Pete McKenzie 0:00
Are you in despair? Are you depressed? Are you grieving? Come to me. And he made himself the answer. No, it’s an amazing kind of bliss. It’s an amazing kind of blessing. Because it ends in him. And if you don’t find the blessing ending in him is just a temporary blessing. But the peace that surpasses all comprehension is eternal. It never ends. It doesn’t matter what comes in or what goes out of your life, you still have that peace. Now, there are three ways we could take this morning, actually, one is you could take it literally like the man who’s endured the most bitter sorrow, the greatest loss, there are certain things that can only be learned when your heart is broken. It’s the same thing that I’ve shared with you guys on many occasions about sitting on the bench and having a hard time because the guy in front of me, I thought I was better than him and all that. And God taught me through that whole thing that there were some things I could only learn on the bench I couldn’t learn in the game. I’ve been in the game, I’d been an all star had been all that stuff I played every night in the lineup. But he put me on the bench. It was kind of like when we go into Eastern Europe, and I was going God, why am I going to Eastern Europe? I can’t speak at retreats. I can’t teach couples classes. I can’t counsel guys, I have to teach or train to interpreters and translators. Why am I going to? I can’t use my gifts, why am I going to Romanian, Hungary and all these places? And God says, What if I don’t need your gifts? Yes, I never thought that I could do not need my gifts. And God said, there’s something you’re going to learn over there that you can’t learn here do exercise in all your gifts. So a broken heart is a certain kind of bliss and a certain kind of comfort. And it leads you to that. When we’re out of the game, and on the bench, we find that our bitter sorrow teaches us the greatest lessons. That necessarily it can, in sorrow can do two things. two things. One, it can show you the kindness and compassion of your fellow man. Because when we’re down and out and a brother comes along and helps us, helps us in counseling helps us in find our way helps us in financially helps us in different ways. And a lot of times that’s where people have found their lifeblood, they found hope. Because they had people around them. And that’s what the church is about had people around them The reason we have benevolent funds, some reason we have scholarships, that’s the reason we have different things that help guys when they’re down and out and they desperately need it can also show you the compassion of God. And the comfort and compassion of pm when you’re totally empty and you have nowhere else to turn. In a turn to Him you find there’s where the peace was all along. There’s where that help was there’s where the strength was, and where the hope was. So there are some things that sorrow can do. But you know, when things are really going well, and there’s no pain, there’s no sorrow, you’re on the top of your game. The finances are there, the family’s in good shape. You could just live that way for years. But you’re not learning anything. And I would Don’t you wish and I wish I wish we could learn those lessons that we can only learn through sorrow and pain and grief. I wish we could learn those in a classroom. We just read a book. But you can know a lot about it, but you’re not going to know the depth of it until you go through it. Now Life is full of problems and trials. Jesus said that marriage is full of problems. Paul said that you guys wish you were like me and he was single at the time evidently. He says I’m single. But if you get if you got to get married, it’s better to marry than burn. But if you marry you’re going to have trouble. Can I get an amen from the congregation? Jesus said it too. He said in this world you will have tribulation but it didn’t leave us there he said But take heart. I have overcome the world. The world doesn’t have to head us you like my dog does his rag doll shakes it and everything. I’m finding cotton all over the floor now is shaking the cotton out of it. And that’s what the world does to us. It grabs us by the nape of the neck and just shakes us like a dog shaking a rabbit. He’s got that in it has no compassion in that regard. The thing that’s important about sorrow,
