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Good evening.
Good evening, and welcome to another edition of Talking Point. I trust and pray that you've had a good week thus far.
Well.
It is the second installment of our series. In the beginning was the Word, and it's just a play on the text, but really it's a decision by us to start the new year with a deep dive into the Word of God. To help us do that past to Nick is back and he's going to take us through another of the beatitudes. So we're really looking forward to that. We really enjoyed last week and I'm going to just maybe brief free cap or will do a brief recap before we move into the second slide. As it were, guys,
how are we doing. Let's just do a sound check and just ensure that everybody's on and everybody's okay tonight. I have with me the usual I want to say suspects, but I'll stay away from that. Our usual co host uh Pedro's on evening, Petro Angie and of course our US member Malember. How are you guys doing? Patro maybe if you kick us off.
Good, good evening everybody, and welcome to Talking Point. Yep, I'm back. I missed last week. I'm so sorry we missed. You had a previous engagement that I had to go to, so it was nowhere else it was gonna be too noisy, so I couldn't joy. I really I hate that I missed it.
Yeah, good to have you back.
Oh, yes, it's good to be back. Thank you. You're sure? If I'm sure, I don't know. Sometimes I wonder.
I mean, it would have been a nice maybe a good opportunity to throw some shade, but I.
Won't do shade the other time on me, So you know that's what I'm saying. Are you sure? Because you know I'm a deserter, so you know I forgot that word.
You are not?
But you know you asked me how my week went? Or you just asking me just you know, yes, how are you?
How's your week?
Then?
Oh?
My week was was good besides losing my phone. But you know, and that's about it. It's material.
What can you do?
Can't cry about it? Because you cry about it's not gonna make a difference. You stop crying. Guess what still lost, so you know, move on and you know, just try.
To talking offline about how it feels I'm sorry, go.
On ahead, what you say now.
I'm just saying we were talking offline about how it feels like our life is on that device, so different to how it was many many years ago when it was just numbers.
My life is definitely on that phone, between phone numbers and stuff. I got what's up numbers and I can't what's episode crazy?
I can't switch.
I got a new SIM card with my old number, but the What's up on my on the phone I have now would not let me.
It's telling me go to.
The all phone to connect the phone the phone I have now do WhatsApp, but I can't because that phone is lost.
I can't remember how there is a way to navigate that. But maybe we can chat offline.
Yeah, no, I'm gonna figure it out. I just it just happened.
It just happened, so I haven't had a chance to really look into it. But yeah, I mean, you know, that's only frustrating. But that as for that. You know, life is good. You know, I'm alive, My family is good, everybody's good. You guys are good. And I'm happy.
Yeah, that's the perspective. Indeed, Angie, how are you?
I have felt better.
Indeed, another round of this cold flu whatever bug that's going around that's hit me again midweek, so I'm feeling a little bit under the weather. So I excuse my croaky voice and possible fits of coughing that might happen. So, yeah, it's been a bit of retiring week. I've had not had much energy. I've still kind of been working, but thankfully because I work from home, you know, it's not
to be bad. But yeah, I really could do with a holiday because this cold weather, and I think I've really misjudged how cold it was as well this week because of a couple of days when it's actually freezing. So hopefully I can shift this cold cold as soon as possible and get back to full strength and what have you. So but you know, praise Gods, still here making it through, pushing through, and so yeah, quick.
Angela, you know you're not actually when it's cold, like it's been cold and then like today was kind of warm because the summer's out, that's when you really get sick because it's the change in the weather. Yeah, you kind of you kind of think, oh, you know, the sun is out, maybe a little bit warmer, so then you don't just like you normally dress.
I don't even think it's that because I do wrap up. Most people will be looking at me like it's reading not that cold, Angela. But I'm like, I felt like I really misjudged it. But you know when you get a chill, and I think the cold over in the UK is one that just seeps straight into your bones. So that's how I felt it this week. And it's just like, and I guess maybe because my immune system is struggling at the moment.
Because you just just to recovered. Yeah, so you yeah, you sound like I sounded last week, just about but I'm proud to say me that gave it to you because.
I'm I had to cut you off.
She sounds a whole lot better than you sounded.
Oh I still miss you. I still miss you. Yeah, that's true. That's true, to be fair, and I still have a bit of a cough. But but all is well. God is good in the end. You know, we just give thanks for life, give thanks for life, and to make sure you, you know, drink all those at home remedies and all the juice and all the bits and all that stuff to just get yourself back to full steam, fulling Melimba, How are you, How are you doing? Welcome back. I want to say.
This is my second time being with you, guys. I'm so excited. Hello everybody. You Welcome to Talking Points. It's good to have you. We didn't have you last week, so it's interesting that you're here this time around.
Thank you. It's interesting to have you around too.
Thank you. Otherwise, I have been good, guys. My week has been great. I was agreeing with Angela about how good it was last weekend was freezing. I was going to church on Saturday. The sun was out. I thought, oh the sun is out, but it was like minus three or four when I went outside. It was deceasing. Yes, I was freezing last week. But God is good. I'm very fine. Like Pedro said, we're all fine. You guys are fine, and be grateful to God for that.
Amen. Amen. I love that perspective. Indeed, all things wetever, all things wet together, we're good. So that love the Lord. Well, I want, without further you, let's jump into some prayer. I think in between of the conversations I kind of hinted to how my week has been. I'm feeling a little better, sounding a lot better according to Pedro, and
just looking forward to going through the study. It was so enlightening last week some I think maybe a different perspective or a deeper perspective would you say on things that we've come across before, read before, but never really took that view, So passonikly, thank you for that, and we're looking forward to bring you back on so we can continue the discussion. Guys, what did you think, what's your kind of takeaway or what's your highlight from last week?
If we just do that briefly before we go on.
I'm going to be honest, I don't think i've really I feel like I've reflected on this after wards, and I felt like I don't really think I've really done a real deep dive study into the attitudes before I think I had. It's a very very long time because a lot of things seems very new to me, So for me it's like, oh, I've never really done this before.
So.
It was really interesting to look at it and to sort of see the perspective the idea that these obviously were quite foundational statements, blessings, instructions and promises was really interesting as well. And you know the fact that we can be overcomers to the things that are happening, but we have to almost die to self and we have to really be in a position where we are fully dependent on God to be able to receive some of
these promises. And you know, some of the statements almost seem slightly contradictory, but you know that they are talking about their leading towards hope. You know, if you do something, you would you would inherit something, you would gain something, you'd be blessed by something. So I'm had it really interesting. So yeah, looking forward to the rest of it as well.
But yeah, recognizing that you know, we can be we can be overcome as we can be conquer as we are, we can be the dates if we're putting our full life and trusting God in his hands.
Amen. Amen, Blumbers. What's your highlight takeaway?
Oh?
Yeah, last week was very interesting. One thing that I love the most is the realization that if we are poor in spirit, the Kingdom of God belongs to us because they makeew five us three says blessed the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven, and so realizing that we are partakers of heaven, are citizens, and God is our God. You know, every time we think of God, it feels like he's far apart, like
he's in heaven and we are here. But last week, the way person me explained it made me realize that he's literally like my governor. I belong here, I'm entitled to the shares of heaven, and that just made me feel very courageous for the future. It gives you a certain level of confidence in God and a certain level
of certainty for our future. I just felt like living all to God because I know who is my president, I know who is my king, I know who is leading me, and so it just made me to feel like I can be poor in spirit because the kingdom of Heaven belongs to me. I never looked at the Beatitudes in this way. I've read the Beatitudes before, I feel like I've understand I've understood a few of them.
But the way we discussed last week, the way it was broken down, and just hearing each person giveing their two cents was so amazing because then we got to understand them at a deeper level and just basically seeing things from a different angle. Otherwise, I was just so happy seeing that I can put all my confidence in God because he really has my future. And if God
has my future, nobody can come against me. So I was just so happy that we are not poor, not poor to be like less privileged or less in society. We can be poor in spirit to mean that God mean. I don't want to God diep into explaining what it means, because then people can should go back and listen. That point was really nice and interesting. But I'm just grateful that we had the start off based off on the first beatitudes, which was quite interesting. I'm looking forward to today's one.
