This sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God and highlights the struggle of letting go of pride and arrogance. It calls for repentance individually and as a nation, acknowledging the need for God's mercy. The message focuses on the blessing of brokenness, urging listeners to be poor in spirit and mourn over their sins, seeking God's forgiveness and transformation.

Lord, I would ask that You be in this place tonight. Lord, in a powerful, anointed way. Lord, I give Your Spirit all the credit, all the glory. Lord, use this frail, arrogant man to preach Your Word tonight, Lord. Continue to break me and mold me and shape me. Lord, we know there's power in Your Word, there's power in Your name. Lord, we do repent collectively, Lord, as a body. Lord, we repent of our attitudes. Of our selfishness, Lord, and not seeking You harder. Lord, we also pray for our nation, a nation that continues to reject You and continues to reject Your law. Lord, we pray mercy on this place. Lord, I don't want to speak tonight unless You're going to infuse my words with Your Spirit, Lord. Give me power, anointing, and boldness, Lord, and deliver this message so that lives are changed tonight. Lord, addictions are broken. The prayers of Your people will be answered tonight, Lord, as we seek You in a deeper way. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. And then you can be seated. If I sound like I'm a little upset tonight, I am. With the direction of our nation and on 4th of July and celebrating, you know, just how far the nation has drifted from God. Everybody else is coming out of the closet, but Christians can't. They're trying to silence us in many different areas. And I think it's, you know, it's appropriate, of course, with 4th of July and most people not recognizing what that means. I don't really have a 4th of July message, but I want to tie something in a little bit as we're going through this. And where we're going to be at is in Matthew. If you have your Bibles, Matthew chapter 5. As most of you know, we've been going through the book of Matthew verse by verse. And I've also been highlighting certain topics that are obviously applicable to all of us today. Matthew chapter 5, and as most of you know, this is what is commonly referred to as the Beatitudes, right? Jesus is just beginning His ministry. And what the Beatitudes mean, it's actually from Jewish history. They name a situation or an action in which they declare God's blessing or favor. They exhort others to manifest this way of life to truly experience God. For those who do not, the blessing functions as a condemnation. And that's what's interesting about God's Word is you want to be blessed. I want to be blessed. But the blessings have a flip side. Do this and you'll be blessed of God. Don't do this and then the judgment falls. And it's how we've always talked about trying to find the balance of God's grace and love and mercy, but yet understanding that He is holy, He is righteous. He does not negotiate. Things are clear in His Word. There's what we call absolute truth, the absolute truth of God's Word. And I would just ask for your attention tonight. This is going to be a message that penetrates the heart. Check your cell phones. I just checked mine as well. Make sure it's off or turned down. And just give just ask. I just ask for your attention tonight, because what we're going to talk about is what is relevant to many lives tonight. How many of you want to be blessed? Of course, all of us, and that's what I want to talk about tonight is the blessing of brokenness. And that's what Jesus is talking about in chapter five. And let's just read this real quick and seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And I want to keep reading their blessed are those who are meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. What I've been saying for three years, for they shall be filled. You want to be filled with more of God? You've got to be hungry for him. Those who are hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are you when all men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were the spokesmen of God before you and they will persecute you as well. So it's this long discourse where Jesus saying, here is how a person is blessed. Blessed are those who exercise this type of character. And what I'm going to do tonight, I'm just going to hang my hat on these two points. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. So let's stop there for a minute. What is blessed? We often use that word blessed, blessed, blessed. Well, in the Greek, it's really God's favor, direction, guidance and security. What do we usually think? Bling bling. Lots of money, I'm blessed. And that can be a byproduct. But when the Bible is talking about the blessings of God, Old Testament, New Testament, it's God's favor, His direction, His guidance and His security. It's a whole package. And I often say I'd rather make under fifty thousand dollars a year for the rest of my life and be blessed of God. See, it's not really a financial state because you could be blessed of God and still, you know, you just get by each year financially because the blessing is not in the financial. It's in God. I mean, let's we talked about this before the washer and dryer lasts a lot longer. The car goes another hundred thousand miles. Lawsuits are avoided. The house isn't breaking down. The air conditioning is is working. I mean, everything that the blessings of God. So it's not just financial, because I know a lot of rich people who are miserable. So what happened there? Because the hope is not in the dollar, it's in God. So we have to think we think of blessings, what we have to get the right perspective, health, vitality. We live in a very blessed nation. We should be thankful for these things. That's the blessings of God. And also on this note of blessings, blessings come from, you know, the old adage, reap what you sow. You'll reap what you sow, whatever you sow into the ground, you will reap, and that's really what blessings are, and that's what God's saying here. Whatever you put into the ground or whatever you put into your life or whatever you put into your character, those little seeds eventually produce something. So that's why blessings can work as a curse on the flip side. If we don't do these things and if I had time, I take you through Deuteronomy, where God told the children of Israel, he will set you high upon all the other nations of the earth. If you do this and do this, if you keep my statutes and my law, if you follow me, I will bless you in the city. I will bless you in the field. I will bless you here and I will bless you there. I will bless you. I bless wonderful chapter. And then you get to the other half. But if you don't do these things, these things shall follow. And it's it's ironic to me because some people hear that and they say, well, God's just some mean, you know, no, you do this. I'm going to