Blessed in Brokenness: The Beatitudes and God's Presence

``And one of the things that we actually see and something that I believe helps create the very basis of this entire sermon that Jesus gives is part of the blessing. I would say the biggest part of the blessing, the biggest part of God's favor is his presence. The favor of God through the presence of Jesus sitting with them on a hillside. He's not looking upon them from a distance saying, man, I hope you figure it out. He is sitting next to them on a mountainside being with them. [00:57:38] (38 seconds)  #GodsPresence

In scripture, the mountain is the place you go to get to God. Moses climbs up on the mountain to get the 10 commandments. Elijah goes up onto the mountain to hear the still sound voice of God speaking to him. In the scripture leading up to this point, you climb the mountain to be with God, to get with God, to be in his presence. You know what Jesus does here? Jesus goes up on the mountain and he sits down with you. Do you get this? He is showing us that he is the perfect in the it like, in between between us and God. He doesn't climb the mountain and say, get up here. He climbs the mountain. He invites the people around, and he sits and is with them. He is God himself, the presence of God on top of a mountain, not saying get up here and you'll be okay, but sitting down and say, I know it's not okay and I'm here. That is a picture of God [00:58:51] (58 seconds)  #JesusSitsWithUs

That Jesus says, though you experience this thing, God will meet you in another way. Though you're born spirit, the kingdom of heaven is yours. Though you mourn, you will be comforted. Though you are meek, you will inherit the earth. Though you hunger and thirst now, you will be filled. Though you are merciful, you will also be shown mercy. When you're poor in heart, you'll see God. When you're a peacemaker, you're a son of God. You're blessed when you're persecuted. There's this other dimension to it where somehow in what is broken, Jesus brings about something beautiful. [01:05:44] (34 seconds)  #BeautyFromBrokenness

And so Jesus is not the kind of teacher who stands up on a podium and says, let me tell you what I know. He is the kind of teacher, the kind of God, the kind of Lord who sits down and gets eye level with you to tell you about what the good news of Jesus means. That's a very different way of teaching. And with Jesus, teaching is not just about a transfer of information. It's about transformation. [00:48:08] (28 seconds)  #TeachingTransforms

If Jesus just wanted you to have a life hack to make your life better, he could have made a lot more money than he did on earth. If Jesus just wanted to give you a bunch of rules to follow, he could have been way more efficient in doing that. Jesus is not primarily concerned with you becoming the best rule follower in the world or with you getting a life hack that makes your life more convenient. It's about you being transformed into who you truly are. To get connected with Jesus and be transformed with Jesus is to allow him to transform our hearts to make us who we truly are. To be truly human is to be truly transformed as a son and daughter of the king. [00:48:36] (46 seconds)  #TransformationNotRules

This idea that Jesus is getting at here is he's flipping the understanding of the good life of blessing on its head. He's saying, you who are hurting and are broken and are weary and are needy, you have God's favor right now. That's one way you could interpret this word blessed. God's favor are upon those poor in spirit. God's favor and blessing are upon those who mourn. Jesus is saying, as you are right now broken and messy and hurting, God's favor is upon you. And it's not from anything you've done to earn it. It's because he loves you. [00:57:01] (37 seconds)  #BlessedInBrokenness

When he showed up some two thousand years ago, it said he showed up proclaiming the kingdom of God and that that message was that something new is happening. Something new can be birthed out of our life and out of what you're experiencing. So wherever you're from today, wherever you're coming from, I just wanna say that there's plenty of room and space for you, and that that same thing that Jesus declared all those years ago is being proclaimed today, and the kingdom of God is breaking through in our places where we feel lonely or hopeless or wherever we find ourselves. [00:11:07] (31 seconds)  #KingdomBreakingThrough

that's kind of the setting that we have here as Jesus does church on a mountainside. His church on a mountainside looks a little bit more like an emergency room that you don't want to be in. And can I just say, if that is what the crowd was when Jesus gave his best, most famous, most wonderful sermon ever, maybe it's super okay that you're here if you don't feel super good today? And maybe if you're here today and you're thinking, well, I don't want that person sitting next to me. Hate to break it to you. It's part of the Jesus program. Get comfortable being in an emergency room because that's kind of what a church is. We're a bunch of broken people coming to the great physician, Jesus. [00:44:17] (45 seconds)  #ChurchForTheBroken