Yeah, excellent and really nothing to add or take away there. The caption for last week's discussion was becoming spiritually on and I think that perspective, wondering if that's the theme I want to take through the year, because sometimes you just you clasp on to something, you grasp onto something and it really resonates, and that for me resonated, you know, Macarios, I don't know, the past of the bishop will come in and let me know if I'm actually really pronouncing
that correctly. But it's the Greek word and that for me was was was the highlight, becoming spiritually untouchable, knowing that God is my I have confidence in God, who who is in control, who loves me with a gappy love. And as Malemba said, we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. He is our king and we are his children. So really looking forward passonic to continuing the conversation, and just before we hear from you, let's have a word
of prayer. Reminder to all if you'd like to be involved, if you've had a listen to and a reminder, it's on spreaker dot com or it will be I just need to check it and stay already. But you can find our previously recorded programs on spreaker dot com. Talking
Point part of ARL's programming. But if you'd want to be part of the discussion, if you've got a question you know a little bit of the be attitudes, or there's a question that's always been plaguing you about the BE attitudes, and join the conversation studio at Adventist Radio dot London or eight triple to eight Hope Space and then your message or you can watch that, especially if you're further afield zero seven four or five nine six four two eight nine eight and join the conversation. Let's
just pray definily. Father, thank you again for the opportunity to come together and talk. This is what talking point is a about. And tonight especially we're doing a deep dive into the world, and we asked for your spirit to give us wisdom and insight.
Then we had to.
Bless the technology. Bless all of us in Jesus name. I pray, Amen and a man passionate. You've been waiting patiently or will be taking a bit of our highlights and dissecting it. Have we got it right? Is there something we didn't quite get understand?
Something you guys?
I was in the background listening and I was getting all excited to the point where that thought crossed my mind. I need to invite mole to my chich to preach my gosh.
I didn't want to pre hip anything, but I'm fitting.
Look at that.
But yeah, no, I mean hearing you guys share, I am also been being blessed because irrespective of how much you go through the world, or how much God inspires you at a time, or how much he reveals to you as a human being. Life happens to you, and every now and then you you need to find you you You're always blessed.
Again.
Just this morning, for example, a devotion I did and took some notes about a year ago, I felt the need to to just put aside what I was doing and go back to it. So just hearving you get you guys share for me, it is just an absolute blessing and I'm just really grateful to God for it.
Really.
But in terms of yeah, your spot on and your your your pronouncing of the word is you did justice to it as well, So spot on, spot on to all of you, Pedro, God bless you, bro. It's really nice having you because this evening, and of course looking forward to you to your input as well. As we look at the second the attitude.
Lovely, well let's let's you take the lead past the neck and let's get right into it.
Sure sure, sure, So, just as just before we go ahead to read the second beatitude, uh so, you guys have already done an absolutely amazing job with some of the recap, so I just want to touch on a few things again just in case someone might be hearings for the first time, and they may not have the background of what we're talking about. So, uh, the entire series just a bit of a correction. Hair is called
becoming spiritually untouchable. The reason being that word macarios, which you highlighted xenia, which is translated blessed or happy or satisfied, literally means untouchable, and of course to be spiritually on untouchable in the context that we looked at last time, it borders on people who are elite persons who are living in a particular place where they are fully such satisfied and they are not dependent on external factors to
give them that satisfaction. So when we every time we read the Beatitudes and it starts off with the word blessing, we have to remember it's not just blessing in the way that we think of blessing, but it's God saying, Hey, I am going to favor you so much.
I'm going to annoyt you so much.
I will do for you so much that you will become spiritually untouchable. Your blessings are untouchable. You will be satisfied from within. That's what I will do for you, which for me is really makes the Beatitude such an absolutely amazing foundational teaching. Of course, we also look at the poor in spirit, which we mentioned is that that first beatitude is the foundation for the rest of the beatitude.
We also spoke about the fact that the beatitudes themselves is a foundation upon which the entire Sermon on the mount.
Is is built.
But that very first one is a foundation for the rest of them. And if you, if you ever take some time to really explore the Beatitudes, you will you will realize that they're kind of in an ascending order.
So you start off a poor inspirit.
And and every other one of that that Jesus speaks about, it's like he's building them on on the ones that went before. So there's there's that, And of course the beattitudes, all of them has a conditional format. There is a condition for us to meet, and we did discuss last time that despite the fact that we are the ones responsible to meet that condition, we can admet it on our own.
So we need God.
But but what God needs from us really is for our had to be open and willing and for us to be deliberate at pursuing those conditions. The truth is, some of those conditions are uncomfortable.
Some of those.
Conditions called for us to go against the very green of who we are.
But that's what's required.
And as long as those conditions are met, that spiritual blessing, that spiritual benefit. God is the one who provides it. And hey, if God gives it, no deboney the hell can touch it. If God gives it, no one at all can possibly undo what God has do not take away from you.
So with that said, I'm not sure if Pedro, I don't Pigure were not with us last time.
I don't know if Pedro any of one of you guys have anything to share before we we we read the second one and to begin to delve into.
It, I'm happy for you to go ahead, Petrol, where you where you at.
I'm happy to go right into it because I didn't have a chance to listen to to the show last week, so I have I'm gonna be going on a fly head.
But yeah, you guys are making my work as a as a as a theologian hair easy, So that's that's great. So the second beattitude. Of course, we find it in March chapter five, verse four, and there Jesus said, Blessed are those who moan for they will be comforted, blessed that those who moan for they will be confident. And and like I mentioned a little while ago, we were seeing the condition that he's asking us to meet is to moan, and the promise is.
We will be comforted.
So let's just just spend some time just exploring it. So what does it mean to moan? What does it mean to moan? So let me just open it up to us here. I'm sure we're not new to the concept of moaning. But when you hear moaning or blessed are those who moan? What comes to mind? What do you think it might mean?
Well, I'm just gonna go first. I don't know if I know the full meaning. But what that surprised me about how you've just put it is the fact that you're saying that the prerequisite or the requirement is to mourn. And generally, just as you said for the beatitude before, being being being uncomfortable and not something that we would be predisposed to or want to do. We predisposed in the right term, but we'd want to do. And that
rings true for morning. It speaks of being sad, being you know, losing a loved one or losing something, And so when you're saying this is the condition, like, maybe I want want that blessing on the back of this particular one because this is not a comfortable place and this is not something I would necessarily want for myself or or for those I love and get about.
Mmmmmm, I'm not sure if anyone else wants to.
I Actually, since I just lost my brother in August, I feel blessed though that more I mourned him, I miss him, I think about him, but then I'm comforted because I remember all the funny things we did and all the times we spent together.
M hm.
And it comforts me to know that I had that time to spend with him and to get to know him and you know, just do things with him. And so then it just brings me back to a happy place of even though he's gone, he's always in my heart. So that just comfort. That gives me comfort in knowing that. But that's just yeah, and.
Man, thank you very much for sharing that, Pedio. My condolence is there to you.
I also lost my brother a little over a year ago, so I can I can relate. I can relate, Andrea, I think you wanted to tryme.
In Yeah, I mean I was gonna in some ways and both then you and Pedia both said and again it is that uncomfortable position because you don't want to be mourning at all. I know over twenty twenty four there was a lot of loss of friends. Yeah, friends, people that you know, et cetera. So it seems to
be a tough year. And even though I know in theory that I'm going to be comforted and we pray for comfort and people are encouraging around you what have you, at the time, it doesn't feel like I'm sometimes getting any comfort so wanting to so it almost feels like a bit of a contradiction. I feel I don't feel like I'm being blessed when I'm mourning, if that makes sense. But again, this is where I know I have to put my full trust in God to say, you know
you can bring me through this. You can bring me the comfort I have, the faith I have the belief. You know, you have promised that you will be the comforter. And sometimes it's completely leaning because if you're completely broken as you're mourning, and now I you know, this year I lost one of my really good close friends. And you know, I find myself sometimes breaking down or getting completely accept something might just bring up a memory or
what have you. And I know sometimes it's not just by my own strength, my own doing that I can get through this. I've really got to cling to God and really have to believe the promise that he didn't come and meet and he'd give it the strength to move through. But again it feels like almost a contradiction in terms. But again it's like you said, you have to be in that position where it's uncomfortable. We have to meet those conditions for Him to bless us and receive that blessing.
Me.