he all he does. He puts it out there, man, free will choice. Here's these blessings. But if you don't do this, here's the result. Choose life that you may live. It's always about choices and what God has given us to choose. He says he lays it out here. Choose life that you shall live. Because I do not wish that any should perish. So sometimes we forget we think it's God, but really it's us. Why is God doing this? God is such this God is a mean I can't believe he would do this. I've talked to this talk to atheists before, agnostics, and I've shared this before. And they just think God's an angry God. Really, they're angry. They're angry at God, because how could this how could this it's your choice. See, when God puts absolutes in motion, he cannot change. He cannot lie, he cannot say, oh, I better I must reconsider its emotion, it's in play. The absolutes of God's word, the absolute, it's like guardrails that help guide us through the canyons of life. So when he puts those in place, it's our responsibility to choose and choose wisely to receive the blessing. That's why Jesus says, blessed is he who does this. Blessed is he who does that. It's based on our actions. But here's what happens. We often justify wrong behavior saying God is blessing me. We get people who start to get more wealth in, hey, God just blessed me, brother, not necessarily. The economy could be blessing you. Good marketing could be blessing you. The real estate market could be blessing you if your equity, all these things. So we can't always weigh God is blessing me. And you'll see many and you'll see churches a lot of times, big churches, a lot of them on TV. They always say, well, God is blessing me. When you challenge their financial records, when you say, why is this? Why are you doing this? Well, God is blessing me, brother. God is blessing me. But no, he's he's calling you to character, godly character, first and foremost. Godly character can't be erased by God is blessing me because there's prosperity. The wicked prosper. The wicked prosper, Jeremiah would say, why does the wicked prosper? The prophets were right. Lord, why does the the the wicked prosper? Habakkuk, why do they prosper? That's why God would say, though the visionary wait for it, for in the end it shall speak and not lie, holding to what we know to be true. So when you think of blessings, I've had to reprogram myself, too, because when you live in a very blessed place, you begin to think, ah, God's blessing me in finances. And oh, now he's not blessing me because I'm having a hard month and my bills. No, that's not necessarily the blessing of God. It could be a good job. Now, does God give us financial blessings? Absolutely, of course. But your hope isn't in that your trust isn't in that your focus isn't in that. That's why Paul says, I've learned how to a base in much and in little, I've learned to function with a lot of things and with a little to be high and to be low, to be brought up and elevated and to be slammed and humbled. I've learned how to be content in all things. And he told the church in Philippi, that's true. Peace is being content with all things and all things. And a lot of times you'll go through, you'll be on the mountaintop and you'll go through the valley to test the heart. My heart does not look pretty in the valley. Looks really good on the mountaintop. Why does he do that to show us what's in our hearts? So don't get on that financial roller coaster of God's blessing me now, he's not my finances now, he's not the blessings of God have some to do with finances, but mainly a lot to do with keeping your life together. Security, everything I just read their direction favor. I mean, imagine no direction in life without God just kind of getting up and just while hoping I turn the right way when I go to work and hoping I make the right decision and hoping God he's just it's what deism believes. It's like God just winds up this big clock called Earth and lets it go. Can you imagine that? So the blessings of God are on the life of a believer who has given their life to God to bless him. Number one on this point, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the poor in spirit. Now, this is an ironic statement because Jesus saying blessed is the poor in spirit. But then throughout the Old Testament, God will say you are poor in spirit. And then even in the church in Revelation that we quote off in the lukewarm church says you are you say you're rich, but you are poor in spirit. So what's going on here? Jesus is saying blessed are the poor in spirit. Sounds like everybody's poor in spirit, right? Well, let me clarify this for you. We are all poor in spirit, meaning we are impoverished. The difference, what tilts the scale is, do you recognize it or do you not? We're all impoverished, we're all poor in spirit. What Jesus is saying here, blessed is the poor in spirit. They acknowledge their poverty, they acknowledge I am impoverished without God. I am poor in spirit. I need him. Other people are poor in spirit, but they're just acting like they're not. That's where pride comes in. That's why that's so dangerous. And this goes against this whole concept of being poor in spirit. Humble goes countercultural. You know what that means? Our culture is going this direction. And God's word is going this direction. Countercultural. Everything, when you stand for God's word, you will be countercultural. In our culture, pride is an asset and humility is a liability. Trust me, when I was in the corporate America, pride was an asset. A proud man, a proud, bold, proud man, he was an asset. Not some humble meat guy. That's a liability to your company. So this whole concept of being broken before the Lord and being poor in spirit goes against our culture. Everything does. So I often tell young adults, especially if you're going with the flow of the world, you might want to do a heart examination. If there's no distinction, there's no difference. If we look just like the world, the church isn't called to look just like the world. The church is called to come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord. We're not called to watch the same things, hang out with the same people, use the same language, everything, everything. We look just like the world. We actually go countercultural. You have a devotional time, read the Bible, that's weird, that's countercultural. I don't want to watch a lot of that junk on Hollywood produced by Hollywood on TV because it messes up my mind. That's countercultural. I don't want to spend four hours on Facebook a day and waste all this time. That's countercultural. We live by this standard. We can say that marriage is between a man and a woman as God designed it. That's countercultural. Not only is that countercultural, that might be illegal someday because the Supreme Court has now taken upon themselves to be a law body, not a definer of the Constitution. God-given rights, given by God, not