Let’s play a word association game for a minute. When I say a word, just tell me what comes to your mind.
• Sorrow… distress caused by loss, affliction, disappointment, etc.; grief, sadness, or regret.
• Grief…. Keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret
• Mourn… (a) to feel or express sorrow or grief. (b) to feel or express sorrow or grief over (misfortune, loss, or anything regretted); deplore.
• Jealousy…jealous resentment against a rival, a person enjoying success or advantage, etc., or against another’s success or advantage itself.
• Envy…a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another’s advantages, success, possessions, etc.
Now you may be wondering what those last two are doing on the list. What do “jealousy” and “envy” have to do with mourning, sorrow and grief?
Both jealousy & envy involve sorrow. They are both a form of sorrow that is focused on the success of others while resenting the perceived absence or lack of something in our own lives.
Thomas Aquinas said, “Envy is sorrow at another’s good…” Envy is a sense of grieving that others have what we feel we lack.
ENVY (and I would say JEALOUSY) is rooted in scarcity…it is always focused on what we don’t have. envy and jealousy don’t recognize the blessings we do have…in fact they cannot recognize the blessings we have because they focus on what it is we think we don’t have…
ME
I know that this has been true in my own life.
-Story of envying a friend who’s church was growing while mine wasn’t…I made excuses as to why his growth wasn’t real or wouldn’t last and secretly found satisfaction when he had difficulties. I actually grieved his successes and celebrated his failures/challenges…THIS IS THE SIN OF ENVY!!!
WE
And every one of us in this room today has, at some point, fought our own private…and sometimes not so private…battle with envy. We find ourselves envying others, wishing that they weren’t successful and that we were, wishing that they didn’t have their gifts, or abilities, or possessions because we don’t have those same gifts, abilities and possessions. We find ourselves grieved that others have what we don’t.
Are you tracking with me? Are you willing to be honest and admit that envy has been or currently is an issue in your life?
Envy, jealousy, covetousness…these are all forms of sorrow…forms of mourning, grieving. We grieve for what we don’t have and we grieve for what others do have.
We grieve, or mourn, over our sense of loss…whether we should feel that loss or not is irrelevant. The fact is we do feel loss and we grieve that loss…we mourn.
The grieving that is envy and jealousy is a bad grief. It is misdirected mourning. Matt Hammett, pastor of the Flood in San Diego put it this way…”Envy is a misdirected desire for wholeness…” With envy we mourn because we are incomplete…which God wants us to understand…He wants us to recognize our lack of wholeness our lack of completeness…but envy, the desire to have what someone else does…is a misdirected attempt a wholeness because nothing that anyone else has will make us complete.
So how does Jesus address this sense of loss in our lives? How does Jesus deal with these issues of envy and jealousy? What is his response to the lack of wholeness in our lives? Let’s explore HIS call to an UPSIDE DOWN WAY OF LIFE and find the answer.
GOD
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:1-12 (NIV)
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN, FOR THEY WILL BE COMFORTED.
BLESSED:
Jesus’ pronouncement of blessedness is more than a just saying that we are “Happy.” It is an exclamation that happy, joyful, fulfilled are they because they are on the right path…they are experiencing the presence of God here and now. (WE COVERED THIS LAST WEEK)
So this happiness…this blessedness…that Jesus talks about is a result of being on the right path…moving towards God.
So how does mourning move us towards God? What is it about sorrow that God loves? Does God bless ALL sorrow?
THOSE WHO MOURN:
Jesus says, “Blessed (on the right path…moving towards God…Joyful…Happy) are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”
So is Jesus saying that it is a good thing to mourn? Is he saying that sorrow is a good thing?
YES!
When there is sorrow because we recognize that we are not complete, that is a good thing. However, not all sorrow is good. Jesus has something specific in mind here.
Envy and jealousy are forms of sorrow…sorrow over what we don’t have…sorrow over what others do have…but it isn’t a sorrow that is blessed by God.
God is attracted to the hurting, the broken the mourners of our world, but…
Not all sorrow is blessed. Not all sorrow is attractive to God.
The grief that we are mean to feel, the sorrow that God is drawn to and that he comforts is the grief of our very own guilt.
Not grief over the injustices of the world (though that is valid)…not grief over the injustices that have perpetrated against us, but grief over the injustices that we have committed.
There are many, many things to grieve over…but not all sorrow and sadness invokes God’s blessing…because sometimes we grieve over the fact that we don’t get what we think we deserve…it is not the world that has wronged us, but we that have wronged the world and the grief we are meant to feel and the grief that is blessed by God is the grief, the sorrow, the mourning over our own sense of sinfulness and depravity.
The sorrow that is blessed, the mourning that, according to Jesus, we result in being comforted by God is sorrow, not over what has been done to us, but sorrow over what we have done. Sorrow because we are incomplete as a result of sin is a sorrow that God will bless.
This sorrow, this mourning naturally flows from being poor in spirit. Remember, that when we are poor in spirit, we are humble, we have an accurate view of ourselves…and any accurate self-evaluation leads us to the realization that we are sinners…that we are evil…that we are broken…that we are separated from God and are desperately in need of him.
So often we are sorrowful for what has happened to us or for what we have lost or for what we never had, but rarely do our hearts break over our own sinfulness…rarely do we mourn because we have broken GOD’s heart. Rarely do we even recognize that we have sin…but we do and we must recognize it.