I can also just come in. I'm gonna get one sentence, I think. And you mentioned when you're like sad, when you're feeling sad, or when you're at your lowest. I would like to think of it as listen to those who mourn. You know, when you're moaning, you feel like you are at your lowest. You feel because it's a sad moment, at your lowest. And God promised that He's going to send us a comforter who will comfort us. And so for me, besides just losing a loved one,
I'll take it as mourning our grief. I mean seeing serrantity is the wad sin. There are times that we are deep in sin, that we are so sad and miserable, and it's at that moment that God comforts us. There's a way in which if you align your life with God, even if you try and stray, because you remember who God is, like a lost son, He's still going to find a way of bringing you back home in different ways.
Be it causing you to be sick so much that you remember that there's a God and you have to pray. Be it causing you to feel so hungry impoverished that you remember that there's a God who's a provider. I feel like it's been at such a low moment of your life that you just want to remember that there's a God who is more than able to comfort me because he promised us that he will be there with
us up to the end of time. So it's just for me, it's just been at such a low moment in your life that it gives you the comfort that there's somebody greater than what I'm going through at this moment.
Mmmmmm, thank you so much, Thank you so much.
On you You've actually set the stage first there with your last comment.
Molember.
So we we we we all, in one way or another, have experienced grief and morning.
There's no question there.
The Greek word that's used there is, and I deliberately mentioned in the Greek word because there are some English words attached to it that we know. So the Greek word is path us, and it means to experience misfortune or or to experiperience deep grief. So it's an emotional condition. One of the things that I have always been a little bit surprised about is that there's tends to be people who believe, oh, you know, if you are a Christian, there must be no emotion involved and nothing is whether
from the truth. It is impossible for you to have that relationship with God and not experience any type of emotion at all. While God asks us to love to gapy him, you would hear the prophet speaks and that that would a gappy or that type of love that we're supposed to have for God. It encompasses holistic love, so it's loving Him with our minds, with our bodies, and with our hearts emotionally. So here God is inviting us to be deliberate at pursuing an experiencing h and
a very sad and uncomfortable emotion. Mm hmm, it's it's a little bit on the crazy side if you ask me. But but then he's saying, that's the condition that you have to meet in order for you to be comforted. Let me just put just plug something in here. We have to remember that the beatitudes ah the beginning of
a spiritual discourse. Yeah, So as we are looking at the word moaning with the context is going to determine the meaning of that word because and I'm saying this, because they are persons who moan, but who are still grieving years later and who are not in that place of comfort. So there is there is moaning, and there is moaning here. What God is saying, what Christ is saying, is that there is a particular type of moaning where you will be comforted. The English word that's related to it,
we know them well, is empathy. So we see that same uh, the root of path here, So empathy, sympathy And of course if you're if you're if you're empathetic to someone, it means that you are you've experienced what they've going through so you can relate to it. M H. If you're sympathetic with someone, it means you've not experienced
what they're going through. But because you are a human being, you could see the herd, you can see their pain and you and you are you are feeling to some extent what they are feeling.
You're feeling sorry for them.
So so that that the words literally means, and this is interesting, the literal meaning of the word is experiencing, experiencing. So so when Jesus says, blessed as those who moan, he said, blessed of those who don't. Don't just profess, but who are actually experiencing this spiritual condition that I'm talking about. So now we all know, we all know, and we've described it, hair spoken about his outspoken about mine.
You.
The moaning is what happens when you have deep gree for intense sorrow. And the truth is, I'm smiling and laughing, but it's not twenty The truth is there is a deep, absolutely crazy sense of moaning that could get you in such a crazy place that you were completely lost. I remember, I remember when my my mom died. I I sat listened to one of my colleagues pressure funeral. I knew it was a great summon, but I don't remember a thing he said. When when you're moaning, it's like you're
completely out of it, I mean, think of it. So grief, grief is actually a response to deep loss.
Yep.
The extent of your moaning is always related to the extent of what you've lost. So if you lose someone who means the absolute world to you, your moaning is going to be that heavy. On the flip side, if you if someone close to you dies and you've not been in heavily invested in them, that the grief is not that heavy.
When when Jesus has.
Speaks about moaning, he's talking about that that deep sense of loss, that deep sense of sadness. I mean, what forgive me for saying this, guys, but you'll get where I'm going. What God in his right mind, who have said to his people I care about your well being, says to them, I'm actually inviting you to deliberately pursue experience of deep grief, an experience of deep loss, in order for you to be a recipient of a blessing that will make you spiritually untouchable. Now, just to go
a bit deeper hair. So just to give some context, just that we can understand it. When he says moaning hair, is he just referring to the type of social money that we are used to the emotional bits alone. No, because, as we've already highlighted it, he's speaking hair from a spiritual context. So just a few passages I want to to share in James chapter four was eight or nine the same word is using verse nine, but just to get some context, so it was eight. Jim says, come
near to God. Get the context. The context is drawing near to God. Come here to God, and he will come near to you, wash your hands, your sinners, and purify your heart. You double money. So so this is God saying, Hey, this is my invitation to you to be as genuine with me, as close to me as possible possible.
God, how do we do that?
Verse nine, grieve moan and will change your laughter to moaning and your joy to gloom. In other words, God is saying here through the Profit, through through James, that the comfort that I want you to get, that spiritual comfort your you're drawing near to me requires you going that place of moaning. It requires you to experience that deep sorrow, deep grief. Let me share an order passage and then try to bring it together for sa just
to open it up a bit. So in in second Grand Films one and with five, this is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. And I'll share with you why so it US five or Second Frinians one. Paul says, but just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, what we share in the sufferings of Christ? But I thought Christ suffering on the cross was all just as we say in the suffers of Christ. And mind you, the same way that is used here is the word that's used there is the same with pathos,
which is a reference to the sufferings of Christ. So also our comfort and bounds through Christ. So let me get stop here to open up open this up onto ask you what do you think he means? What does Paul mean here when he talks about the sufferings of Christ that we share abundantly in.
Mm hmm, I.
Mean how how how can we possibly share in the sufferings of Christ?
Mm hmm.
That's a good one, if I were to had I'm not sure that I know. But for me I would say, in his in his empathy for others, in his in his his heart for others, that would be that would be my guest, and it really is a guest. But for me, he he was a compassionate God Christ, or he is a compassionate Christ correction, and he had a feeling and a heart for his fellow men.
Mm hmm mmmm okay, okay, thank you, Xeniah. I don't know if anyone else wants to add their voice.
Hair, sorry, ask again, Yeah, yeah, no.
The question here is how how can we share? How do we share in the sufferings of Christ? And again the same word is using here, the same word that just uses in Matthew five and Us four path of us when it's a basis than those who won, but they will be comforted. So we've basically seeing second grand Fians one five mirroring the second at Articue. So the question here is how do we share in the suffering or in the morning of Christ.
I guess it's maybe in a similar way that we experience certain things, whether it's we go through troubles, we have trial, you know, we have challenges in this I guess in the same way, maybe in different ways that Christ suffer. But if he suffered for certain things, Let's say he suffered for his fate. You know, he was preaching what have you, he was persecuted for that. We might go through similar things if we are sharing what we believe, et cetera, or we're going through challenges in life.
So I guess in some way there's the empathy side of it, or we can kind of recognize the challenges that we're facing, So there is a level of sympathy recognizing what Christ went through through for us in a similar way, we can sort of empathize and maybe in some ways put ourselves in his shoes to a certain degree. So I guess it's where we can relate to the things that He's gone through.
Yes, yeah, I agree.
I agree with us In and Angela, just like both of them have said, I feel like we share up the suffering with Christ when we literally go through what he went through. That's the way we can be empathetic because then we are walking in his shoes. His sons today especially been on this part of the world. You feel like it becomes so hard to preach the word of God. So sometimes you can deny you you know, Jesus Christ came to his own and his own denied him.