man. So anytime you go against God's standard, you are going with the flow of the culture, and that's a very dangerous thing. That's why Paul would say often, come out from among them and be separate to the church. He would even, he's quoting the Old Testament where God would say, my people, come out from among them and be separate. What happens is they went in a camp right next to the Babylonians. Guess what they picked up? The Babylonian practices. They camped right next to the Assyrians, all those different groups, and they picked up those practices. They were being led astray. Remember a year ago I talked about the doctrine of Balaam in Numbers 22, where the king hired Balak to go and curse the children, or Balak hired Balaam to go and curse the children of Israel. He kept trying to curse them. They stood over a big mountain. They see this big sea of people. And he said, I will pay you to curse them. And he kept trying to curse them, but he couldn't. He couldn't curse the people. So he told the king, he said, look, there's nothing I can do. I cannot curse what God has blessed. I can't. But then he said, I'll tell you what you can do. Get them to follow after the ways of those people. Sexual immorality and idolatry, and they'll curse themselves. It's called the doctrine of Balaam that some theologians use. You cannot curse what God has blessed unless you take the blessed people out of the blessed place. That's why I promote sanctity of marriage so often. I promote that your home should be a holy sanctuary, not a breeding ground for Satan. I don't just say this because I'm some mean preacher that's angry. I say it because your spiritual life is on the line. That's the difference. You cannot curse what God has blessed unless you remove the blessed people from the blessed place. So we allow all these things into our home when our home should be a holy sanctuary, a place to raise our children for a healthy marriage to thrive. But instead, it's a breeding ground for Satan a lot of times by what we're allowing in that home. So that's just a whole side note. It's nothing in my notes. I just hope that's relevant to somebody. But the doctrine of Balaam fits in perfectly with this because you cannot curse what God has blessed. If you are Christian, God is blessing you. You know, no witch can come and I've heard that, you know, put a hex on this church and which I don't care if you can get the voodoo doctor, make a little doll of Shane and start pinching me with it. It's not going to matter because I greater is he that's in me. That's he that's in the world. You have a false dead religion that's dying and dead. I have the living God, the living God watching and blessing my life, filled with the spirit of God. See, he cannot do anything to me unless I remove myself from that safety and protection. Get away from accountability, get hooked to porn, get hooked to addictions, get hooked to pride. I can do this. And then he draws me away. You see how the blessings work, the blessings that I'd say under the fountain, I want to stay under the fountain, but you remove yourself from that. And that's when the enemy, you open yourself up. That's where he'll come in against marriages, he'll see that little crack in the armor, those arguments that were once little arguments. Now they're big arguments and bitterness is there. Why did I ever marry you? And I want a divorce and I hate you. I don't love you. All these little things that nobody wants to talk about, but they're out there. What happened? What happened? We loved each other. What happened? You get out of that blessed place of thankfulness and loving and humbling yourself and saying, I'm wrong, I repent of these things. So you remove yourself from the blessing and protection of God. I mean, I could stay here. How long? How late do you guys have till midnight? And we could go over how how you can remove yourself from the protection and safety of God. He's that's even why I have a concern for our nation, what it was built upon its precepts, its principles, the founders, the judicial system, everything not not perfect. We have many, many blemishes on our on our face for sure. But they wanted to honor God and to see his word reign. And now the very thing that the nation was built upon is being removed. Does that have consequences? Time will tell. Time will tell on this point of blessed are the poor in spirit and arrogance cannot be blessed. Let me say that again. Arrogance cannot be blessed. Guys, this is a message for the church. Every we start thinking, oh, yeah, yeah, you tell him, Shane, about the Supreme Court, you start you start telling about the nation. No, it's judgment is going to start in the house of God, not Hollywood. Read it. Judgment is going to start in the house of God. He's coming for a pure bride. He's coming for a holy people. It's set apart for him. Judgment starts in the house of God. So one of my big beefs right now in this whole thing with, you know, because I'm because I'm going to a four day convention next week on we've got an alliance defense fund and many guest speakers and the direction of the church. Oh, how's the church going to handle this? And you've got to change your bylaws and you've got to do none. There are no tax exempt status is being challenged. There's so much stuff coming down the pipe that you guys don't even have any idea. Legislation is trying to silence the church that I can make everyone depressed in this room if I had an hour to go over what they're trying to pass. You know, the governor of California just signed it. Now, if a little eight year old feels like he's a girl today, he can he can just go walk into the girl's bathroom. What? Yeah, legislation, go online, check it out. Because the silent majority doesn't want to say anything. They want me to do all the work saying, can you tell him and then we go and nothing changes, we look just like the world go online. Jerry Brown just signed last week, a little 10 year old boy feels like a girl. So we don't offend him. He can now use the girl's restroom, the locker room. We don't want to offend them. Talk about opening yourself up to lawsuits. Unbelievable. It's a nation that's lost her moral compass. She's lost the direction that what she's lost is the fear of God. When you take away the fear of God, perversion enters in and all kinds of evil. So as much as we want to get upset at the government, we have to take a lot of this responsibility on our own shoulders. Arrogance cannot be blessed. And there is a lot of arrogance in the church today. Oh, it's quiet on that point. I can get upset, the Supreme Court and everybody saying hallelujah. But when we talk about this point of arrogance in the church, I'm right, you're wrong. I know better. You don't. We debate over all these little non-essential theological issues and we divide and we get arrogant, we get proud, we jockey for position night. My parking spot's still not there. Somebody didn't say hi to me in the front row. This is they gave me an attitude. There's so much arrogance in the church. And the difference is I put down this, the irony is that arrogance resides in all of us, does it not? Arrogance resides in all of us. The difference is those who are poor in spirit recognize it and repent of it, say, Lord, I hate this in me. Would you take it out? I'm not better than that person. I'm not more spiritual or take this out, give me a more loving, merciful attitude. Lord, would you make me more like your son? Humble me right now. Lord, I don't need to win this argument. I need to love this person. I don't need to tell them off. I need to understand what they're going through. Lord, give me that humility. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Do you know that half of your arguments cease when you're poor in spirit? You don't go through a lot of challenges at work when you're poor in spirit. Why? Because now I'm a servant. Now I'm a servant following my Christ, my Savior. He's king. I'm going to follow him and do what he tells me to do. Most of our issues come from, right, butting heads, emailing back this and that. What's the famous saying now that I was looking for? Oh, drama. There's always drama. There's people thrive off drama. They love drama in their life. They have to have drama in their life. They have arrogance is what it is. All these little backbiting and bickering in the church should be the most loving, welcoming place for people. Yet yet on the other side, we hold tight to the word of God. And that's why I often like to clarify in this point, when we do talk about this issue that's coming down with gay marriage, we talk to those who struggle with this quite often, probably more than you think. And we know people, we run into people and we I'm a sinner just like you. What's the difference? The difference is what Christ has done for me. If it wasn't for the shed blood of Jesus Christ, there go I. I don't struggle with that issue. I have plenty of my other ones that deal with it come up after me. So see, we can love these people, we love the people that struggle because we all do. So we're after not that we're after an agenda that's trying to come against children and come against the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. And people just by saying this, I'm going to get emails as soon as this hits YouTube. People say, oh, you shouldn't be political. You shouldn't say anything. You should say nothing. Really, what if you want a person to Christ? Never. It's been 10 years you haven't talked about Jesus on the job site, yet you have the audacity to tell me not to be political. Oh, I'm calling you on the carpet tonight. Not you guys, the video people. I always get them. Oh, you think you'll make a difference? You think the church should shut its mouth? The church, the separation of church and say we shouldn't say anything, really? I mean, we shouldn't be a political movement and we're voting, you know, but we should be a spiritual influence in all areas of life. Let's go change Hollywood. Let's go change the porn industry. Let's go change this. Let's go change this. But don't touch legislation. I don't know how we change the porn industry. You kind of got to just eliminate that one. But you know I'm saying, right? We were called to be salt and light in all areas, but not this one, not this one. It's funny, throughout the entire Old Testament, people were very concerned about the direction of a nation. But now we pop into the New Testament. Oh, now we don't talk about those things. What's the difference? What happened there? Just just just points to ponder. Poor in spirit is this poor, impoverished. I need him. I need God. It's a very healthy statement. And the more men I speak to, the more I realize this, they have a very difficult time of saying this. Even right now, I see the majority of women saying this, yes, yes, I'm impoverished, I need God, most of the men aren't saying this. Because why it's hard, I don't need God, I'm the captain of my own ship. I do it. Well, I know I need him. I'm a Christian. Come on. But do I mean, come on, I can fix things. I'm going to, you know, no, you need him. Now it's poor in spirit, impoverished to be impoverished and want more of God. And let me make a statement that I hope everybody remembers when they leave here tonight. You'll get as much as of God as you want. That's what if you ever recognize that some people are filled with the spirit of God, been a Christian five, six years, and there's a Christian been a Christian 20 years. He's just as or she's just as rigid and arrogant as they come. What's the difference? What's what's the difference? It's clearly not right. The heart. It's clearly not how many how many years they've been a Christian because I've run into people. I've been a Christian since I was a last 60 years. Well, where's the Christ of the Bible in you? Where's it? Where's it at? Where where's this heart of passion, this heart of now, you know, Jesus's words better when he said, return to your first love. You have sound doctrine, you have great works, you've got everything nailed down. But you've lost your first love. How powerful is this point? It's so powerful that Jesus says, unless you return to me and do the work you used to do with the right heart, I will remove your lampstand. I'll remove your influence, church, same same call goes out to Christians today, return to me, return to your first love. Stop bickering and complaining and fighting, God says, I hate that, I hate that modern day Pharisee is. Break and repent and turn to me. Let me just read that again, I want your full attention on this one, Jesus is speaking to us, to the church, to the angel of the Church of Latter-day See, he writes, these are the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm about to spit, which is a literal translation is I'm about to vomit you out of my mouth. But you say, wait, I am rich, I've acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Jesus said that you guys should read your Bible, this guy's bold. I mean, this little Jesus, turn the other cheek, love your neighbor, just sit kumbaya and make, cook fish over a forest fire or a campfire. I mean, this guy, not a forest fire, a campfire, this guy, this guy's bold. I mean, our Savior, our shepherd was a bold shepherd. He would leave and go look for the one among the ninety-nine, among the hundred. He would find him, he would look, he would shelter, he would hold, he would guide. But at the end of the day, he was also a bold, authoritative preacher that would call people back. The church, look at this church, oh, but we don't need anything, he said, look at your wretched, your pitiful, your poor, your blind, your naked. How many of that, how many of that, that how many would apply or how would this a verse apply to many today in America in the church? He's calling the church out and there's I mean, we could spend 20 minutes