and I had my four m group meet, we met for dinner last night. And every one of us are going through something. one guy’s got a disappointment because he had a job. It was his, he didn’t feel qualified. And he told the guy, that one that hiring, he said, You’re the man that for the job, you’re the guy we want. He had been looking for work, and he had had enough money in the bank to keep them going. But now he was going to get this job. He’s going to be the CEO of this new startup. And then right at the last minute, they just pulled the rug right out from under him. And they shared some of his job description that he told him that he had no experience in that. And they said, Well, that’s what you’re going to be doing. And what about the money and funding? And they said, Well, you were looking to you to do that. And, well, how much are you putting in? Well, we’re not putting in anything we’re looking to you. And so basically, that didn’t work. And he’s neither know what he’s doing and didn’t know what God’s doing that and so we had a great time to talk and encourage each other last night. another guy’s going through a marriage crisis. I’ve got things going on with my brother, I just found out that my brother in Alabama has prostate cancer so bad that it metastasized to his femur and was causing great pain, it metastasized to his lungs into his ribs. So I’ve probably hidden back there in the next week or two and seeing what’s going on and seeing how he’s doing. The point is, everybody’s got something, and it just keeps coming. This out of heaven, we’re gonna have tribulation, there’s going to be trials, there’s going to be sickness, illness, desperate times. But the Lord says bless it to you when you mourn. There’s another thing it could mean, it could mean that you’re desperately sorry for the suffering in the world. When you see someone that’s down and out or hurting or in desperate straits, and you have compassion for them, and you look at some around the world, and you know how you can look in any direction, and then you’ll run into that in our country. Right now, people are in desperate straits. They’re seeing everything that’s good, become evil and evil become good. They’re seeing a world turned upside down. They’re saying lunacy. And what’s the thinking of people, and we could name all the issues that are going on there. But I don’t need to you know what’s going on. And so they’re getting desperate. Kids are starting to commit suicide, their own social media, and they’re not measuring up and they’re doing desperate things on there. And they’re been locked down and not around their friends and getting depressed and it’s just a mess. But if you’re feel compassion for people, and you take action to help and relieve the pain, that’s mercy, and compassion. That’s another way you could look at morning. But the really the main thought, looking at lesser the poor in spirit and what Jesus is talking about here, as he’s talking about blesser that is a man who’s desperately sorry for his own sin and his own unworthiness. He’s come to this place in his life where he realizes that he’s a sinner, that he misses the mark, that he’s can’t live up to all the vows that he made, like Peter did, Lord, I’ll go to jail for you. I’ll die for you really, Peter. And Peter had to come to the place and he did after he denied Jesus at third time when that little girl came up to and said onto one of his seminars saying you with him? And he cursed and he said, No. And then about that time, the rooster crowed, and Jesus locked eyes with him, he is being led out of where they have been slapping him around. In his eyes caught Peters eyes. And I got a feeling Peter broke even more than he would have because he saw the grace and compassion in Jesus’s eyes. He didn’t say that look, that said, I knew you wouldn’t stand up for me. I knew you wouldn’t be faithful and loyal. He didn’t say that. look into his eyes. And if you’ve ever looked in Jesus’s eyes, you’ve never seen it either. You may have the kind of Jesus It was like your dad or your drill sergeant or your coach, or your wife. And you seen that look before you get the look. Have you ever gotten the look? Do like that if you’re married. Look, it says I could you do that. That’s a stupid thing to do. You did it again. I knew you. I knew you wouldn’t be there when I needed you. I knew you wouldn’t come through. I knew you’d forget. And that’s what’s kind of Things that we do we forget and don’t come through and don’t show up.