Even today, you might want to preach to somebody about the word of God. Just last week, I was telling a colleague of mine about God, like, you know, you know, y'ah, like I wanted to share the word of God. And then my friend just said, you know what, I'm not interested. We'll keep arguing about this, so let's just not start taking about it. I was so shattered, I'm like, okay. And so you realize that people did deny Jesus Christ and people did accept him, and so the suffering comes
in when he feels sad. He weeps when people do not trust in him. He feels sad when people are not trusting in the Mira because the people he came to die for. And then the other one also is Jesus Christ also suffered. There's one low moment I point out when he was at the cross. He cried, was it before the cross and the garden of Getzman when he said, let this car pass from me, however not my will, let you will be done. At that moment,
he felt the pain so much. And that was basically because the sins were separating him from the Father, even as there are times we go through life and we feel like our sins have separated us from God. You know, the moments where you feel your spirituality is not right with God. You just feel down, you don't pray anymore, Especially during COVID. I don't know. Maybe because it was just mainly online and we didn't have to go to church and worship and be reminded of God, many people's
spirituality just went down. And then you get to feel like you get to feel like you have been separated from God or maybe you're going through something painful in life, and moments that you can consider painful in life, and then us feel like where is God? And so in that moment you get to share, uh, the suffering that Christ went through because he felt that also at one point in his life.
I just explained a bit more and maybe maybe I'm putting you on on a spot broke. Here is the thing. While Christ walked on Earth, what are the things that made him moan? Because because basically that's what poor Polly is saying. So there they're general conditions, general things. As Christ went throughout his ministry that led him to that place of deep experiencing of grief, of customer spiritual context.
So so the question here is what what are some of those things that we would say made Christ's moan made him grieve spiritually genuine If you mind, Pedro, it's nice hearing your nice beast voice.
Actually, can I just say one thing about the last question? Then I go to that one with the with you're saying that. I was just thinking about this in the sense of we can't suffer like Christ if we don't walk with Christ. So like me, so like to me, we need to be walking with Christ in order to
get the pain. And then then then Christ would then comfort us because we are walking like when Jesus was on this earth, he showed us the blueprint on how to walk in Christ, or how to walk in him or walk like Jesus, and you know, to be sinless, because there's always a question of can we be sinless? Can we actually be pure and of heart, pure of mind, pure body, pure of soul. And Jesus gave us the blue the blueprint, and I think in today's where that's
a blueprint, that's not hard to do. But it's just when, like Melinda said, when you when you live that Christian life, people have a tendency to to downplay it or say they're not interested, but they are watching. So I think that the suffering that you're saying by suffering with Christ, if you're walking in Christ, you're going to suffer. But then Christ will then comfort you and give you the the power and the mercy to make it through whatever you're going through.
That was just my thought process.
Yeah, you've hit it nicely. You've hit it nicely, because here is here's the thing. Yeah, when we when we remember when you and ire agrieving, we're pretty God and we sit to him, Lord, please say, hit us, free us from from this, and he he if you remember the experience of Lazarus, why did you justus sweep? He wept because the people who were moaning. The Bible tells us that christis moved with compassion over the widow of Nain who lost her son. So grieving and mourning is
just something that God wants for us. Suffering is not something God wants for us.
Yet still his.
Hair saying there is spiritual moaning and spiritual grieving. There are certain blessings you need, and mind you, God don't have blessings available to us if we don't need them. There are certain blessings you need, but in order for you to be recipients of those blessings, their doors you need to open. And one of the doors you have to open is engaging in spiritual moaning, spiritual grief.
And what does that look like? What does that look like when you when.
He said, blessed that those who Moanlessed that those were experienced. And remember that it is not something you can and go through without God, that spiritual grieving. When my brother died, when my mom died, I did not need God to inject anything in me. I dont need to go and pray to God, say God, please help me, help me grieve, help me move.
No, no, no, no, that came naturally.
This one here, we need to go to Him for it because it entails mourning in God. So the Holy Spirit literally comes and as you pray, as you open up your hat, the Holy Spirit comes and leads you to that place where you.
Are moaning in God.
But mourning. Why it's also mourning after God. It is recognizing how far you are from God. It's recognizing how much you need God, recognizing how much you've alienated yourself from Him, and then for your hat to experience, because remember, you moan over something that is uh that that that is means the world to you. In order for you to moan after God, you need to have a particular concept of who God is and what you are missing in Him to experience that level of mourning after him,
of grieving after him. But it's it's also moaning for God, which is what we just read here in First Christians five where Paul says we share in the sufferings of Christ.
So the things.
That hurt God's heart hurts ours.
The things that matters to God matters.
To us, the the mission of God and the amount of of of effort and how heavy God carries it on his desire to see everyone saved. This we we partake in it as well. Let's just go a little bit further the hair as it relates to us being in that place of of what's that would, as it relates to us being in that place of experiencing.
The grund of who God is, the heart of God.
In other words, it's it's an invitation to be partakers of God's divine nature because as we go through this life, God looks and he looks at how we as human beings on our backs from Him, and it grieves his heart is moaning.
He sees how we suffer when.
We lose love, loved ones, and how we we.
Need persons to come to us.
It's his, his humans, and so it's an invitation to experience, to experience spiritual grief, spiritual mourning. Now, mind you, the word is used. The tense is the present active participle, which means, which means, as long as sinful conditions exist, as long as people are not saved, as long as people turn their backs from God, as long as you could see how distance you are from God, we should
be moaning, should be moaning. In other words, in other words, in for us to be recipients, ongoing recipients of this blessing, God is asking us to be spiritually sensitive on an ongoing basis. So there must never be a point in time that I go through the day where I don't deliberately pursue God heavily enough, I don't start my day with God and to be deliberate been with Him to so that I become insensitive to the things that matter
to God. And so as as we as we, as we get ready even now, just to stop and to and to spend some time. I I want to just highlight this. I want to highlight it that God is saying to us, Hey, as my child, you need to be in a constant state of spiritual moaning. Now, mind you, it doesn't mean that you're always gloom and sad and you're always crying and will No, no, no, that's not that's not That's not the meaning here. What he's saying is pursue me with all of your heart. Pursue me to
the point where your heart hurts. Pursue me to the point where as I reveal to you my will, as you see it and understand it, you will get jealous for God.
You will have such a desire within you that.
When it comes to taking what you have, what God has blessed you with in order to be to benefit others so that His kingdom and the work of His kingdom can be realized.
Yeah. In other words, your.
Heart has to be in tune with God's heart, has to be in tuned with God's hat and you're going to pass on to you or rather, before I do that, let me just open up a little bit, little bit anything back that you may have briefly and I will pass onto our host.
I'm suspecting your mine.
I am just.
For me.
It is the point, and I may not have it completely right. I understand that Christ suffered. He suffered for the Gospel, is my take on it. He suffered doing the work that God had placed on him to do, or or the job that he knew he had to do. But for me, most important was the fact that he suffered because he loved us. That That's where I'm coming back to, and that really resonates with me. He was a he is I keep saying, once he walked on earth. I think that's why I'm using the past tense. He
is a compassionate and I'm caring friend. And when when you say more, because again, this is a concept that I'm just putting my head around. Because before this conversation, mourning in that text only related to moaning the loss of a loved one, or mourning because someone whom I deeply care about has died. That was the kind of text in which I looked at that text. But You've now opened it up to a spiritual mourning, and for me, it is having a heart as Christ had for others.
And for myself knowing that I'm lost. I am lost without him, and and if I'm not careful, those around me will be lost. If I'm not shedding light, if I'm not setting the right example, if I'm not being as christ Like as I need to be, and I must be concerned about that. I should have a heart for that, and I should have a desire for that, And in having that desire and that yearning, then he
will provide the comfort. He will provide the covering. Because I'm always I'm always thinking about the end goal that we are all to make it into the Kingdom. If I'm sensitive to that, then I think I will be sensitive to the hearts of others. I don't know if I'm making sense, but in my mind it is. I If I'm if I'm concerned about whether Malember makes it into the Kingdom, then I'm concerned about Malember full stop.
Right.
If I'm concerned about my neighbor making it into the Kingdom, then I'm concerned about my because because that's the end goal, but it requires a whole load. Unfortunately, we make it just about maybe beating people over the head with the Word or or the Bible, but That's what I love again about Christ on earth. He talked, He dealt with the whole man. H you know, he dealt with with
with the physical. He dealt with those who were mourning, those physically, he dealt with those who had physical ailments. He dealt with the whole person, those who were hungry, those who were homeless. He dealt with the whole person. And ultimately his goal was to get them into the kingdom. That was his goal.
Yeah, Which which brings me to this place of asking.
How often are we there?
And and and I'm asking that deliberately because it's very easy to do Sabbath, very easy, returned my time, very easy to just get dressed.
And to you know, do my normal churchy things.
