Blessed In My Brokeness (Luke 6:20-23)

In a world that measures blessing by wealth, comfort, success, and popularity, Jesus offers a completely different perspective. In Luke 6, Jesus declares that the poor, the hungry, the grieving, and the persecuted are blessed—not because their circumstances are easy, but because God's Kingdom operates differently than the world.

In this message, Blessed In My Brokenness, we explore one of Jesus’ most challenging and encouraging teachings: true blessing is not determined by what you have, but by your relationship with God. Through pain, loss, weakness, and hardship, Jesus reveals that God often does His deepest work in the lives of those who have come to the end of themselves.

Whether you're walking through a season of struggle, carrying grief, searching for fulfillment, or facing opposition for your faith, this message will remind you that your brokenness is not evidence of God's absence—it may be the very place where He wants to meet you.

Join us as we discover how God's Kingdom turns the world's definition of blessing upside down and learn why our greatest need often becomes the doorway to God's greatest work.

Scripture: Luke 6:20-23

Key Takeaways:
• God often does His deepest work in people who have run out of everything except Him.
• The world can entertain your flesh, but only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
• God doesn't ignore your tears—He redeems them.
• Faithfulness to Jesus matters more than the approval of people.

Transformational Questions:

1. What if your brokenness is the very place God wants to meet you?
2. What are you feeding more—your flesh or your spirit?
3. Are you living for the approval of Heaven or the applause of people?

