs. Meekness is the posture of someone who understands they cannot do this on their own strength. It is the spirit of the one who could demand their way but instead chooses God's way.
Meekness doesn't need to win arguments because it's already won the war within.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:01
It doesn't seek to dominate every situation, every conversation, every relationship because it has already died to self and he doesn't need to win.
The proud take the earth by force and they lose it in a moment, but the meek inherit it eternally.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:19
Oh, and the proud think that they're winning the earth. But God says one day apocalyptically the meek are the ones I give the earth to and the proud aren't even there.
When the kingdom gets in you, your strength bows to his sovereignty and your restraint becomes your real power.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:46
Point 3Hunger for righteousness, not recognition
Number three, blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, not recognition.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. There is a hunger it's talking about here that is a holy hunger. That is holy. And there is a hunger in the world today that is hollow. Don't let that be lost on you.
There is a holy hunger and there is a hollow one. One of them causes you to be filled.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:26
The other one makes you more hungry but never satisfies. Track with me. How many of you have ever had an energy drink thinking that will sustain you through the day and realized that the crash is coming and you got to have another energy drink and another energy drink because that thing which promises to give you energy is really hollow does not last.
Are you with me today? It fills you, but it's hollow offering. I love doing what my wife calls grazing in the evening.
I am a professional grazer. And part of it just comes from the fact that I'm bored. I just got to I need to be eating a chip or something right now. Show me the brownies. Brooke. Brooke, tell you what I'll do. I'll do the dishes for the next four nights all by my lonesome. And I'll cook dinner and I'll do this and I'll do that.
Just make me a batch of cookies. Show you love a brother and hook me up because I'm a professional grazer. How many of you know that it only makes you feel worse when you're done? And some just makes you want to have more. And what you thought it would accomplish is actually a hollow offering. And you're never truly filled.
This is what God's talking about. You want to be truly filled and satisfied in your life, you need a hunger that's not hollow. You need a hunger that longs and thirsts for righteousness. The righteous hunger is not a polite appetite.
Listen, when the kingdom gets in you, it rewrites your appetite.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:56
That's what it's saying here.
You stop craving to be seen and you start longing to be clean.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:04
That's what it's saying.
A righteous hunger is not a polite appetite. It is a desperate ache. It says, "God, I don't just want your blessing. I want you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:15
You are the blessing." God looked to and fro across everywhere on the land to look for one that was righteous. Jesus said, "There's only one that's good, and one is righteous, and it's God.
For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." And the reality is there is no one righteous. And to long and hunger for righteousness is to long and hunger for him. Over you. It's a hunger that shows up in a secret place where no one is watching.
It's a thirst that drives you to your knees, not to the spotlight.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:03
And Jesus says, "Those who hunger and thirst like that, these people will be filled, not with applause, not with success. They will be filled with God himself."
Because righteousness is not a trophy for the perfect. It is an appetite for the pure.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:24
And those who crave it find their satisfaction not in being celebrated but in being changed.
When God desires to make a man powerful, he does not parade him. He purifies him. He does not decorate him. He deconstructs him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:43
He does not inflate his image. He transforms his inner life.
The biatitudes are not a how-to guide for climbing up to God. They are a fingerprint of what happens when God comes to you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:56
He blesses the ones the world calls broken.
He comforts the ones the world overlooks. He crowns the ones who bow.
Do not despise the breaking. The breaking is where the blessing begins.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:23
Because when the kingdom gets in you, the mourning leads to comfort. The meekness leads to inheritance and the hunger leads to fullness.
When the kingdom gets in you, everything changes. The world may not understand it, but heaven calls it blessed.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:41
Heaven calls it blessed.
36:16
34:03
40:58
43:06
38:28
36:29
53:31
46:21
50:56
50:14
50:59
50:16
50:33
1:01:14
55:11
58:45
48:40
53:36
50:01
48:24
46:58
53:46
48:09
47:47
48:22
48:05
49:51
44:16
43:00
36:15
31:13
52:55
50:14
58:33
49:41
46:19
44:54
43:02
38:08
30:23Now playing
45:14
45:45
44:48
38:14
45:30
43:08
26:04
47:18
37:25
30:49
43:11
47:01
40:41
44:50
33:29
53:32