Very easy to just sell stud up and off our prayer and to and to just be completely disconnected from the things of God and the things that matters to God. So if if so Christ walked this earth, and he he was mission focused to the point where his heart was in this to the full, Yeah, he's inviting us to do the same. And it's no wonder, it's no wonder. It is not something that we can do on our own.
While the provisions are there. We have to be willing to open up ourselves to it and to be ready to pursue it so that we can experience that that grief, that spiritual grief, that's spiritual moaning, and so that our eyes can begin to see what God's eyes sees, our heart can begin to feel what God's heart feels, and for the intensity of it to hit us as much as it hits him, and the whole objective of being diligent at pursuing it with a loving and carrying and
desiring heart becomes ours as well. I mean, if you really think of it, if you really think of it, it's an invitation to partic in the sufferings that Christ part took in while he walk this berth.
Yeah.
And and we can't miss that that that is the purpose of the sufferings.
We can't.
He's asking us to partake of it, but we can't miss the purpose of it.
Yeah. Yeah.
It says as a reminder exactly you know where we need to be and what we need to go through to dual closer to Him. Yeah, because it's very easy to kind of get complacent and almost forget what the ultimate purpose is.
Yeah yeah, yeah. And Pastorinik, you said it so clearly, and and that's something that always it always troubles me, is that when we get so comfortable, we get so comfortable in our own routine and our own rituals. And I'm going to say it that I may get tap on the wrist for it, but particularly as Adventists, we are very good at our rituals and our routine, for
better or worse. But but it's important that we go beyond that, go beyond the pure warming, go beyond the you know, the the clockwork of the Sabbath and all that, and make sure that we have a compassion for people, make sure that we're caring about people, and make sure that we are being a tool for comfort for people. Again, I'm not sure if I've missed the mark there, but that for me is really what the Gospel is about, you know, having a heart for God in the way that He had a heart for others.
That's nice, then, yeah, And that really is what true Christianity is. True Christianity is not just going to church once a week. True Christianity is taking care of the least in society, the vulnerable, the widows, the orphans, others that need help. If we see in the Bible, those
are people that Christ was so happy to help. We see how he took care of the widow, even just stories, even from the Old Testament, when we see both from you and Old Testament, we hear stories of how the widows were taking care of, how God was, how Jesus Christ was happy to serve the people that were considered to be least in society, how he healed the blind, the lamb, those that were sick. That is what true Christianity is, taking care of our neighbors and their affairs.
Like you said earlier, if you know that my spiritual life is good, I'm doing fine, then you're happy because you are looking out for a sister, looking out for a neighbor. It goes back to the neighbor principle when Jesus Christ gave the power boy, and so really it's about out taking care of those around us. I did
have a comment earlier before I forget. There's something that Pastor Nick mentioned that in his explaining Blessed the Day that Morn, how we need to grieve for ourselves, how we need daily to basically pray for ourselves because we are singing every day, knowingly or knowingly just because we're living in such a sinful world. It just so happens that somehow you just get to sing. And we need to pray every day because we are not safe for a day or an hour without prayer. So it's a
reminder that we really need to pray. You know, when the Bible says carry you across daily. It's not going to be easy. It's not an easy journey. But we need to pick ourselves up every day and grieve for ourselves each and every day, or we'll be fine. It's just a moment. There's light at the end of the tunnel. One day we're going to go to heaven and your rejoice.
M h eternity doing.
Jore shore. Let's spray, let's spread. Father. We thank you against your word, Thank you lort Jesus for the second beattitude, this teaching that you gave about the importance of mourning. It for us to be recipients of comfort that God gives. I take this time to ask for your forgiveness for us who are here right now on this platform, and those who are hearing, and your people, your children in general.
But because at times it's it's become easy for us to just be complicent with spiritual things and not necessarily put ourselves in this place where we are pursuing you and the things that matter to you. You have invited us to moan. You've divided us to partic in your spiritual grief. For God, you look around and you see people who are suffering, people who are struggling, people who have lost loved ones. You look around of God, and
you see people who are lost in their sins. You look around and you see us who can become so so certain in our own righteousness that we are far from you, Lord, Your Your Your invitation to this spiritual grief, to the spiritual moaning, is an invitation to be saved, an invitation to be particulus of your divine nature, and invitation to continue this work of humiliation in ourselves as we looked at last week, as it relates to being poor in spirit, being spiritually jsecute, and and oh God,
you would not ask us to maintain spiritual moaning, spirit maintain spiritual grief if it was not in necessity. And so I pray that that will be the reality for every single world, that we will make it our business to be determined to be deliberately, to discoverable what means to be to moan spiritually, but to do everything in our power to experience this morning for God while moaning and grieving emotions we do not want. You have made
us this promise. If we pursue it, if we seek it, if we achieve it, you will bring the comfort and well, thank you and we'll bless your name.
It is a prayer, Amen, Amen, Thank you passon k for the first half. Thank you for your prayer. And we're going to take a break, take a song. Just let it marry aid for a minute, and then we will be better to discussion. You're listening to talking point here on adventicst radio line.
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But tell me how long have it been.
Since the man?
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From the baby moment.
I let you Winna how f F will dry stop me from making you set to love my life.
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Love you.
So don't let you go.
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Welcome back to talking points, and we are doing a deep dive into the beatitudes and passenic is really opening up our perspective on a very familiar passage or text, but really looking at it from a fresh perspective. So passonic. We were thankful for that. Guys. I don't know what have you taken away from the first half before we kind of move on into the second And just to recap,
I shared it just before we close it. It is the concept that it goes beyond maybe the physical morning if that's the right term, or the emotional mourning, and that we're talking about a spiritual mourning and understanding that we are lost without God, lost without Christ, and having a compassion for those around us as well, acknowledging that we are all lost but for the grace of God. So that for me is what I've taken away and
much more. Obviously from our first bit of the discussion, Petro Angie Malemba, what has resonated with you?
And again i'd say the similar thing to what you just said as well, but also recognizing that the comfort is not just a temporary thing. In that moment, it can provide us with assurance that God is always going to be with us. He gives us the hope, but his comfort will be never lasting.
One.
Again, it's interesting that we have to meet that condition of mourning, but again the promise of something greater is always there. So that's what I kind of following on from what you were saying there as well.
Yeah, and one thing I liked also is that we share this morning because Jesus Christ went through the morning. He mourns, and he was comforted by the Father, and so we are happy knowing that we are not experiencing something foreign. He came to leave like a human being so that he should understand what we go through. And so it's amazing to see that every time we go through, be it physically, we lose a loved one. Jesus Christ lost their loved one, He lost his best friend Lazarus.
He knew what it felt like to lose a loved one. When we lose people close to us, or when people deny us, when we feel sad, when we feel pain. He felt all of that, and so it's just amazing to see that I'm living through life just like Jesus Christ did live. And so when he says he will comfort us, he is sure that he. We are sure that he will comfort us because he understands what pain is. He understands what it means to mourn, be it for our spiritual lives. We cry for ourselves. He came to
die for our sins. He understands what it is to feel empty and painful because of sin. And so when he says it's going to comfort us, we need to trust in him. We need to have faith that really he is going to comfort us.
What I'm going to say is going to have it sound crazy, but when I took from it, I know it's going to sound crazy. The more I more, the closer I feel to God. Yeah, because I'm not afraid to mourn anymore now because I know when I'm more and God is with my walk of Christ, I know I feel that God would be there to comfort me.
And hold me and protect me and get me through the morning.
And then as we say, like you know, on the other side, I know that I will then feel comfort and his love and his joy and his happiness.
So that's kind of I don't know, that's what I took from it personally, you.
Just brought my cup something else that you you hinted that as well, the fact that we have to be in a particular place with God to really understand and have a heart like he has. And if we if we don't have a relationship with him ourselves, if we don't recognize our destitute selves, our broken selves, our sort of in full self, then we won't really understand what it is to more and spiritually and to be in
need of Him. And that really stems from having a relationship with Him and knowing that we can't do any of it without him. And you hinted at that at the very very beginning, and you just kind of reminded me again that we need to we need to have a relationship with Him first and foremost.
Nothing works, because without the relationship, there's no there's no salvation, there's no there's no understanding, there's no understanding, there's no next there's no next level, there's no heaven. Yes, so I just you know, and I said, that's why I said, I just think I kind of nombra. I not think of his morning as a good thing. I know that
may sound weird to me. This is my personal It just to me is a good thing because it just showed I know that now my house side, I'm going to get God is going to be there for me.