G.K. Chesterton, the great Christian writer and thinker was once asked by a magazine publisher to answer this question…”What is wrong with the universe?”
Chesterton gave a two word reply…”I am.”
That spirit of humility, that attitude of contrition is what produces the sorrow, the mourning, that is blessed by God because it recognizes that the only thing we lack that is worth mourning over is the Righteousness of God!
The prophet Isaiah put in these words,
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Isaiah 6:5 (NIV)
Isaiah was in the temple, praying and worshiping God when he had a vision of heaven and saw God. And his response to the image of God was “Woe to me!” He recognized how sinful and dirty he was and his heart broke.
Some of us are tempted to say, “I’m not evil. Sin isn’t a problem. I live a good life, better than most people.” But the Bible tells us
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 64:6 (NIV)
Until our hearts break over our own sinfulness, God will not draw near to us, but when our hearts break over our own sin…God comforts us with His grace.
Until we recognize our sinfulness and are truly broken by it…until the blackness of our own hearts drives us to sorrow…until we are at a place where we really mourn our own sinfulness we will never be drawn close to God…we will never be at a place where we can let his healing grace and his amazing forgiveness wash over us and comfort us and make us new. when our hearts break over our own sin…God comforts us with His grace.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:16-17 (NIV)
Why…how is it that God comforts those whose hearts are broken because of their own sin?
THEY WILL BE COMFORTED
Because when we recognize the reality of our sin…when we stand in God’s presence and say “Woe to me!...I’m unclean.” When we see our sin for what it is…the crime that nailed Jesus to the Cross…we will fall at his feet and beg for the mercy and the grace that he so much desires to give to us. When we are honest about who and what we are (poor in spirit) and when we grieve over that reality (mourn for our sin) God comforts us with his grace and his mercy. When our hearts break over our own sin…God comforts us with His grace.
Here’s how David worded it in the psalms.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
Psalm 103:10-13
Isaiah’s own experience in the temple reveals God’s desire to cleanse us…not to punish us.
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
Isaiah 6:6 (NIV)
What did Isaiah do to deserve his cleansing? NOTHING! He simply acknowledged who and what he was before God and God comforted him with grace by taking away his guilt and atoning for his sin.
To atone for something means to pay reparations…to pay compensation for a wrong done. The problem with atonement is that I can’t afford the cost of the reparations. None of us can…Isaiah couldn’t…that why he felt ruined at the sight of GOD.
BUT…God through the blood sacrifice of his Son, Jesus, atoned for our sins. Jesus’ death upon the cross, his blood spilled out, paid for the sin I should be mourning over. Jesus death atoned for the sin and guild that should be causing genuine grief in you right now.
And God delights to forgive us because the punishment of our sins has already been handled by Jesus. So there is comfort for those who mourn because the blood of Jesus Christ allows us to be forgiven for the sin that separates us from God…the sin that makes us incomplete and leaves us lacking. God comforts us when we mourn. When our hearts break over our own sin…God comforts us with His grace.
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN FOR THEY WILL BE COMFORTED!!!!
SO WHAT?
YOU
[HAVE MIKE AND THE BAND COME TO THE STAGE]
Let me ask you…Do you mourn? Are you grieving? Are you grieving because you have an understanding of your own sin? Do you mourn because you know what’s wrong with the universe…and it’s you!
The fact is that each and every one of us are responsible for the blood that was shed on the cross 2,000 years ago. Every one of us should be in mourning because our sin put a man to death.
But as we mourn we can consider ourselves blessed…happy…joyfully on the right path…because as we mourn our guilt and sin, God will comfort us. When our hearts break over our own sin…God comforts us with His grace.
That’s the upside down way of God. When we mourn for our own sins…our own crimes against humanity and when we acknowledge that we are what’s wrong with the world…we will find comfort and be blessed, because when our hearts break over our own sin…God comforts us with His grace.
And we can receive that grace right here right now. It is offered through the blood of Jesus Christ!
[SING…”YOUR BLOOD” BY MATT REDMAN]
WE
The blood of Jesus is offered to all of us…and all of us, our whole church needs to be washed in that blood.
So today, as a body of believers, we are going to take communion.
The bread and wine represent the broken body and spilled blood of Jesus. They represent the payment… the ATONEMENT for our sins…
As you take communion today, make it a time of mourning for your sin. Make it a time of grieving for what you have done to the world…a time of sorrow for the fact that WE ARE WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE UNIVERSE.
I urge you to enter this time of communion mourning your sin…but I also urge you to leave this time of communion celebrating the COMFORT…THE GRACE…THE MERCY…THE FORGIVENESS that we receive when we mourn because the blood of Jesus has taken away our sin and made us righteous before God!
This is certainly an upside down way of looking at things…
• GOD PAYS THE PENALTY FOR THE CRIMES WE COMMITTED AGAINST HIM
• WE CAN BE BLESSED (JOYFUL & HAPPY) AS WE MOURN OUR SIN
• WE CAN EXPERIENCE FORGIVENESS AND MERCY FOR SIMPLY ACKNOWLEDGING OUR DEPRAVITY AND TRUSTING IN HIS GRACE
That is an upside down way of living…but it’s the way of GOD.
Let’s pray and take communion.