Transcript

0:01

You know, a lot of people ask, Pastor, why do you do this? Uh the Bible tells us to honor those who serve us well. Uh and and you know, I get up here and and yell at you every Sunday, uh, but the bulk of the work is done by our awesome staff who work very, very hard. Uh, and nothing goes on around here without our staff working hard to make sure uh that they that everything goes off without a hitch. And uh, you know, we can't thank them enough for what they do. Um a lot of times, unfortunately, the senior pastor gets most of the uh the praise and accolades, but they all deserve uh to be honored and praised so well for what they do. Amen. Amen. Yes. So we live in a world that divines blessings all wrong. You know, you see the hashtag blessed. Uh, we're blessed because we're rich, we're blessed because we're comfortable. We say it. The world says we're blessed because we're successful, or the world says we're blessed because we're popular, have a lot of followers, have a lot of like and subscribe. Blessed are the people with influence, followers, money, and status. But then today, Jesus steps in and completely obliterates all of that. Jesus looks at people who are struggling, grieving, hungry, overlooked, persecuted, and exhausted, and says, You are blessed. So if you find yourself at the end of your rope, blessed and stressed, Jesus says, You are blessed. Now I know what you're thinking, Pastor. That that sounds kind of backwards. Because most people are thinking blessing means no problems, no pain, no struggle, no hardship. But Jesus teaches us that blessing is not determined by your circumstances. It's determined by your position in the kingdom of God. And what this passage says today is giving us a picture of what the kingdom of heaven looks like. A kingdom where the last becomes first, a kingdom where the broken people are welcomed, a key kingdom where suffering is not wasted, a kingdom where earthly loss can lead to eternal reward. And honestly, we should encourage every person in this room who has walked and is carrying pain because Jesus is saying, your struggle is not proof that God has abandoned you. Sometimes your struggle is the very place where God meets you the most deeply. And those that have struggled are saying amen this morning because the title of the message this morning is We Are Blessed in Our Brokenness. God blesses us in our brokenness. Now listen, this morning is not gonna be a woo-hoo message. This morning is gonna, this is one of these, you know, leafy green type messages, okay? It's it's the it's the nutrients that you need, okay? Uh, because we I think sometimes we we think that our life with Christ is gonna be full of mountaintop experiences, but Jesus does his best work in us when we are broken. Because it's when we are broken that he can put us back together the way that he wants us to be. So if you have your Bibles, grab them, go to Luke chapter 6. This morning, we are going to start in verse 20. This is known, this is a famous passage known as the be attitudes, okay? Because Jesus wants you to be about these attitudes, okay? So if you have your Bibles, grab them, turn to that. If you don't have your Bible, you can tap the NFC tag there on the chair in front of you. Hit sermon notes, and all of my sermon notes are there. But we're gonna start in verse 20. It says, and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. First, this is not what America says. It says, Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the poor. Notice, Jesus did not say, Blessed are the self-sufficient. He doesn't say, Blessed are the people who have it all together. Amen. No, he says, Blessed are the poor. Luke specifically emphasized, emphasizes literal poverty and those who are material lacking and marginalized. Why? Because poverty has a way of revealing dependence. When you have nothing else to lean on, you discover that God is enough. Listen, guys, sometimes God allows seasons where resources dry up, the answers disappear, and control slips through our fingers because he's trying to teach us dependence on him over self-sufficiency. The kingdom belongs to people who know they need him. Now, listen this morning. I'm saying there are times, there are seasons that God lets us go through seasons of drought so that we can enjoy the seasons of plenty, but know that it all comes from Him. Some of the most powerful prayers are not prayed in comfort. They're prayed in hospital rooms. They're prayed in financial stress. They're prayed at funerals, at kitchen tables with unpaid bills at 2 a.m. when anxiety won't let you sleep. Because desperation has a way of stripping away pride. You stop pretending, you stop performing, you stop relying on yourself, and suddenly your heart opens to God in a way it has never opened up to Him before. Some of you have been viewing your weakness as a curse. When maybe it's the very thing that's driving you towards Jesus. Stop waiting until you have it all together. Because listen, you're not gonna have it all together. Stop waiting until you have it all together to come to God. The kingdom is filled with people who have come to Jesus with empty hands. I think the problem is most of the time we come to Jesus expecting him to do something. When Jesus says, just come with empty hands and let me do what I'm going to do. Because, guys, God often does his deepest work in people who have run out of everything except him. Because let me tell you, I I experienced this very thought when I went on a mission trip to Guatemala. Let me tell you, these people have nothing. What's amazing is I go to, I travel from our beautiful, amazing church here in America down to Guatemala. We serve these people, and you know what they do? They lavish us with gifts. Why do they do that? Because they want to honor God. They have nothing, we'll go without, yet they want to honor God with every part of their lives. Let me just tell you, some of the most impactful moments of my life. I got the opportunity to sit back and play and sing in Spanish. Now, if you've ever talked to me, you know Spanish is no bueno for me. And I pretty much Rachel's taught me a couple things. But I spent the whole flight working on this one song. And when I got there, I was singing the song Let It Rain. Open the floodgates of heaven. And I watched as these kids and staff, as God just poured out their lives, just broke things inside of them. You know what the cool thing was? It was worth every bit of travel all the way from here in America down there. It was worth being away from my family, it was worth being away from my church. So God could show me truly, I don't have to have stuff to have everything that I need. I can have everything that I need in Him. And if you don't believe me, look at the richest people in the world. Do they have happiness? You know, we all say if I just had a little bit more money, I might be happy. Well, you get a little bit more money and suddenly you find ways to spend it. Amen. She got $150, but she owed dad $93 for her phone. And she found a good concept that all adults learn. That sometimes when it hits your bank account, it's already spoken for. Amen. But we are blessed because we are poor. Amen. Amen. Let's keep reading. Verse 21. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Number two is blessed are the hungry. Notice it doesn't say comfortable, not spiritually indifferent, not people satisfied with surface-level Christianity. The hunger, the hungry, there's a difference between knowing about God and desperately longing for him. The problem is many of us know about God, but we don't long for more of him. This passage points towards future fulfillment that God Himself will satisfy those who trust Him. The world keeps offering substitutes. Those substitutes are like success, relationships, money, pleasure. We love achievement. We love entertainment. That's why we're addicted to that phone that's in our hand. But nothing fills your soul like Jesus. Listen, guys, you can fill your schedule full and still have an empty heart. How people can binge watch things. They can binge watch shows on Netflix, they can binge social media, they can they can dive into work and binge work, they can binge distractions. But we binge everything except the presence of God. Do you think it would change our world? Do you think it would change anything in the Church of America if instead of binging Netflix, we binge Jesus? But many people are spiritually starving while surrounded by endless consumption. You can feed your flesh constantly and still starve your soul. So let me ask you this. What are you feeding your spirit? Some of you are spiritually exhausted, not because God is absent, but because you haven't been feeding on him. You cannot live on one sermon a week and expect deep spiritual strength. Listen, this is just this just bumps you up and gets you to the baseline. You're not going to grow deeper if all you do spiritually all week long is come and hear one sermon. And some of you come once a month to hear one sermon. Some of you come every other week, some of you come once every six weeks, and that's the only spiritual thing that you get, and you wonder why you're spiritually starving. Guys, you need his word, you need his presence, you need prayer, worship, community. Let me tell you, I teach a Bible study on Wednesdays at 6:30, and I have about 15 people in there. If you want to grow, I should have 150 in there. The amens came for the two people in my class, but here's the thing it's not fancy. We just sit around and pick apart Romans. And we go deep into the word of God. And you know what? I get more out of that 90 minutes than I do out of the rest of my spiritual week. Why? Because God's people are together going after Jesus. And let me tell you, if you don't have that in your life, where you have a small group of people around you that push you to be better spiritually, then you are going to be spiritually depraved. Because you live in a world where spiritual consumption is at its highest, but people are at their most broken. Why? Because we starve ourselves. We're anorexic Christians. We have all the food. You know, I don't know if I should say this or not. I'm gonna say it, but you know, America's full of fat people. Why? Because we've got McDonald's on every corner. So we should be, we should not be spiritually malnourished because you have all of the resources at your fingertips, more resources than any church in history has ever had. Why are we struggling the most? Because the world could entertain your flesh. We love the entertainment of our flesh, but only Jesus can satisfy your soul. We look for the satisfaction of our flesh over the satisfaction of our soul. 21b. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you who weep now because you shall laugh. Number three, making it real easy for you this week in the notes. Blessed are those who weep. You know, some real flashy preaching this week. Jesus is not glorifying pain here, he's promising a reversal. This is one of the major themes in Luke. God reverses what sin and brokenness have done. The world says if you're crying, you're losing. Jesus says your tears are not the end of your story. There will come a day when grief will give way to joy. This is hope of the hope of the gospel. The hope of the gospel is pain is temporary, but redemption is eternal. Those of you that have been in the room with the saint that has passed away and gone to heaven know this truth. You know you're sad they're gone, but you're happy they're with Jesus. And you hope that one day you'll get to see him again too. But sometimes you don't realize how exhausted you are until you finally hit rock bottom. And guys, there's people in this room today that have been carrying silent burdens. Grief, disappointment, betrayal, fear, heartbreak, prayers that still haven't gone unanswered. And maybe nobody else sees it today. But I want you to know this: Jesus does. Jesus sees your pain. Jesus sees your tears. And the Bible says that he captures everyone. So don't let pain make you bitter. Let pain drive you closer to Jesus. Because the enemy wants suffering to isolate you from God. But suffering can actually deepen your dependence on him. Your sorrow is not wasted in the hands of God. Listen, guys, God doesn't ignore your tears, he redeems them. God wants to take your brokenness and redeem it. That's why he says, Blessed are those who are broken, because they will act. Because one day, no matter what amount of brokenness that we have in our lives, one day, if we choose him, we will be at the throne of heaven. And we will have joy like we've never had before. Verse 22. Where am I? There it is. Blessed are you when people hate you. This was tough. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for so their fathers did to the prophets. This is the one we don't like to hear. Number four, blessed are the persecuted. Now let me tell you, I'm not preaching this morning that I think the American church is persecuted. Okay. We face persecution, but we are not persecuted. Now we might be one day, we face persecution in our lives, but we are not persecuted yet. Jesus is not talking about being disliked because you're rude, arrogant, or difficult. Okay? If you are a pain in the butt, Jesus is not talking about blessed are you because you are a pain in the butt. You're just a pain in the butt, and you need to stop being a pain in the butt. Okay? Sorry, mom. Bottom is what I was supposed to say. He's talking about suffering because you genuinely follow Jesus. This passage teaches that opposition to Christ is not abnormal, it's part of following Jesus. Listen, we live in a culture that wants Christians to compromise quietly. They want us to soften the truth to avoid conviction that they feel because they want us to fit in. But following Jesus will cost you something. It might cost you relationships, it might cost you popularity, it might cost you opportunities, and it may even cost you approval. But when Jesus says, when that happens, rejoice. Why? Because heaven sees what earth rejects. Listen, the prophets that we read about in the Bible stood for truth and they were hated. The disciples stood for truth and they were persecuted. Jesus stood for the truth and he was crucified. So why do you think that faithful Christians would always be applauded by our culture? Listen, I am not surprised when I post a reel or TikTok and my comment is full of haters. That just means I'm doing the work of the Lord. I'm not surprised that people have bad things to say about me in the public. You know why? Because if I'm preaching the word, you're not always gonna like me. Sometimes I'm going to have to say things that offend you. But remember, offense is taken, not given. I'm just speaking the truth over your life. Now, listen, sometimes you leave the