Not on purpose, not cause we need to because we didn’t do it on purpose. As we weren’t making sure that we did. Maybe not important enough. You know, we taught our kids when they were growing up, you know, let me tell you how you know, you have the wrong friends, if they have no fear of future consequences for present actions, and that’s wrong friend, they’re doing stupid things. And they’re not concerned about the consequences of those things. They can’t look up the road and see what happens because you’re doing those things. That’s a wrong crowd to be with. Because there are always consequences for breaking the rules. Normally, and you can say, well, that’s not a rule, and I’m not going to obey it anymore. You can say that all you want to, but you can tell, you can look at a guy and say, I don’t believe in gravity. I just don’t think it’s in vogue anymore. So you can go up on the roof and jump off and it doesn’t matter where you think it is or not, it’s gonna have its way with you. That’s the way sin is. Sin is gonna have its way with us whether we acknowledge it or not, or we’re afraid of it or not. Or we’re careful not to do it. Christianity begins with a sense of awareness of sin, bless it of the poor in spirit. Bless the man who is brokenhearted by what his sin did to God and His Son Jesus, and what it’s done to himself. I can’t repent unless I’m sorry for my sin. Jesus came Puritan and john the baptist came preaching repent, first thing out of their mouth. But if you’re not sorry for your sin, what are you repenting over? So there are a lot of people that have said, they’ve come to Christ, but there’s never been a repentance for sin. There’s never been a repentance for broken ness, and all the things that they’ve done. They found a way and maybe to justify it and rationalize it and say, well, it’s not sin. Well, everybody’s doing it. Well, it’s okay. It’s not that bad. We compare ourselves with others and say, Well, I’m a lot better than our two guys share a testimony yesterday, I asked him how it came to Christ. And he said, Well, I was looking at my brother. And I’m thinking, Man, I’m not as stupid as him, look at all the stuff he’s doing. I’m a good guy. And so there was couldn’t repent with that spirit, heart and attitude, because he was comparing himself to other centers and coming out pretty good. But God won’t let us get away with that. We look at our own sand, it may have different looks, it may have different habits, it may have different experiences, but it’s still sin. And until I understand that I’m a sinner that I fall short of the mark. And one of the tip offs to me that I was a sinner is I felt guilty and ashamed all the time, because I couldn’t keep the rules. I couldn’t be a good little Southern Baptist boy. And I didn’t know how to do it. So I’d go rededicate a life and never been dedicated in the first place. And that was a more frustration. But it always helped when I’d walk the aisle and rededicate my life because it at least 24 hours, sometimes 48 hours. But then I’d be right back in the same old deal again, and then I’d have to put it off and put it off the to just as I am without one Glee and I surrender all and now the verses that they had seen till somebody came forward would do rock scissors paper at the back row to say, who’s going forward this week, so we can get this thing over with. And I lost every time. There’s a Pete McKenzie Memorial carpet in my church I grew up in I can’t be sorry for my sin unless my eyes are open to what sin is and what sin does. And you know, I was teaching on this a few years ago when I started writing on sin. And what sin does to us in what sand really is, now as this three and a half pages, and I won’t have again, stand reading them all. So I’ll read you some of them. And we’ll start when the Lord says stop, but it’s really important that we understand what sin is and what it does to us, and had the effect that has on us in the consequences of sin. And what it does to God and y’all got to do is go to the cross to see what it’s done to God and see what it did to his son. They say salvation is free, but it costs God His son and his son his life. You must be a pretty horrible thing, this sin thing.