I'll make it through.
Thing fedio in. I think one of the Old Testament passages in Issacae nine, the Bible speaks about and God. God praises the priests who moan between the port and the altar, and those who sign and cry for his people. So listen, it is impossible for you to be a Christian and to be saved and not care about the things that God cares about. And while while the invitation to be saved is an invitation to something absolutely phenomenal and greed, it is it's a cult of suffering, and
not many persons like to hear that. In Collashion chapter one, it's one of the passages I go to every now and then when you know it's difficult to be a
pastor or lose it something that not want. We give up something every now and then when I want to remember why what called me into ministry, I go to Callers from chapter one where Paul speaks about his philosophy of ministry, and there he says that we are we are called to suffer the same same way is used, the same word for come, for for for for moving days loose uh. We are called to partake in the
sufferings of Christ. So while while and I guess that's that's what makes it ironic, while it seems like a wrong thing or something to not want, it's actually what God is in inviting us to. So you're you're spots on your spots on.
I just had another third walk quick sure.
With the morning right when we mourn and and you're grieving, it's not just the morning of a of a lost one, but like also the morning of when we see one of our family members that may be going down the wrong path from morning because you want to see them make it into heaven.
So you're like, look, you're doing this wrong thing.
Or even your fellow church member or just somebody that you care about, somebody that you deal with on a daily basis at work. Like Melinda said, the cowork at work, you develop a relationship and so you mourn, and I think the morning, actually then I won't to say forces you, but it makes you want to tell people about Jesus.
Does that makes sense? Am I making it there?
Like I know, I just as you was talking, it just kind of popped in my head because one thing I noticed now with the passing of my brother, I tell people about my brother and in the next sentence comes out my mouth is what God has got my back and He's helping me make it through this. And then I start talking about Jesus to them. Even if I know they don't want to hear it, I still tell them about it, you know, like I still mentioning it.
I won't force it on them, but I will just mention it if they want more information than I give them more information, you know. I think the morning can sometimes make us proclaim a preacher talk or just witness to other people.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, spots On spot on. Well, we we do have the next part of this beautiful beatitude, which is God's God, which is what God promises to do for us. He says, those who moan they shall be comforted. I love that. It's not they might be, but they shall be comfortent. This is guaranteed. But the question here is what does it mean to be comfortent? How are those who who moan? How are they those
who moans spiritually? How are they comfortable? So we do a bit of a quick die into the word there from morning it's actually it's actually uh two words that comes together. From one. It's the the word power, which means alongside from where we we of course you have was like parachute in the English and so on that coming with parachute paralegal, so the word para and the
second one, kalaios kalo, is to call. So in actuality, the word the word here that is really comforted means to call alongside or to be close to four K what's important for social coision?
Now?
That for me is absolutely beautiful because there are times when you go through situations and circumstances and it feels like you are absolutely alone mm hm, and you feel lost and you're wondering how am I going to get some help here? But hair is God's promise. And by the way, when uh Jesus speaks in John sixteen, and he said I will tell you all the comfort the same wood is usual and well we know it's paraclytoss. It's the same root would So it's someone who comes
alongside you. I wanted to get this. Guys comes alongside you and does life with you. So when when when God says heir, they they shall be comforting. God is basically saying the level of comfort that you will receive. I want use you to know that it's the level of comfort whereby you won't be doing this alone. You won't be doing this alone. Now, there is no English
would actually captures the meaning of paracalio. Here's the reason you would notice Heir I said, it's coming alongside okay and support, but we have the English would comfort him. So no English would actually can really give you it in full. Comfort is the closest that we come to. However, the meaning is determined by the context. And I want to share with you a few passages in the Bible where the saybold is used, and you will see where the context determines the meaning.
So in.
Yes, So when Jesus had entered Kapanam, the Bible said the centurially came to him. So we have heard a story of the centurion who comes to Jesus asking for her, but tially came to him. The phrase there came to him is the same word paracaleo. So asking for her, he said, my servant lives at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. So the centurion, we could say, parakalo Jesus, so he'd you near to Christ physically. And we have million of
the word. Again the context give it to us. Here is an order example in Matthew chapter two on was eighteen, Matti says, the voice is heard in Rama weeping and great morning, Rachel wheeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more.
And the word here is, of.
Course, if it means to come by, to come to, to come by someone, to call be called by someone, it means she's refusing anyone to come close to her to bring her social support or social comfort. All right now, The reason I deliberately chose those two verses just to rebring it up is you just explained to us here
that the context determines the million of the word. So it's a word when used in h in a feed physical sense, like the centurion literally came close to so It's like you're walking on the road and a friend comes close by you to say hi or to work with you. That the same wood is you. That's the millionaire. In the context of Rachel weeping for her children, you lost a loved one, people come by you, they come close to you to bring comfort. That is from a
social context. Here in our second beatitude, the context is spiritual, and I want us to get this guy. Contact is spiritual. So blessed are those who moan, for they will be comforted. And again the beatitude is this spiritual from dash Jesus sets for this phenomenal sermon that he preaches.
So in matthith five, Parachalo is literally get.
This is literally God coming to our side so that we can receive care, support and social cohesion spiritually, spiritually.
Now this excites me, and I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why it's excites me because irrespective of what I go through or where I am, keep in mind that the the blessing, the macaraos, the spiritual untouch ability is you being comforted in other words, in other words, in other words, when you experience that spiritual spiritual grief, that spiritual than God is saying here I will come, Yeah, you,
I will come alongside you. When I have placed my purpose in your heart and you are pursuing it as a result of this spiritual grief, when you have understood MY calling on your life and you are positioning yourself for it as a result of that spiritual grief, when you have loved and you have your heart is bleeding for me, and you are in prayer and you are pursuing me, and you are asking for blessings even on
your enemies. He's saying, I not only will I come near you, but might coming near you is to provide you the level of spiritual comfort that you need, the strength that you need, the anointing that you need, the blessing that you need, the thing that you need so that you can accomplish whatever it is that I have set on your heart as it relates to what you're moaning about.
So the morning is not just moaning just to be comforted. No, the comfort is coming so.
That, by God's grace, you are able to leave that life of fulfillment, that life where you are. You are deliberately embacking on what God has called you to. And guess what. Guess what? Guys, because it is McCarry yours, because you are it is you being spiritually unforchable when God himself comes by to give you that level of spiritual comfort as what was sweet about it? Do you you remember when Paul was in prison on death row and Emperor Never was getting ready to put him to death.
It is the final letter to Timothy that the very last letter he writes is second Timothy in second Team of chapter four from the sixth down all starts by saying, I am now listen. He's about to die, the most gruesome death from one of the worst emperors who leave. He knew it, but he says, I'm now ready to be offered. At the time of my departure is at hand.
I have thought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the fifth and I know there is from you a front of righteousness, that level of comfort where you are able to even look in the face of danger, in the face of disappointment, in the face of obstacles. But God comes to give you this comfort. He gives you this assurance, is certainty that what He has called you to is not something that will fail.
What he has called you to is something that is going to succeed, so he settles you spiritually despite what Listen, guys, this for me is just absolutely mind blowing when you really think of what God is here talking about. So let me just share this and then I'm happy to open up to get some feel back from from your hair. So it's another spiritual comfort. What Christ is saying here is that you have the certainty that in your spiritual needs will be met. That's why I will buy to
comfort you. And in terms of your specality has been met. I am coming by with everything you need. So even when you might be alone and feeling like you're this this willderness place, I am coming back with everything you need. There is the thing, one of the mistakes we make, and I'm guilty of it, is that sometimes when we when we feel the pressure is too much and the challenge is that too much, we back off or we
try to fix things ourselves. Listen to me. You pursue God with that heart of spiritual moaning, and He's saying, I will bring you comfort. I will bring you peace, I will bring you safety, I will bring you satisfaction. I will get you to the point where you will receive absolutely everything that you need in order for your spiritual growth to continue, in order for your spiritual purpose to be realize. H And I guess, I guess want
to open up a little bit here. Of course, the requirement is a lot of the commiss for us to meet those who would so we are responsible for pursuing that morning to prayer, to opening up ourselves to the world of God through listening to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But God says, when it comes through the spiritual benefit, I provide it. And if I provide it, no one can take it away from you. No one
can take it away from you. Let me, let me just open up just to get some feedback from you, guys.