service, you're like, that preacher, I don't know how he read my mail. Listen, I had this planned since last summer. Okay? This message was on the calendar, and we are scheduled with Luke until 2028. So if someone is reading your mail, it is the Holy Spirit, not I. Jesus knew to drop in my head that this is what you needed to hear today. It's not me. So if you want to write an email to pastor Todd at HopechurchCleaver.com and get mad at me, you can just be ready for what comes back to you. Because I'm going to tell you the truth. Because I love you. Because one day I'm going to stand before the throne of God and you're not going to say, I wish that preacher was easier on me. You're going to say, I wish that preacher would have pushed me harder. Listen, stop measuring faithfulness by applause. If everybody always agrees with you, if everybody always applauds you, if everybody always celebrates you, you may not actually be standing boldly for Jesus. Don't compromise the truth that we find in God's word to gain acceptance. If you are rejected, you stand shoulder to shoulder with Jesus. Because if you live for the applause of people, you'll eventually compromise the truth of God. Here's the problem. I know this is some of yours is going to stop you flat. Sometimes I'm too nice. You're like, what? Yeah, I heard Cheryl laugh on the front. Like, sometimes I'm too nice. Sometimes I get up here and I go, you know what? I don't know. I don't know if I should say that. I don't want to offend somebody. I don't know if I should say that. And and trust me, the nice one, Crystal, she's got a headache this morning. Pray for her. She might be here second service. I don't know. I haven't haven't checked my phone yet, but pray for her. But she'll get home and she'll go, Did you really say that? Like she'll she'll she'll have something to say. Like, did you really tell them that they're supposed to not like you? Did you really tell them that? And I'll go, listen, babe, it's not my job. It's not my job for them to be a fan of me. You can't always be a fan of me. Now, I want you to like me. The humanness inside of me wants you to like me. But as a pastor, I have to speak the truth. And the same is true in your life. Sometimes you're gonna have some friends in your life that are making really stupid decisions. And sometimes they just need a friend to put their arm around them and say, hey, listen, it'd be really great if you'd stop being stupid. You know, you know, it'd be really great if you'd stop cheating on your wife. You know, it'd be really great if you'd stop being a butthead. I said that earlier. Or a bottom, excuse me. A posterior. But we need those people in our lives. Have you ever had somebody step in and say, hey, you better wake up before it's too late? Aren't you grateful for those people? I hope that I have people in my life that will step in and save me before I jump off a cliff. But that means that you have to have people in your life that aren't afraid to speak God's truth over you. Because God says, blessed are the persecuted. So let me tell you, if you're facing some hardship in your life, if you've been passed over for things in your life, God sees that and God knows. So, what are our transformational moments this morning? I want us to move forward because I want us to have some time. I believe God's gonna do some things at the altar today. If you're new here at Hope Church, my transformational moments are questions to challenge you for the rest of your week. Number one, what if your brokenness is the very place that God wants to meet you? What if every hard thing that you're going through right now is just what Jesus wants to do in your heart? Maybe you're just so hard-headed. Here's the part where you won't like me. Maybe you're just so hard-headed that Jesus has to let you beat yourself down so that he can build you back up. Because listen, most of us, God doesn't have to, God, and the Bible says God won't beat us down. He'll allow us to beat ourselves down, he'll allow the devil to beat us down. But he'll step in and put you together back peace by peace. Number two, what are you feeding more? Your flesh or your spirit? Some of you need to delete TikTok from your phone and only keep the Bible app on your phone. You're like, man, I just I just can't stop scrolling. To delete it. Like nobody is holding your phone going, up, you gotta keep that. Your hundreds of followers are gonna miss you, right? Like, like, even if I dropped off the world, nobody would really miss me. You're like, oh, yes, Pastor Help me. They put another guy up here and you wouldn't miss me. Thanks. But here's the thing: what are you feeding more? Your flesh or your spirit? Because listen, if you're counting on you, if you're counting on you to step in, it's not gonna happen. Those of you iPhone users, I know I'm sure Google has something similar, you can actually put a screen time password on things. I have friends of mine that struggle with their scrolling and they give their spouse a screen time password. They get one hour a day on TikTok. And when that hour's up, the screen time password comes up. And you have to, if you if you want to break through, you have to actually ask an accountability partner. Maybe not, maybe your spouse isn't the best one, maybe somebody else. I'm a verbal processor, I'm processing this right now. Uh if you need that, do it. Some of you just need to delete it altogether, and I bet you won't miss it. Number three, are you living for the approval of heaven or the applause of people? Listen, some of us are caught in the trap of we want everybody to like us. But when you get to heaven one day and stand before Jesus, Jesus is not gonna say, Did everybody like you? He's gonna say, What did you do for me? And I think many of us have spent too much time trying to entertain people that we don't like. Yes. Instead of praising the one who created us. And like Noah said, let him go to Hawaii, let him go to Disney. I'm gonna go to Guatemala and give kids Christmas. That's right. Because you know what? When I get to heaven, Jesus is not gonna go. How is the serf in Hawaii? He's gonna say, see this guy here? He's from Guatemala, and he's here because you gave. So here's my question for you today. What are you living for? You living for the applause of people? Jesus says, live for the applause of heaven. So I'm gonna ask everybody to bow their head and close their eyes all over the room. Just want you to begin to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you. You didn't come into this place today to just feel good about yourself. Ask God what needs to change in you. And there's some of us here today that don't have a relationship with Jesus. In just a moment, I'm gonna walk you through what that means. But some of you here today do have a relationship with Jesus, and we just need to stop being apathetic and start going towards God. But those of you in this room that don't have a relationship with Jesus, I'm about to say a prayer. And I truly believe this is step one in the rest of your walk with Jesus. This is not what saves you. What saves you is the life that you live after this. But if you feel God tugging at your heart this morning and you want to accept him, just repeat after me. Dear Jesus, I'm a sinner. I need your love in my life. Forgive me where I failed you. I give my heart to you today. Take my life, use it for your purpose. In Jesus' name. Amen.