The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the disposition of self realization, which says I am my own God. I can handle this I’m not giving up, I’m not gonna surrender. I’m not gonna give in. I’m not gonna let go, I’m going to run my ship, I’m going to Captain my ship. I want my way, my Will my thinking my wisdom. And that’s a root of pride and sin, Know yourself and know your enemy, for they could be the same. The Bible teaches at all I’ve sinned, which means that I am a sinner by nature. I have the disposition of sin since my birth, and it’s my natural DNA. Because of this, I know that there is no goodness or righteousness in me. I’m a slave to sin, and cannot find freedom in my own self effort. I cannot fix or save myself, and I’m spiritually helpless and hopeless. My sin does not make me a sinner. A sin because I am a sinner. My sin is not something I do. It’s something I am. The root of my sin is pride, and selfishness. I cannot defeat my sin by focusing on it. defeated by focusing on Jesus Christ. Jesus deals with sin and redemption. Meanwhile, my sin nature is independent from God in His outright rebellion against him as a bona fide genuine sinner. I love the darkness because my deeds are evil. The result of my sin is death in hostility to a loving God who offers me life. I am capable of committing the most awful sins and atrocities. My sinful heart and mind does not desire to submit to God. It’s all about self as a center, no matter how hard I try, I cannot earn my salvation, or get God to love me more, or accept and approve of me. He already does. Without the Spirit of Christ in me I am controlled by and kept in bondage by the devil in his demons, and our desire to do His will. The devil tempts me to sin and then accuses and shames me when I do. I ruthlessly defend my selfish control oriented right to myself. Apart from the grace of God, I am the spirit I am in spiritual darkness in my best efforts will not get me out. In my deceptive sin nature. I can be in spiritual darkness thinking I’m in the light. Left to myself because of my sin, I am set to self destruct. I know what is wrong, but cannot keep from doing it because I have no power over it. Even when I do right my sinful heart can do it with wrong motives. In the presence of God, I find that I am a man of unclean lips, living among the people of unclean lips. My sin hurts others and sometimes I care. My sin separates me from God and others because it’s all about me. My sin breaks hearts steals betrays loss covets, hates in lies. My sin deceives in cons masks, wears mask and cheats, manipulates and disrespects others. My son loves things and uses people. My sin weakens me. It makes me dysfunctional and bankrupt smart character. My sin is ruthless with others and soft on myself. My sin is materialistic, shamanistic egotistical, vengeful, angry, resentful, bitter, and Savage. And just in case I haven’t hit on something that bothers you, I’ll keep going. My sand results in making me feel guilty and ashamed. My sin makes me ineffective, impotent, feeble, frail, and fragile.
My sand makes me insecure and inadequate, fearful, isolated and lonely. My sin makes leads me to having pity parties, and feeling contempt for others and myself. My sin causes me to hide and wear a mask, which robs me of my dignity, self worth, and value. My sin robs me of spiritual authority and makes me timid and fearful rather than bold. My sin by blinds my eyes so that I cannot see it or know or do the Truth. My son rationalizes my crimes justifies my actions minimize it’s my guilt. My sin hardens my heart. It’s unloving, unforgiving, boastful, proud, arrogant, rude, rash, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, slanderous, without self control, brutal, treacherous, mean, violent, conceded and unavailable for anything but self gratification. I don’t know if he can stand anymore, but we’re going to get a little bit more my cn can focus on another Christian sin against me to the point that I now see them as a center and give myself permission to hate and reject them. My sin must protect my outward image and reputation and threaten and silence those who assaulted. The guilt of my sin causes me to flee when no one chases me. My sin makes me defensive, explain myself, make excuses and become a victim rather than taking responsibility for my mistakes and wrongdoings. My sin can lead me into every kind of sexual immorality, and perversion coming from the wickedness of selfish lustful heart that says, I love me, I want you my sin aids me and declaring that it’s okay and permissible to damage and abuse others while it’s actually offending My Holy God, I fully sin is quick to claim our rights in any demon will make sure that I get them. My sin causes me to expect much from others, but little from myself. My sin leads me to make vows and promises that I cannot and will not keep, because it doesn’t serve my selfish purposes. It’s all about me. My sin loves impurity and indecency. It worships idols practices disobedience likened to witchcraft, and sets itself up against every law, command and standard of a holy God. Sand spreads Discord.