I'm gonna throw it over to Malember, our bodying pastor. I'm troubling you what what's what's your take on this? And then we can see if Angie and Petro want to chime in.
Okay. It's interesting, honestly seeing how God comforts us when we are going through things that seem to be tough in life. He just as a way of comforting us, be it socially, when things are not going right, he would send a friend to just give you hope of the future, or hope that something good will happen. You know, sometimes you try and apply for a job and you
don't get your preferred job. You feel so sad. Yeah, and then a few months down the line, he blesses you with a much better job than the one you wanted earlier. He comforts you even in such moments. It's not just grief of the lost one. Morning can be in anything. We've learned that it can be any parts of our lives that we feel low, physically, spiritually, even socially,
if I should add. And so it's amazing how God comforts as like he pays detail to the little things that make us happy, to the little little things that we don't even think he does, but he really really does. You lose a loved one, you have no idea how you move on, you know. I remember one time going to a funeral our church member back Homing Zambia lost their husband and she was a dockerst leader at the time, and so that people at the church were so sad
for her because she lost the husband. And so when we went to the funeral house, instead of people encouraging her, she started encouraging people and everybody was amazed. It's not because she didn't feel the pain, but she knows who she believes in, and people take grief differently. In that moment after today, she says, I don't know how I managed to stay strong all this time, but I know
God was with me through the journey. And now it's been many years down the line and everybody shares that story. That's why I can even say it here. And so we find that even when we lose a loved one, only God can help us get over the grief, because it is not easy for us to do it on our own. And his promises are sure. He told us in the Bible that I will send you a comforter, and He surely surely does comfort us. Now there's one comment, sorry, that I wanted to make earlier. I'm gonna make it
just now. Many of us want to be comforted in any way. But we don't want to be the ones experiencing the morning. We don't want to be the ones to experience the loss of a loved one. We don't to be the ones to experience a loss of a job. We don't to be the ones to experience a loss of anything valuable. Yet we want the pegs of it. We want God to come through for us. You see how God blesss other people with something much better, but we never ask them what is it that they lost
to get better. I'm not saying you can only get better when you lose something, but the Verse is telling us that blessed are those who want for they will be comforted. And so you look at your friend who has been comforted in one way, and you want the comfort, but you don't want to go through the morning process. It's it's like it's a journey. It's a two way thing. You will go through the morning part and then the
comfort comes. It's like one thing to have this powerful testimony when you don't want to go through the teste. Somebody said there's no testimony without the taste, and so you are tested in one way or another and then you emerge victorious and negated testimony. Similarly, you go through a morning phase of your life and because God's promises, sure you are blessed because you are moaning, He's definitely coming through to comfort you. That's what I would That's been my take on.
This man man, Thank you Alamba Andrew Petro.
Just follow going for what Malemba was saying, it's something I was thinking about earlier in terms of wanting not Sometimes we don't necessarily want to go through something, but we have the perks. I remember my dad passed away, and you know, it was inevitable. He'd been ill, and it was inevitable that he was going to he was going to die, and I remember praying to God just
for the acceptance that that's going to happen. I wasn't necessarily saying to take away the fact that I'm going to be really sad, devastated, everything else, but I really just wanted the acceptance. And I remember having a dream and I was holding his hand, and I remember in the dream he was just slipping away, but he was saying, it's going to be okay. And I really remember thinking afterwards that was God's way of showing me that actually I am with you. I'm going to bring you some comfort.
You know, devastating experiences I've had in my life, but that's what I prayed for. And I remember, you know, as years have gone past, sometimes you don't want, you don't want to go through these sad things, but sometimes you have to accept that these things maybe evitable. But it's asking for that sort of either understanding the acceptance or you know, recognizing that, Okay, I'm going through something,
but I need your help. And I just kind of always and again, as Pedro was saying, sometimes you can share your experience, you have a testimony and what have you. And I've often shared that story because for me, it was a direct answer to my prayers that I'm going to go through an experience. I can't do anything about it, but I've accepted it and I'm going to be okay. And I definitely got an answer to that prayer and I can share that, and you know, sometimes people say, well,
how did you go through something like that? How are you able to kind of make it through?
You know?
And I'm like, well, you know, I've got I have a I have a belief and a faith in God that he promises that he will be with me. He promises. And it's interesting whether the Greek word there is talking about being by your side. The comfort is not just you know from a distance, He's right there with you. And I believe that's what happened for me, and that's something that I can share with others as well.
Man and Petrick before you may want to jump in.
Just for me.
Is like you've said, it's it's it's been willing to even in terms of spiritual loss, it's been it's being willing to acknowledge that you are nothing, I am nothing, I am lost. It's that acknowledging that I am lost, or I have lost someone, I am broken, I am hurting. It's acknowledging that and recognizing that there is something on the other side of that, something wonderful, something better, as
Malember has said. And sometimes it's hard to think that because all you can see is the loss, or all you can see is the pain or and I mean we're talking about losing anything, and also we're talking about spiritual grief or mourning. So it's acknowledging that I am absolutely nothing. I can't do this. And if we don't acknowledge that, then we're not making room for him to to fill us, to comfort us. If we are operating like we're self sufficient, Hm, where where is his place.
In all this?
Yeah?
That's very true.
You know what, what what does he do?
If we can do it all, if we are if we can operate on our own, if we can we can accomplish it by ourselves, and Malemba said that in her point previously. It's it's it's not not attempting to do it by ourselves, you know, because if we attempt to do it by ourselves, we're going to make a mess of it. It's recognizing that we need him. We need him to accomplish our purpose past you said it, we need it for us to fulfill our mission here. And ultimately our mission is to spread the Gospel, you know.
That's it.
That's the end game. If I should borrow that phase, that's the endgame. Our mission is to spread the Gospel and hasten His coming. But we won't accomplish that or any other thing unless we recognize we are empty vessels. That's really what's hit me tonight. We're empty vessels in need of him. We're broken vessels. Whether we are broken because we've lost loved ones, and Lord Jesus, I pray because I know that that is a painful position to
be in. I've experienced that suddenly, you know, palpitations, loss of breath, just you're here today, gone tomorrow what and just not knowing where to go and what to do, and recognizing that I could not do it I could not get to the other side but for his grace, his mercy and his love.
Right, I'm sorry for me.
I'm just gonna say for me, you guys pretty much touched on everything that I was thinking in a sense, and then some some stuff I wasn't thinking.
For me, I guess only.
I'm actually gonna just say one instead of saying the word comfort, I'll just from everything that we just spoke about, I just take it as reassurance m hm mm.
Hmm and leave it at that m hmm for me.
Yeah, bless bless there is there is something you said, Lilia Pedro and you you I think it was either yourself or who spoke on it as well, And there's it's that the process of morning, while it's uncomfortable, it's a blessing. And one of the reasons that it's a blessing is because God will allow persons to come your way whom you can minister, so you can empathize with them simply because you've gone through that that journey before seven Conscience the one, three and four mixed a very
very very interesting point. It mentions that the same word comfort, the same Greek would is used us. It mentions it all times, and I wanted to see how how poor brings it to a close. He says, crazy. Be to the God and Father of our love, Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. So God praises a lot you expect of what you're going through our ho abilities is the God of all comfort. He comes close to us to journey and to work
with us, who comforts us in all our troubles. Hallelujah. But here's why He does it, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
Amen.
So so we don't go through things idly. So you guys don't know. I'm currently recovering from severe depression. It's one of the absolute worst experiences in my life. And a few months ago I was saying to one of my purses while we were at prayer meeting, and I'm borrowing your your your your words, Pedro. It sounds I said something a little bit crazy, but I told them and I mean it with all of my hat. That why I hated the experience. I'm grateful to God for it.
I'm grateful to God for it. It has allowed me to see, to see colors I did no existent. It has allowed me to heir to heir notes I didn't know what being sun when when people now speak, I am able to see a little bit more what the experience is. And in my capacity as a pastor, my ministry has changed dramatically as a result. And and so it's like as a result of what I went through.