here on hot or cold, lukewarm. But when Jesus says, I wish you were one or the other, hot or cold, that tells me that they might be two good things. Hot in Laodicea, they had this hot springs coming out of the city. You can research this hot springs, very good water they can use for hot. You ever had lukewarm tea, lukewarm coffee? Not good. So the hot was good. The cold springs, the cold, refreshing coming out there of Laodicea, that cold springs that they could use, cold water was good. But if you if you mix that, that lukewarm tepid spit you out of my mouth taste, that's what Jesus is saying. Listen, you've lost your hotness, you've lost your coldness, cold being a good thing, you're refreshing, you're vibrant, you're broken, it's your humility, you've lost that you've lost that passion, that fire for God, you've lost all of that. And somehow it's become lukewarm. So Jesus says, I have to vomit you out of my mouth. It is appalling to me. You come in and you name the name of Christ, you've got a little sign on the back of your car, you've got something on your computer, but you're not living a vibrant, spirit filled life. You're lukewarm. I have to vomit you out of my mouth. And then he goes on to say, I counsel you. I counsel you to buy for me gold refined in the fire, which is to melt away the pride in the sin so you can become rich and white close to where so you can cover your shameful nakedness. To those whom I love, I rebuke and I discipline. Wow. Jesus says those I love, I do rebuke and I do discipline. How does he do that? One way he does that is by what I'm doing right now. Because some are saying, amen, some are saying, oh, this guy's got my number. He's nailing me tonight and I'm not God is using his word after it breaks me, then it breaks you. That's how he rebukes and he gets us back the power in the word of God. That's why I am so happy that he called me to do this. I couldn't think of anything better than to preach the powerful, life changing message of his word. I believe that from from every soul of my being, how that life changing work can go in a crush and change. I've seen it so many times I could write a book on it, on how that work if we allow it to. But see, that's the difference. Some right now are saying, God, I need to hear this tonight. I'm going to worship him during worship like never before. Some things are going to change. Others right now are saying, who's this guy think he is? He's going to ruin my life. Where's all my fun at? Where's all my fun at? I don't like what he's saying. That's not me. That couldn't be me. I don't have to say it. I just read it. Jesus will convict. And if it's convicting and it's sharpening and it's cutting, there's something to it. But Jesus says, those whom I love and rebuke and I discipline, so be earnest and repent. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. A lot of times we hear this verse at crusades, right? Jesus stands at the door and knock if you open up your heart and those kind of things. Contextually, this verse is not dealing with unbelievers. I stand at the door and knock. He's talking to the church. He's talking to Christians. Open the door of your heart. Open the door of that. That soften that heart. Be poor in spirit. Let me come in. He says here. Open the door, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. What do you mean, Shane? I will come in to eat the fellowship. That relationship is what he's talking about. Could this be applied to believe unbelievers? For sure, if if you hear that conviction, that calling and that and you and you repent and you confess Christ as Lord and he will come in and fellowship with you. That's why this is so ironic, is because many people now, you know, you can say, amen, I've experienced that. But those who have never experienced that can't relate. So they're outside of this going, oh, man, that's convicting. I need God, but I haven't experienced that. Well, you don't experience God until you get in right relationship with him. The right relationship starts by the repentance and the brokenness. That's why I call this the blessing of brokenness, because from that brokenness comes the blessings of God, because now you're in a position to receive. That's all brokenness does. If I may be a little illustrative here, you're now I'm in a position to receive. Thank you, Lord. Now I'm broken and humble. Now I can receive from you. Would you give me everything? I'm humbling myself. What is the other stance? You can't receive anything. I'm not broken and humble. You can't receive the blessings of God. You've got your back turned towards God. That's the difference, that brokenness. And I've preached on this for the last 10 years from when God called me. This is nothing new. You've heard me preach on this theme more than anything else. Why? I've been spilling my heart out on this topic because any great move of God, any great awakening in your own personal life, any great transformation happens only when you come to the end of yourself and that poverty, that spiritual poverty happens. That's it. We pray for Lord, pray for revival. He's saying revive your own heart first. There's a lot of people praying for revival that needed themselves first. That's where it comes from, the broken heart. You will never truly know him unless you realize your need for him. I'm going to say that again. You will never truly know God until you realize your need for him. Think about that, not only for the Christian, but an unbeliever until they realize. Why do you think we preach sin so often? Or we should sin, the condemnation of God, the judgment of God, Romans one, that God loves us so much that he sent his son to be the propitiation, the take on the wrath of God for us. Why? Why do we spend so much time doing that? Because you never truly you will never truly know him unless you realize your need for him. And that's one of my big beasts with a lot of the TV guys. They never think you never hear about your need for a savior. Come to Jesus and drive them bands and give money. And God just wants to bless you. And you're you know, your father owns a thousand cattle on a thousand hill and you're the head, not the tail. And you're above and not beneath. And you'll be blessed and you'll be this and all this is great, great, great, great, great. But we never see a need for a savior. So you got to preach both. God will bless you. You're the head, not the tail. You're above and not beneath. You're the king's kid. You're all these things. Wonderful. But how do you get there? Oh, there's a word called repentance. We can't forget about that person. But Shane, as soon as I mentioned that the TV is going to click, click, click, click, click. Millions of viewers are going to stop watching me. I don't care. Your call is to God, not to man. That's the difference. They need to hear the life changing message of the gospel. Think about that. You will never know him unless you realize your need for him. So that's why I stress so much this topic. Why do we need him? How do we need him and which ways do we need him? How did we fall? How can that relationship be restored? What did Christ do and how did he do it and why did he do it? Why do we spend so much time with that? So the light goes off and goes, oh, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I see my need for him. So I'm turning to him. Paul did it. Jesus did it. He said, you're wretched, you're poor, you're blind, you're naked. Turn to me, turn back to me. And that's what is the benefit of this, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What does he mean by that? Heaven's atmosphere here on earth. And eternally with God. So blessed are the broken, blessed are the poor in spirit. You'll be filled with the spirit of God, God's kingdom here on earth in your living within you. And also eternity, spending eternity with God, having that character and having that heart after God. Now, on that note. I've been praying all day whether I should do this or not. Fourth of July morning during my reading, I was on Jeremiah in Jeremiah, and I just reread chapter five, probably a dozen times. It just began just just just pouring over. It just ministered so much to my own heart. And usually when that happens, God's wanting me to say something on this like, Lord, my sermon is already done. You break, you know, just feeling the burden of this and filling with Fourth of July. We're talking about pride right now and brokenness. We're talking about all these things. But I want you to we talked individually. Let's look at what God was saying to his people back then. I'll just read this. I bought the brought the big Bible from home so I can see it a little bit better. Jeremiah five, run to and fro. And you know what? It's going to take a little bit of time to read this, but I think we need to read God's word a little bit more. So you cannot go wrong reading God's word and allowing him to say, Lord, what do you want to say to me? So let's just take a minute. I want you to hear hear this. God says through the voice of Jeremiah, run to and fro throughout the streets of Jerusalem. See now and know and seek in her open places. If you can find a man, is there anyone who executes judgment, a man of integrity who seeks the truth? I will pardon her. So God is getting ready to judge Israel, Judah, mainly Jeremiah was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. By this time, Israel, the northern kingdom and Judah had split up. They had succumbed to 50 years of financial prosperity and idolatry. And it resembles, quite frankly, what we're seeing today in America. They become so blessed of God that they're actually turning from him. How ironic is that? So God sends Jeremiah to deliver a difficult message. God says, just show me some people of truth. Show me some people seeking me, some men, women of integrity. Show me and I will pardon the nation. Now, that's one redeeming thing that I often think about for us and those who are concerned with the direction of our nation is that there are many people praying and petitioning and fasting for our country. And like Nehemiah, why should I not be sad when the place of my father's tombs lies in waste? And that's happening today. So there are people contending even now for us. But then the people say, though they say, as the Lord lives, surely they swear falsely. In other words, the people are saying, sure, as the Lord lives, we can find people like that around here. Absolutely. And they're lying. There is no people like that left here. Oh, Lord, you are not are not your eyes on the truth. You have stricken them. He has stricken his own people, but they have not grieved. He has consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock. They have refused to return. So you're saying, wait a minute, God uses calamity to turn his people back. Yeah, sometimes. Do you want calamity to turn back or you want to spend eternity in hell? Sheol, Gehenna, outer darkness, weeping, gnashing of teeth for eternity. That does not sound very good. So, God, sometimes we use calamity. Now I'm talking about subjects people don't want to hear, but we need to hear it. God, we use this. Think about that, think about how we're so fractured right now. I remember just seeing a video the other day of some terrorist organization. They're speaking Aramaic and he's saying that we can just get four pounds of maybe somebody saw four pounds of anthrax through the borders. We could wipe out 250,000 Americans. We don't even need planes anymore. And we're just sitting around, I don't care. Look at this new movie coming out and we're just we're speechless. Christians are just they're just they're just I don't know what else to say. We've lost our zeal. The enemy's coming. He's here. Wake up. The only protection is gone. God sent warnings to his people. Why can't we do it now? Do you know why we can't? It's not popular. It's not fun. It's not cozy. It's not a feel good message. Jane, I don't want to leave here feeling like this. Well, let's continue to read. They have refused to return to God. Therefore, I said, surely these are poor. See, they're poor in spirit, but not the right way because they don't acknowledge it. They are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. I will go to the great men and speak to them, for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. But even these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Therefore, a lion from the forest shall slay them. A wolf of the deserts will destroy them. A leopard will watch over the cities. And God often used animals, beasts of the field to come and bring and just bring judgment to his people. Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces because their transgressions are many. See, the result of he's not just doing it to do it. Their transgressions are many. They are giving their children almost to the God of Molech, burning their children on these hot flames of Molech, worshiping these other gods. God's saying, because you've transgressed from me, you leave me no other option. You leave me no other option but to bring calamity to you. Why? To turn you back to me. The wake up call. And what's he go on to say? Because their transgressions are many, their backslidings have increased. And that's a sure sign of pride. Regression is a sign of pride. Anytime somebody begins to regress from God, backslide, turn from God, pride is at the forefront. Sure, not humility. It's sure not humility and meeting God, it's pride, it's pride driving us, driving us away from God. And that's what happens. The pride of your heart has deceived you. He says that often to his people, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah. All these guys are saying the pride of your heart has deceived you. Wake up. The pride of your heart has deceived you. You see how deceptive this area is. How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those that are not even God's. When I had fed them to the full and they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. What he's saying, there's so much promiscuity, sexual promiscuity. They're just lined up at the door. The porn industry, number one billion industry, tops all sports combined. All this lust and this perversion, everybody wants to put a porn star sticker on their truck. I want to say, wake up, that's perversion. You're not cool. You're going against God. Think about we've got our young girls now think it's cool to have porn star things on their purses, stickers on their cars, as if God is going to just wink and say, oh, no big deal. He says, you lust after these evil perversions. Turn back to me, people. They're like well-fed, lusty stallions. Everyone nays at his neighbor's wife. Wow. You know what that means to see me afterwards? Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord? Think about this. We say, well, how could it? Now, a lot of people are watching these things, all these shows, wife swapping, desperate wives, the Kardashians or Kardashians or whatever, all this stuff, all this stuff. We laugh, but we watch it and we wonder why, what's going on? We're lusting after all these perversions. The lust of your heart has deceived you. It's drawn you away from God. You tell me what you watch. I'll tell you what you worship. That's just the truth, myself included. What you allow into the mind gate to influence you is what you ultimately worship. There's no way around that. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I told you I'm a little bit angry today. I'm on the warpath. The enemy is coming after too many families, coming after too many marriages. I see too many young adults ruining their lives when they know better. This lust and this perversion everywhere. You got porn on Facebook. You got soft porn on Carl's Jr. commercials, for the love of God. It's a hamburger place. You don't need somebody negligee dripping salad dressing. What? Man, my wife's going to lecture me after this sermon. That's all right. I mean, well, think about it. On one hand, we laugh. We say it's so terrible. But on the other hand, we view it. We enjoy it. What's the disconnect here, folks? If we had time, we'd go back to Romans one. He lays it all out. And at the end it says, and woe be to you who approve of such things. Not only are you rebuking those who commit them, woe be to you who approve of such things. Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord. And I don't read that as a I mean, you get angry. God fires flying out of his eye. I think it's a loving father calling his children back. Listen, I don't want to do these things. God never says he wants to do these things. See, don't confuse want to with have to. He doesn't want to, but because he set all absolute truths in motion, those absolute truths have to have repercussions. And what happens is we confuse God's patience with his approval. Oh, God's not doing anything like I've been getting away with it. Oh, don't never confuse his patience with his approval. I know a lot of people fall right back into drinking again and keep getting away with it for a while. Oh, look it, look it, look it. And then, bam. Right back into that trap again. So you have to be very careful. Go up on her walls and destroy, but do not make a complete and take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's for the for the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously with me, says the Lord is the you have to picture this. God is saying, my children who I raised, I pulled you out of Egypt. You are mine. I called you a holy nation. I provided for you. I killed Pharaoh. I killed armies. I removed all these different lands. I brought you into land flowing with milk and honey. I raised you the apple of my eye. Now, Israel, the northern kingdom, Judah, the southern kingdom have departed from God and they've come to idolatry and they're following all these things that do not honor God. And here's every time I read these things, here is what really stands out to me. They think that they are right with God. They think that they are right with him. We are God's chosen people. We are spiritual blindness. It happens all the time. Spiritual blindness that has taken over them, then they've dealt very treacherously with the Lord, for they have lied about the Lord and said it is not he. Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine. And the prophets become wind for the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them false spokesmen for God. And here's the part I love. It should be a light verse for Westside Christian Fellowship. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts to Jeremiah, because you speak this word, Jeremiah, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire and I will make this people wood and it shall devour them. When the word of God goes forth and the power of the spirit, it knocks down anybody a thousand yards away, half away across the world. They hear the word of God and they fall. And I said before, it's more precise than the sniper's rifle. It'll take a man at a thousand thousand yards and it'll take a man out in Kansas City. It'll take a man out in Florida. It'll take a man out in Europe when they hear the word of God. They're pierced by it and there devours them. It's fire. That's what it is. Is not my word like a fire that devours like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Well, how is it that it's out of that because of the vessel that God uses? That's why boldness is important in the anointing of the Holy Spirit is important, because I know I'm just up here. Oh, God, if you don't get me through this, I'm not going to make it an hour. I'm not going to make it 10 minutes. So, Lord, do what you want to do. Use this broken vessel. I'm a prideful man working on humility by the grace of God. Lord, just pour out of me what you want and tell the people. You should we get emails all the time from people being hit by the word of God. They either love it and they're turning back to God or they think I'm a narrow minded, arrogant, bigoted, right wing fundamentalist. Those are my two options. I don't have a middle ground. Why is that? Because the word of God is fire and they are like the chaff. And God says, you preach my word, Jeremiah. He says, I'm just a youth. He says, you're not a youth. Spiritually, physically, you are, but you go to who I send you and you speak what I tell you to speak. You will you be you will be used to root out and to pull down and to build up and to destroy. Jeremiah, I'm going to give you my words to say to my people. How does God communicate? He's not going to hit our nation with a big bolt of lightning. He's going to hit our nation with the word of God. That's why I wish if I if I had any other prayer answer, I'd say, Lord, put this message on TVN for the next week. Have Joel Stink cut out and have this message come on. You would see this nation break and repent. I truly believe that because everything, everything. And I don't say it arrogantly, I don't say it meanly, I say we need it. It's enough time of the feel good, best life now. Enjoy everything. At some point, the hammer of God needs to fall and say, thus saith the Lord, church, you need to return to me. Return you backsliding church so that relationship can be bridged again. I would have great hope for revival if we could get messages like this out, the pulpits of America would come back and start being beacons of light, pointing people to the truth and convicting them instead of social clubs that we see no lives being changed. And that's what Jeremiah is saying here, I will make the words in your mouth fire and this people will be wood and it shall devour them. Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar. Oh, house of Israel, says the Lord. You guys ever heard of terrorism? Well, here it is here back in. It is a mighty nation, an ancient nation, nation whose language you do not know. Why is God bringing them to judge his people? Nor can you understand what they say. Their quiver is like an open tomb and they shall eat up your harvest and take your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They shall eat your flocks and your herds. They shall eat your vines and your fig trees. They shall destroy your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword. Why? Because the arrogance of your heart has deceived you. So we must pray, God, ignite a fire in the heart of believers. Ignite this passion back to you, back to returning to you would be to God that every senator would be convicted and fall on his face before Almighty God and repent for the condition of our people. The church needs it as well. It's a wake up call for the church. God's talking to his people, not the world. We think we sometimes forget that, nevertheless, in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a complete end of you just just as you have forsaken me and serve foreign gods in your land. So show you serve aliens in the land of yours. And it just goes on and on, on who has placed the sand at the bound of the sea, who made a perpetual degree that the ocean can say here and no further. And though it's waves tossed to and fro, yet they cannot prevail. But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart. They have revolted and departed. They do not say in their heart, let us now fear our God who gives rain. But your iniquities have turned these things away and your sins have withheld good from you. It's OK to say that God says it. An astonishing and a horrible thing has been committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule by their own power and my people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end? That's the deception of pride. That's what price pride causes. So what is the only hope? The blessing of brokenness. That's the only hope, whether you're feeling convicted, whether you're feeling condemned, whether you're feeling excited because somebody finally saying what you feel in your heart, no matter what it is, the blessing of brokenness turning to God. That's that's when people ask, what's the hope for a nation? What's that? Until the nation breaks and repents and turns back to God, some people say, well, it isn't this isn't written to to America, it's more Israel. And well, regardless, the principle still applies. Paul called people to repentance. Jesus said, go and preach repentance. Hold on, Jesus even rebuked entire cities. For not repenting. Bethesda, Khorasan, if the good works that were done in you were done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago with sackcloth and ashes. But I can't do many good works here because you hardness of your heart, your arrogant heart. You see how powerful this message is, the blessing of brokenness. I don't have to pick this up next week, but I want to talk about bless are those who mourn. And that's actually a good parallel with this, because those who are poor in spirit, the good way right now to end something like this is blessed are those who mourn. And what that is, mourning follows poverty, does it not? That's when people mourn is they see their need for a savior. So I'm going to have Chelsea come up and the Barrington's and we're just going to end on this note. Hopefully I can pick it up next week. But we have as strong as this message is, we can't forget that Christ heals the broken hearted. Does he not? So even though I'm passionate about this, I have tremendous hope and tremendous peace that as we turn back to God, he's our only hope. I look at this as there's our hope, there's our redeemer, there's our savior, there's our healer. There's the person who who bridges the gap. There's our all sufficient savior. You can fill in the blank. He is everything. And that's where our hope rests in. It doesn't rest in the government. It rests in God. But you have to be blessed are those who pour in spirit, but also blessed are those who mourn. So begs the question, are you sorry and broken? That's how I want to just leave that question out there. Are you truly sorry and broken over the condition of the church and condition of your your own self that you would truly seek and turn to God? And this is also a message for those that this goes out to a lot of unbelievers on the radio and the Internet, that if you don't truly know him, if this message has been convicting, all you need to do is repent of your sin and confess Christ as Lord saying, I need that. I need exactly what he's been talking about. My part, I see that I am poor in spirit. I see that. And I want God to come in and fill me with his spirit. That's all it takes. He's just looking for one person to turn back to him. You don't have to do all these things, say all these things. You just have a humble person takes humility and brokenness to turn to him. So on that note, let's pray. Lord, I just pray during worship tonight, Lord, that your amazing grace, Lord, would just see us through. I was blind, but now I see. Lord, I pray that you begin to open eyes tonight, Lord, that the blind would see. Lord, those who are prideful and arrogant, even as Christians, Lord, that we'd be broken tonight. Lord, through this brokenness, we'd be better fathers, better husbands, better friends. Lord, that women would be better wives and better spouses and better moms. Lord, through this brokenness and constant reliance on you, Lord, we need you. Lord, I just pray for this body right now, Lord, that we would just know you in a more intimate way. Lord, we do want revival here. We want you to awaken the sleeping giant. We want your church to again proclaim the power of your word, Lord, to see the miracles and the healings and deliverance and lives being set free and captives being set free. Lord, we know that. We believe that. But unless you move, it will not happen. We just pray this in Jesus name, Amen.