My sin spreads Discord. And leads me Where was my sin loves impurity and indecency. It worships idols practices disobedience like into witchcraft and sets itself up against every law, command and standard of a holy God. My sin spreads discord, envy, hate division, dissension, factions and jealousy that destroys relationships and families. My sin is marked by selfish ambition, and the desire to profit at the expense of others, and to use them to get ahead. A sinful pride will not allow me to make peace by humbling myself to ask forgiveness, or make restitution. I’m tired of reading that. I don’t know if I’ve covered anything that you’re saying. But I may have touched on something. I’ll just given my own testimony, actually. But it’s everybody’s testimony. If you’re a living, breathing human being you’re dealing with these issues. And everybody has different responses. You may feel like you’re a pretty good guy, and you probably are pretty good guy, you may feel like you’re in a pretty good husband, I’m pretty good father, a pretty good grandfather, you’ve been a good employee, your employee. But sin is going to find you out the sin of selfishness and I’ll be my own God, the sin of comparing yourself to others. All the sins that we talked about in there and I think that we all need to be aware and confess that we’re capable of any sin. And if you know you’re capable of any sin, you’re not going to be too judgmental of others who sin. You’re not going to be critical or holier than thou or not feel compassion and mercy for the even the worst sinner. And that’s what Jesus Christ had to do on the cross. The worst sinner the valets, dirty, dirtiest, meanest, most cunning, merciless compassion Lois center. He died on the cross far. He died, the nail center the cross, in the blood that he shared would cleanse us from all that sin. And once we’re cleansed from that sin, and once we’ve mourned over that sin and we’ve come to the place where we’re poor in spirit, we realize we have nothing to offer God. I have no goodness, no holiness, is no righteousness of my own. I can claim some. But I can only do that when I compare myself to you. And when I compare myself to you, I’m either going to feel better than you, or worse than you. And both of them are sin. And the only thing I can compare myself to and come out with is a winner is Jesus Christ. And when I compare myself to Christ, I see how far short I fall. And I see how I need to repent. It brings me to repentance, I can look at you and I might be brought to repentance because I see in you the righteousness of Christ. And that’s why Jesus calls us to righteousness causes us to holiness. It calls us the mercy and grace and forgiveness. Because he wants us to live lives that make other people see him. He wants to conform us to his image, so that when we’re living with people, they’ll look at you and they’ll see your good, righteous living, and they’ll say, that’s what I need, whatever you got, I need. So it’s not about us being holy and righteous and attractive to others. It’s about them, seeing Christ in us, the hope of glory, the hope of solving our despair and our guilt and our shame, our depression, our moodiness. God wants to heal other people by his wounds. And he wants to heal others by our ones that have been healed by him. And so we forget about ourselves. And we think about him, we forget ourselves and we can consider others is better than ourselves. That’s what Jesus said through Paul in Philippians. have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped or held on to, but he emptied Himself, bless it to those who are poor in spirit. He took the form of a man being made in the appearance of a man he humbled himself, even to the point of death on a cross. And you know, he was comforted. Jesus took the pain, he took the lashes, he was beaten to a pop, he was criticized Milan lot about false witness is good. It was evil spoken off.
He was spit on and humiliated. He, you know, he did that all because that’s what it took to nail send the cross. And he took it on himself. We have a savior who took your sin, all the stuff we read about in about two more pages worth in here. He took it on himself on the cross. And every time I resist sin and turn to Him, He blesses and comforts me. And Jesus was comforted by his father in heaven, who gave him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. men that have come to Jesus Christ and have realized their centers and have been broken over their sins are the most worthy man, the most fortunate men, they’re the most blessed man bless it are those who realize and mourn over their sin, for they will be comforted. And the comfort comes in forgiveness, comfort comes in grace. The comfort comes when you get unmerited favor that you don’t deserve. And it’s given by someone who didn’t have to give it but that’s who he is. And he had compassion on us when he saw us in our sin and selfishness. When we were proud and arrogant, he had compassion on that. We the judgment came when in the consequences of sin, of being proud and arrogant, of being ruthless, merciless, jealous, envious, and all the things that we read about. And so he took it on the cross on himself. And he said, Paul said, I am crucified with Christ of crucified all that. He gave me the privilege and the honor of crucifying myself. I have to walk up to the cross and crawl on him and say, put the nails in my hand and the nails in my feet, to my pride, to my arrogance, to my casualness to my carnality, to my not caring to my hurting others and not feeling bad about it, to my main, falling short of the mark, when I have everything