Sometimes when I see people and I hear what they're saying, I begin to experience that spiritual morning and I have this desire or Lord, please help me so that I could help this person, or rather, God please help that listen now, And somehow the Lord brings that comfort and I'm able to minister to those people. And on a number of occasions sometimes I feel like I wish I
could have done more. But then when they come back and they say, oh, Pastor, you know that day that you call it, that day that you prayer, that day that you preach this particular message has what did for me? This whole, this whole invitation to moan. While moaning and grieving is not nice, spiritual moaning and breathing is something we need. It is something we need, and so opening up ourselves to go and here's a guarantee of giving you.
The more you open up yourself to go but you make yourself vulnerable to God, the more God is going to expose you to more of his will. He will open up your eyes, open up your heart, allow you to partake in his own sufferings. The more you will experience that spiritual moaning and grieving. And guess what, that's okay. If it wasn't okay, he would not have said in the second beatitude.
And there is a.
Blessing pronounce on those who go through that experience. And the guarantee here is I will come alongside you. You're not doing this alone. I'm coming alongside you. I'm prepared to give you absolutely everything you need as long as you keep trusting in me, relying on me, and keeping your faith in me. I have everything that you need, not only to experience the comfort, but for you to be a blessing as well, for you to be a blessing as well. I I want to thank you guys
so much for the privilege of being here again. And I'm sure, well I'm not sure whether or not you have any any final take, anything at all that you would love to share, but I think for me in terms of the time, I'm pretty much call there any questions or in the last comments, I'm passing it on to you now.
Thank you very much, Pastionic, and again I can't say it enough. You have really just given us a fresh perspective on this and we are looking forward to to concluding the the series with you and perhaps looking again. I'm throwing it out there, Pastink as schedule would say, need to be bold with it. We're looking forward to doing another Bible study with you. Just say it in the next few months hopefully.
Yeah, I was going to say that around.
We book you for another Bible study session in the next few months.
I'm sure, I'm sure we can do.
We can.
Perfect, we really are.
We'd actually need to get him on. We actually need to get him off when we do the mental health.
Yes, yes, he just what he just for what he just taught us, if he's wanting to, if he's wanting to.
And I'm not trying to put you on the spot, Past the Nick, I apologize. I'm just because I think as men, I think it's men we don't we do not admit when we are we have issues, that we
have problems and we and we. I've always said that, like, I have no regrets on nothing that's happened in my life because whatever's happened in my life is made me who I am today and has allowed me to understand other people and other things that's going on that when I talk to them, they actually can see the transparency or they can see that I'm actually coming from a place of knowledge that I've been through it, because I think sometimes if you talk to somebody you've never been
through it, they just kind of dismiss you because they're like, you know, he's just he's just talking. He's just you know, he's just saying whatever you know, or he's just saying a Bible verse because he's saying a Bible verse. And I think what you just said is so as a male, I just think that is so good here that a male you know, can be honest and then say.
I'll say three three things in three three words to what you just said. That perpetual when it comes to even talking about Initially, for me, it was a bit of of you know, you don't really want to open up. But I've realized transparency mm hmm, authenticity and and and just just being genuine and organic as you listen that level of honesty and openness about where you are, what your struggles have been, and have God come through for you.
It resonates a lot more with people than when you you put a given, nice, funnished vision of the gospel.
Definitely, and as a pastor.
You know, people don't think pastor suffer, but I grew up as a pastor kid and I seen my father suffer and struggle, and so it just resonated with me when you said that, what you just talked about, because it just brought back what I used to see as a child. Because they think, you know, you're the pastor, so there's nothing wrong with you. You know, God has got you. So you're you're okay, You're gonna be fine, You're all right. You know, you're just praying to be
all over with and done with. You know, God would just snap a finger and your you know, you're you're healed. And it's not always that simple. No, I mean, God, God, God can't bring God can't bring you out of it. But it doesn't always happen in the timeframe that you think it should happen.
It doesn't.
I mean, now we're already phip the discussion, but I know I would be very very happy to to join you guys for the conversation. And there's a lot that I would love to share about it, especially from a theological that as a result of going through what I went through, I have lit the lots where that subject is concerned in the context of the Bible.
So what happened to you?
I was just going to add to that page, and I'm sorry for interrupting. I thinks a little bit. It goes beyond even the pastor it goes to what we think of Christians church goers. You know, we we have this disillusion that that once.
We have a relationship with but you know, because the past is the head of the church. I was talking. I wasn't.
I wasn't trying to downplay the just I'm saying it for the people that's listening. I wasn't trying to downplay the other folks or other people.
No, no, I know you're not.
But I was just talking perfectly.
Yeah, I'm also adding to that because not only do we think that have past us, but there are some who think that because you're a Christian, or because you're God fearing, you can't go through struggle. And I was also going to add to that or cement that with the study that we've had or the studies we've had, it just exemplifies that or it gives us that reassurance that sometimes you have to go through it. And I take the sometimes away we've got to go through it
and to see the blessing on the other side. Definitely, that really is the essence of the study here that we've done. Are so far in the beatitude spiritually and otherwise. So yeah, that's my final thought. I might as well throw that in there. Malember Angie. There is time for about a minute for your your final thoughts on this before we close with a prayer.
It's been very interesting and exciting. Honestly, I have loved the discussion. Thank you so much, Pastonic for the insights. Blessed that does that mourn for they will be comforted. My takeaway of my final thoughts that we need to be grateful to God when we go through sad moments or moments that we can consider morning periods, because it's in such that God is going to eventually comfort us. We see His goodness regardless of what we go through, and we need to mourn for ourselves for our lives.
Need to grieve for ourselves. We need to pray for ourselves. We need to pray for God to protect us from sin because we're in this world and we basically just let's take care of each other. Let's always look out for our friends. We learned of how we need to take care of the list of these in our communities. Let us live like Christ lived and to share in his saffering just like he did, to be sympathetic and empathetic, and that way we will really live like Christians should live,
because then we are living like Christ lived. And just remember that you won't always be loved, because even Jesus Christ was not loved as much as he is God, and he came to his own and his own denied him. Not everybody will love us. But because we are Christians and we are living in accordance to God's will, we will go through moments that will be hectic for us, moments that we can cause suffering or morning. But they assurance I will get that way from Pedro, not just comforting.
There's assurance that at the end of whatever we are going through, Jesus Christ, God is always there with us. His promises are sure. He tells us that he will never leave us nor forsake us. So regardless of what we go through, should remember that if we have faith and believe, you will be there with us through our journey.
And I'm the world was reassurance and that assurance, but I'm not trying.
To be okay.
To clarify that.
Okay, thank you, I was just going to sound much more, but I can add on to that. But I think one of the things I did take away from this especially and again thank you past to Nick for breaking this down for us, is also how it feeds into our mission to spread God's word, because when we are experiencing experience in the spiritual mourning, that's when we become sensitive to the things that you know, God mourns for.
We will be caring about those things and the things that people and what people are around us who are suffering, not going the right path, et cetera. And that will be our opportunity to try and make a difference in their lives. And I think, you know, in terms of then achieving that level of mourning that we can feed into to to then receive that level of comfort. But we're also spreading, you know, talking about his words, spreading
his gospel, et cetera as well. So I think it's you know how, it's really interesting to see how it links into really the mission about what you know, on our purpose of what we're cal to do. So that's one of the things I've taken from that today.
Well, I truly hope that you have been blessed. Thank you, Angie, Thank you Pastor Nick. Again, Pajo, why don't you close us out with a prayer? I think our time is fast close us out, well, he prayed twice. That's what I'm asking you to close us up, because you do it so well. You should not mind. Now you're the closer.
I was about here having heavny.
Father, we thank you for bringing us to another ending of a talking point that was enlightening, encouraging and reassuring and comforting.
We ask Lord that you are now be with us as we go through this week.
A lot of the words that has been spoken out of our mouths and the words that people are hearing, that we'll be able to use those in our daily lives going forward. Then we'll be able to understand the comfort and the suffering and the mourn, that we may feel that God will be there to protect this. God will be there to comforters, and he will be there
to help us through those times of troubles. We ask Lord to j will be of each and every one of us again as we start this week and as we going to the evening, we ask the Jill just be with us and break us up the next morning in our right minds and then our right spirits, that we may continue to serve you. Thank you love for everything, and for your love and your grace for this uprating your holy name.
Amen, Amen, Thank you.
Well.
It's good night, and God bless from me Daniel for me Angela.
Good night from Mulamba and good night from Pedro.
Doubless you and see you again next time a.
Bye.
Adventist Radio London inspiration for the song