in me, they could live up to it, to judge others, to be hard on them, to be compassionate to be unforgiving. That’s all in my heart. And unless I’ve come to Jesus Christ and realize and confess to him that that’s in my heart, I have no hope. I have no hope of healthy relationships. I have no hope of helping others. I have no hope of being the man that God created me to be to take his wounds. It’s like he took them and let my people be healed by my wounds. my sorrow my brokenness, the things that I’m going through. And then I get to respond the way Christ respond and have this attitude and you think of others is more important than yourself. And that’s a comfort in the freedom that we have when we come to know Jesus Christ. He comforts us by giving us a freedom from sin, yes, I still sin. Yes, I will send until I die. It’ll all be over. When we get to heaven, we won’t have to worry about being centers anymore, being prideful or arrogant, somehow, and I can’t wait. That’ll be over. But now, while I’m still here, and I’m breathing, and I’m walking around, and I got you to deal with and you got me to deal with, then we got hope, hope that we can deal with each other and be free and comforted in that you can not misunderstand me and I can still have peace and comfort. You can rely on me and I can still have peace and comfort. You can still from me, and I can still have peace. I don’t have to be unforgiving. I don’t have to be bitter. I don’t have to be angry. I don’t have to be you can he takes a fight out of you. I had a friend the other day and we were talking he says my wife and I are at it. Again, we’re just fighting. A Sit down. Do you know that Jesus takes a fight out of you? Come you’re not spending time with him to the point where he could take the fight out of you. You don’t have to be a fighter. You don’t have to stand up for your rights. You don’t have to say everything that’s in your heart. You can repent of your heart and your heart actions and attitudes God’s given us the power and the ability to do that. So ask him to take the fight out of you. And if you don’t have fight in you, you don’t have to get in those fights all the time. And that’s the way that were comforted. We could go on and on about the comfort and I think I’m convicted now that after writing all this about sin, I gotta write about comfort. And all the way God’s comforted us, and all the way that he comes alongside of us. And he puts his arm around us even in my anger in my bitterness in me my resentment, you can imagine him coming and putting his arm around and squeezing Muay Thai,
not saying a word. But he doesn’t have to know what he’s saying. I know what I need to hear. I know what I need to do. And he does it without a word. He just comes alongside and puts an arm around you and squeezes your tie, squeeze you until that anger goes squeezed until the bitterness goes squeezed until forgiveness and mercy and grace comes. But if you’re never in his presence, if you don’t come to him and never happen, and you’re left in the consequences, you’re sad, even if you’re a Christian, even if you’re say you’re following him, and you may be saved as though through fire, the scripture says, but you’re never free. You’re never free of that bitterness and that anger and that self. And God came to set comfort us and we’re comforted when we’re set free from that. Can we do we have a great God or why? A God who took all this stuff and more that we talked about, and he put it on the cross. And he got let them nail him there voluntarily went to that cross. They couldn’t make him go the cross speeder took a sword and tried to protect him. Put up the sword Peter, he who lives by the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you know I got 10,000 angels out there with their hands on their sword ready to come defend me, keep him from spitting on me and treat me like this. And they led me to a cross. And he asked his father, is there any way that I could escape this and you could take this cup from me? And he said no son, God had a plan all along to take care of our sin, to put us in a place where we could mourn over it and be forgiven for it. And then we could help others. What a God, what a Savior we have in Jesus Christ. And if you’re saved today, don’t pat yourself on the back. It’s all the grace of God saw the mercy of God. It’s nothing you did or nothing you could do. You can’t save yourself, fix yourself, deliver yourself, redeem yourself. Only God could do that. And he’s done that in your heart today. This stop right now. And thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for giving me all the time I have in Christ. Thank you that I know I’m going to heaven. Thank God my brother is going to have an algo CMEs eaten up with cancer but he’s going to heaven. And I’ll see him there and we’ll spend eternity together. I got goosebumps, not just call this air conditioning. Because I got a God who gives me goosebumps when I think about what a great God he is and what a great eternity we have and what a wonderful life he’s given me. Amidst all the sin and all the crud. We have the abundant life that he came to give. I came there to my life and have an abundantly. Amen. Father, thank You for life that we have abundantly Thank you for taking our sin on the cross. Thank you for giving us power over it and it can’t rule us anymore because your spirit is in us and you’ve forgiven us and you’ve cleansed us. And you’ve given us power through the Holy Spirit and we’re so grateful. Thank you in Jesus name And all God’s men said give them Heaven, guys.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai