Blessed Are Those Who Mourn
Matthew 5:4
OKAY – I would like to read a few passages of Scripture that will set the stage for our conversation this morning.
AND REMEMBER – to lean in, because what you are about to hear is God breathed!
The first passage is from John 11…
Jesus good friend Lazarus has been dead for four days, and Jesus is just showing up on the scene.
Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to MOURN there.
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her WEEPING, and the Jews who had come along with her also WEEPING, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus WEPT. – John 11:30-35
The next passage is from Luke 19.
Jesus is nearing the city of Jerusalem, riding a donkey, it’s Palm Sunday.
Countless people have lined the streets, waving Palm branches, singing and shouting His praises.
Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord… Hosanna to the son of David.
YES – it was quite the scene of joy and celebration.
But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to WEEP. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes.
Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.” - Luke 19:1-44
AND – here is the final passage, James chapter 4…
NOW – in this passage James is calling God’s people (us) out.
You adulterous people!
Okay bro, that’s a little harsh don’t you think?
Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the Spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. And He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be TEARS for what you have done. Let there be SORROW and DEEP GRIEF. Let there be SADNESS instead of laughter, and GLOOM instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. – James 5:4-10
Prayer
OKAY – let’s do this MGCC!
Week 9 in our verse by verse study of Matthew Gospel, ‘The King and His Kingdom.’
NOW – last week in this study we came to what is the longest and most well-known sermon that Jesus ever shared, ‘The Sermon On The Mount.’ Which some have said is the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher in history.
NOW Jesus - begins this sermon with what are called ‘The Beatitudes.’ AND - each Beatitude begins with the word blessed.
So Jesus says, “Do you want to be blessed?” Everyone says, “Yes, we want to be blessed. We want to be happy.”
AND THEN – He says, “Blessed are you…”
AND THEN - He gives eight different characteristics of a life that is blessed, by God.
AND LISTEN – one thing that is clear right out of the gates is that these 8 characteristics are kind of crazy, they are counterintuitive - they do not make sense…
They are paradoxical – they are oxymoronical.
NOW - a paradox is a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.
• Nobody goes to that restaurant; it's too crowded.
• Don't go near the water 'til you have learned how to swim.
• The man who wrote such a stupid sentence cannot write at all.
• If you get this message, call me, and if you don't get it, don't call.
• I am going to start thinking positive, but I know it won’t work
• I am a deeply superficial person
• The future ain’t what it used to be
• We must believe in free will, we have no choice
• Always be sincere even when you don’t mean it
• I distinctly remember forgetting that
• I am not schizophrenic and neither am I
NOW - an oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear next to each other…
• Bitter Sweet, Act Naturally
• Found Missing, Jumbo Shrimp
• Original Copy
• Clearly Misunderstood
• Pretty Ugly, Seriously Funny
• New Classic, Even Odds
• Constant variable
• Deafening silence, Same Difference
• Civil War
• Microsoft Works
Jesus says, ‘happy poor, happy sad, happy hungry…
HE SAYS – “okay, you say that you want to have a real life, a full life a blessed life, Kingdom life.
WELL – here is how to make that a reality.
AND SO - in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus makes this very counterintuitive and contradictory statement,
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
“Blessed are those who mourn.”
I MEAN - can we just agree that, that doesn’t make a lot of sense? Happy are the sad.
NOW - last week we looked at the first Beatitude where Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor,” and we talked about how that is so counterintuitive to us.
BECAUSE - we tend to equate blessing with wealth or “Blessed are the rich.”
But Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
BUT - we don’t see it that way.
We think, “Blessed are the self-sufficient” and “Blessed are the self-reliant,” “Blessed are those who’ve helped themselves.”
But Jesus says, “No, you got it all wrong, there is a blessing when you embrace your brokenness and ask God for help…
“God, I can’t help myself. I can’t heal it. I can’t fix it. I can’t restore it. I can’t mend it. I can’t redeem it. I can’t put the pieces back together. I can’t do it. God, I need help.’”
AND - in that moment, Jesus says, we create room for God’s blessing.
AND MGCC
WE DID – just that, last week in this very room.
AS WE – rang a bell ask God,
Lord, help me with my…
anger, anxiety, depression, a relationship, an addiction, porn, fear, doubt, my walk with you, sickness…
So Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
It’s counterintuitive, but we find that it’s true.
But “blessed are those who mourn”? I mean, this… This isn’t just counterintuitive; it’s contradictory.
I mean, “Blessed are those who mourn.” Think it through here. He’s saying, “Happy are the sad.” Happy are the unhappy.
How is that even possible? How can there be a blessing in the midst of sorrow?
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
– Matthew 5:4
NOW – there are 9 words in the NT for sorrow and mourning and Jesus is using in Matthew 5:4 the word ‘pentheo’ which is the strongest of the 9 words. It represents the deepest, most heart-felt grief a person can experience. The word carries the idea of deep inner agony, expressed by outward weeping. It’s a word used for the mourning over the loss of a loved one.
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
– Matthew 5:4
AND YOU KNOW - I don’t think that we are inclined to believe this. IN FACT - we probably do not want to believe that it is true. Blessed are those who mourn.
Happy are - the sad, the depressed and the sorrowful.
QUESTION - can you remember the last time that you did this, the last time that you were just overwhelmed with sorrow and you - you just mourned, you wept –
LIKE - you were totally undone. Not fun, right?
Blessed are those who mourn.
QUESTION – if there was a sign up sheet in the back for those who want to experience mourning and sorrow this week…
Would you sign up?
Comfort, yes. Mourn, not so much.
Kind of like… We said last week, how we all would like to be whole without being broken. In the same manner we would like to experience God’s comfort without mourning…
LIKE - “Hey Jesus, can we just skip past the mourning and go right to the comfort… Yeah Jesus, OR - how about this idea, how about making it this way…
]Blessed are those who never mourn because they will never need to be comforted.”
BUT B/S – that is not the way of the kingdom. That is not the way to a blessed and real life. That is not ‘the yoke’, the teaching of Jesus our rabbi.
NEVERTHELESS – I think mourning is something that we tend to struggle with as Jesus followers.
YOU SEE – we are not quite sure what to do with it.
I MEAN - we would much rather avoid it, deny it, numb it, cover it up…
AND… IF - we must go through it, we want to get in and out of it… fast.
In his book ‘Beauty Will Save The World, Rediscovering The Allure and Mystery Of Christianity’ Brain Zahnd writes about our struggle to embrace mourning, he says…
We have an immature obsession with being happy all of the time. It’s in our culture. It seeps into our churches. And it’s not healthy. I think sometimes we are trying to replace the symbol of the cross with a smiley face.
Serious Christianity has given way to “inspirational” Christianity, which is turning into insipid Christianity. Have we replaced a serious theology of the cross with a pop psychology of happiness?
Have we traded something sublime and serious, majestic and mysterious, for something silly, prosaic, and shallow—a juvenile obsession with cheap happiness? I don’t think I’m overstating the problem.
Because we are uncomfortable with sorrow, we passively enforce a kind of mandated happiness in our churches.
Instead of weeping with those who weep, we want everybody to just cheer up. And we want them to cheer up for our sake. . . because we are so terribly uncomfortable with their sorrow.
What we should do instead is join them in their sorrow and assist them in the work of grief. When human beings suffer tragedy and profound loss, there is a certain amount of grieving that is required…
The question is, can we create churches that understand that mourning is not a sign of weakness, but a spiritual work to be attended to—a spiritual work that Jesus says leads to the blessedness of comfort from outside ourselves?
YEAH – Brian nailed it…
AMEN?!
LIKE – Maple Grove, let’s create… let’s become that kind of church!
UNDERSTAND B/S – what I am trying to say is that…
• It is, okay to mourn
• It is, natural to morn
• In fact, it is even necessary at times to mourn
Especially in 3 specific areas that I would like to draw you attention too this morning.
MGCC, B/S…
I. In Your Loss, Mourn!
Don’t fight it, don’t ignore it, don’t avoid it.
Just do it, Just mourn
Just weep and let the tears flow.
HEY – did you notice that in John 11 when Jesus shows up to the home of Mary and Martha and everyone is weeping and mourning…
Did you notice - what Jesus did not say…
HE – did not say…
“Hey, come on you all. Cheer up. Stop all that weeping. Put on a happy face, turn that frown upside down, after all I am the resurrection and the life..”
NO – Jesus did not say any of that.
INTEAD – he did what? Jesus wept. WHY?...
• Because of their sorrow
• Because He loved Lazarus
• Because loss, brokenness and death, was not how this world was intended to be
B/S – in your loss (maybe it is a lost job, a lost relationship, a lost dream, lost health, a lost loved one)
In your loss mourn.
UNDERSTAND - loss is inevitable. We all experience it.
The Bible says that rain falls on the just and the unjust. Jesus said, “In this world you are going to have trouble.”
B/L - loss is part of life. You’ve either had it, you’re having it or you’re going to have it. YES – like it or not… That’s the way it works. Loss is just part of our story in this fallen world.
NOW - I was reading this week about a bet that Ernest Hemingway made with a group of other authors, as he sat around a table having lunch. And they bet him ten dollars that he couldn’t come up with a short story that was only six words long. He accepted the bet; he pulled out a napkin, and here’s the short story that he wrote:
“For sale, baby shoes, never worn.”
Wow, there certainly is a story in those six words, AMEN!
And perhaps you too could write six words that tell your story of loss.
• You cancer isn’t responding to treatment
• I’m going through with the divorce
• Your position is no longer needed
• There has been a terrible accident
• I can’t be with you anymore
• Your mom fell down the stairs
• You will never have any children
• Your dad just had a heart attack
• Mom, dad, I was sexually abused
• Do not ever call me again
• I’m sorry, we couldn’t save him
• It’s the bank they are foreclosing
Sad stories, difficult stories, sorrowful stories
And Jesus our rabbi says…
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted. - Matthew 5:4
AGAIN - as Jesus opens up this sermon on the mount, His manifesto if you will, about what it is to live in His kingdom
He starts with these Beatitudes, and we’re just finding that Jesus takes our assumptions of what a blessed life looks like, and He flips the script. He turns them upside-down.
I MEAN – we tend to think that…
• Blessed, are those who find that everything goes their way
• Blessed, are those who have good health and great relationships.
• Blessed, are those who’ve never lost anyone or anything close to them.
• Blessed, are those whose dreams all come true.
But Jesus says that there is a blessing in loss.
A BLESSING - that can only come through tears.
AND B/S - as upside-down as that may seem, I (like many others in this room) have found it to be true.
SERIOUSLY – real people (like me and like you)…
HAVE FOUND - in the midst of loss a blessing that we never expected… AND – what is that blessing?
God’s love, God’s peace and God’s presence—in a deeper and a more real way in our tears than we have ever experienced before.
UNDERSTAND - in the midst of the loss, IF WE - draw near to Him, James says, in those moments HE draws near to us.
NOW – there is a guy in the Old Testament who is the gold standard for this very thing, his name is Job.
AND – when we first meet Job, he is living large.
HE - is living what we would call a “blessed life”—I mean, at least for his time. Here is how his life is going:
He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep.”
Okay, this isn’t blessed for us. Like, this sounds horrible to me (7000 sheep… to clean up after) But for Job, at this time, it’s a good thing.
Seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the peoples of the east. – Job 1:2-3
So Job, according to worldly standards is living the ‘blessed’ life. BUT THEN - it’s just one tragic circumstance after another. There’s a strong wind, a tornado that comes in, knocks down the house, kills all of his children. He loses his health. He has painful sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. He loses his wealth.
NOW - His wife isn’t taken, but what’s worse is she turns on him and she says, “Look, give up on God; He’s given up on you. Just curse God and die,” she says.
So he just…he just loses and loses and loses.
And then in the midst of this, Job says to God, (and lean in church because this is so very rich).
Come on, are you leaning?
My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.
– Job 42:5
(I’ll say first part, and then you all finish it)
In other words… God, something awesome has happened.
In the midst of the loss, in the midst of the pain and the suffering and the mourning and the tears, I have found You in a way that I have never known You before.
“I MEAN - I had studied You. I knew about You.
I believed in You. BUT YOU - have walked through this loss with me. I have felt you right beside me, and now my eyes have seen You. And oh, what a sight it has been!”
NOW – I don’t know about you but that is how it has worked for me… THAT – in those times of my greatest loss.
God showed up. He drew near, He became more real.
LIKE - God came riding into my pain and loss, bringing His comfort with Him.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted. - Matthew 5:4
I MEAN – it was like I could feel Him right beside me, holding me, carrying me, comforting me, mourning with me
LIKE HE DID - on August 8, 1996.
It was 11 days after my wife (Judy) lost her battle with cancer and went home to her reward.
I was on a road trip to Maine with my two oldest children, Chelsea (12) and John (9)…
Here is my journal entry from that day.
Thursday 8/8/1996 (5:40 am)
Lord I’m about to begin another day. We are in Fayetteville, NC at a Holiday Inn.
Yesterday was hard at times – I cried a lot while driving (no one knew sega/sleeping). I just miss Judy so much…
I’m not sure what I need to read, to hear from you. I think I’ll try Philippians – please God speak to me during this trip.
Phil 1:1-30
(12) Lord, what has happened to me (my loss) can serve to advance the Gospel
(19) Paul rejoiced in his chains, why?
For I know that through your prayers and the help given me by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.
Lord I know you can turn this around.
And you have even begun doing that, like with the young guy at Cracker barrel who read my T-shirt (in the men’s room) a young Christian going to New Jersey.
I asked him to pray for me… I think he did – I felt peace when we left.
Lord, give me the courage, so that I can glorify you through my hardship…
I feel as if I am on a mountain with you Lord and it is wonderful
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
– Job 42:5
AND – believe me when I tell you brothers and sisters, God’s presence has never been more powerful and more real to me, than it was in that loss.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
- Matthew 5:4
You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. – Matthew 5:4 (MSG)
YES – Jesus, comes in, He embraces us, and He more than fills the hole created by our loss…
Back in 1996 God lead me to buy a book written by Jerry Sittser.
I have given out a bunch of these over the years.
Send 2 out just this week, and I have 2 copies for anyone who might need one, or who knows someone who does.
He was driving in his minivan with some of his family, and the minivan was hit by a drunk driver; and he lost three generations of women in his life.
And in that accident his mom died, his wife died and his young daughter died…and he walked away without an injury.
And he just writes about this loss. The name of the book is called A Grace Disguised.
A few quotes…
“The experience of loss does not have to be the defining moment in our lives. Instead, the defining moment can be our response to the loss. It is not what happens to us that matters so much as what happens in us.”
“The sorrow I feel has not disappeared, but it has been integrated into my life as a painful part of a healthy whole. Initially, my loss was so overwhelming to me that it was the dominant emotion—sometimes the only emotion—I had.
I felt like I was staring at the stump of a huge tree that had just been cut down in my backyard. That stump, which sat all alone, kept reminding me of the beloved tree that I had lost. I could think of nothing but that tree. Every time I looked out the window, all I could see was that stump.
Eventually, however, I decided to do something about it.
I landscaped my backyard, reclaiming it once again as my own. I decided to keep the stump there, since it was both too big and too precious to remove.
Instead of getting rid of it, I worked around it. I planted shrubs, trees, flowers, and grass. I laid out a brick pathway and built two benches. Then I watched everything grow. Now, three years later, the stump remains, still reminding me of the beloved tree I lost. But the stump is surrounded by a beautiful garden of blooming flowers and growing trees and lush grass.
Likewise, the sorrow I feel remains, but I have tried to create a landscape around the loss so that what was once ugly is now an integral part of a larger, lovely whole.”
“The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west, chasing after the setting sun, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise.”
YES - blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
B/S – in your loss, mourn…
Draw near to God…
YEAH – I know you have heard of Him, but in your loss your eyes will see Him as you have never seen Him before.
GET IT?
NEXT…
II. For This Lost World, Mourn!
NOW – I am going to hit this point really quick, so that I have enough time for my final point.
BUT LISTEN – even though I am pretty much going to fly through it, DO NOT take it to mean that it is not important.
But as He (Jesus) came closer to… the city (to Jerusalem during His ‘Triumphal Entry’ on Palm Sunday), He began to weep… - Luke 19:41
MGCC - picture Him (Jesus)… on the donkey, the crowds cheering Him and He is weeping and sobbing uncontrollably.
Why? BECAUSE…
• The city was lost (and soon be destroyed by Rome)
• The people rejected Him (a rejection, that would cost them greatly)
QUESTION – when is the last time you wept for the brokenness this world? For the…
Abuse, addictions, the brokenness, the sorrow, the anger, the hatred,
For their rejection of Jesus that will one day cost them greatly.
Tears stream from my eyes, because people do not obey your teachings. – Psalm 119:36
NOW - in my studies for this conversation, I came across an awesome title for a sermon, but I could not find the actual sermon. But the title is killer, is convicting…
A Dried Eyed Church, In A Hell Bound World
MGCC – let’s work together, to NOT be that church!
Let’s not: judge, point fingers, shake our heads, avoid, hide in a Christian bubble from the lost world.
BUT LET’S – ‘cry tears’ that moving us to loving action.
MGCC… In your loss, mourn, For the lost world, mourn
III. For Your Own Sin, Mourn!
QUESTION – is sin a big deal? Is your sin a big deal?
Yeah I know we don’t like to use that word, even in church.
LIKE - it sounds… so mean, so offensive, so judgmental, so politically incorrect. AND SO - we often try to take the edge off of it’s reality by given sin a different name… mistakes, mess ups, slip ups, wrong choices, my bad…
BUT B/S – let me be perfectly clear… your sin, my sin, our sin is a very big deal… Here is what God’s Word says…
He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. – Isaiah 53:3-5
SO – let me ask again… is your sin a big deal…
UNDERSTAND – your sin…
• Weighed Jesus down
• Pierced Jesus, punished Jesus, crushed Jesus
YES – your sin and mine caused Jesus to be despised, rejected and crucified. #TheTruth #OwnIt
B/S – for your own sin, mourn!
UNDERSTAND – throughout Scripture there is a connection between mourning over sin—and receiving God’s blessing. Israel often mourned together as a nation and received God’s blessing as a nation.
NOW – one of the most powerful examples in Scripture of ‘an individual’ mourning over the sin in their lives is David.
David as you may remember, had an affair with Bathsheba, a married woman.
And when the dust settled David: murdered her husband, stole her for his wife, and began living a huge lie.
You have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. – 1 Kings 14:8
OKAY – now David describes, what it was like for him in Psalm 32 during the time he sinned and the time he repented. And he just talks about how the blessing…you know, the blessing was not part of his life (until he mourned for his sin). Here’s what he says,
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. – Psalm 32:3
YOU KNOW - when he was living in denial, before he was broken, before he repented, before he confessed…
AND SURE - denial seems like a good idea at the time.
It’s the path of least resistance. But you don’t want to go where that path leads.
QUESTION - have you experienced the blessing of facing up to sin? It’s amazingly liberating.
I MEAN - we put so much energy into running away, hiding, and pretending someone else did it. Or that the hole we dug wasn’t really so deep. Or that we were somehow helping the person we hurt deeply.
Meanwhile, as we run, we feel our strength draining away as David did. No amount of time at the gym will make up for it—because there’s a leak somewhere, and it seems to be coming from deep inside.
BUT - sooner or later we stop running, usually because we’ve run out of places to run to. AND - we finally let the tears come, and that’s when we find the missing strength.
For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” – Psalm 32:4,5
In Psalm 51 David confesses his sin, and he says to God,
Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me—now let me rejoice. - Psalm 51:7,8
On down in verse 17 he says, “
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. – Psalm 51:17
UNDERSTAND B/S – what God is looking for is a broken and a contrite heart, and this is what invites the blessing of God on our lives.
QUESTION - When is the last time you shed a tear for your sin and for what it cost Jesus?
YOU SEE – what we have learned (and like to do) is apologize. We’ve learned to say, “God, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. My bad. It was a mistake.”
But this is not what we’re talking about. This is not what invites the blessing of God on your life. An “Ah, sorry, God” is not what God is looking for.
NO - It is a broken heart. It is a contrite spirit.
It’s not just an apology; it is mourning.
It is not just a confession because you got caught;
NO - It is coming clean because you have offended God.
It is not just about saying sorry to your spouse because of how you spoke to them, and it’s not just apologizing to a coworker because of something you did; it is understanding, as David spoke of in Psalm 51, that my sin is against You, God. I have offended You, God.
UNDERSTAND - when Jesus says “Blessed are those who mourn,” He’s not speaking of people who have a “Sorry I got caught” spirit or a “Sorry about that” spirit.
Like, you just spilled a glass of water at a restaurant, and you didn’t mean to and now somebody’s got to clean it up—
No, this is a brokenhearted grief, that is marked with tears.
AND LISTEN - if we’re not crying over it—like, if we haven’t shed a tear—then I don’t know that we’re ready to ask for God’s blessing in this area of our life.
R U tracking with me?
I mean, I know we’re sorry because you know things need to go differently, but have we wept over our sin?
Because until we weep over our sin, I don’t know that we’re ready to truly invite God’s blessing into our life.
Thomas Watson preached a sermon on this text in the 1600s, and he puts it this way: He says, “Tears melt God’s heart and bind His hand.”
But this is not how we respond to sin. Here’s what’s convicted me this week. I mean, what is the opposite of mourning and weeping? What’s the opposite of weeping?
It’s laughing.
Now how do most of us culturally (react) to sin in us and around us? Well, we make light of it.
You don’t think that’s true. Watch the reality shows or watch, you know, our sitcoms or comedians. We don’t weep over sin; we laugh at sin. We do the exact opposite.
NOW – when it comes to sin, and we all have sin (1 John 1:8) James has some good advice about how we should respond, in the passage that we read as we began today.
Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. – James 4:8-10
So is anyone out there mourning?
I MEAN…
• Where is the person who is weeping over their selfishness and pride?
• Where is the person who weeping over their anger and bitterness?
• Where is the person who is weeping over the way the use their tongue to slander, hurt and tear down other people.
• Where is the person weeping over their lukewarm commitment to Christ and His church?
• Where is the husband weeping over not loving his wife like Christ loves the church?
Mourning and weeping over our sin is what invites God’s blessing in your life. It’s not by smiling and laughing and pretending that “Everything is okay” and “I’m okay” and “You’re okay” and… That’s not it.
It is by changing our laughing into mourning.
It is by grieving the sin in our life and the sin around us.
YES - blessed are you when you are brokenhearted over your own sin, when your eyes fill with tears at the thought of what your sin has cost Jesus.
Blessed are those who mourn for the will be comforted
B/S…
For your own sin, mourn… For the lost world, mourn
In your loss, mourn.
NOW - in the Old Testament God’s people sometimes in response to loss and in responses to their sin they would mourn for a period of seven to thirty days…
And one of the things that went along with this mourning (accompanied it) would be the wearing of sackcloth.
• It wasn’t comfortable.
• It was an outer expression of inner repentance.
• It was an outward sign of inner surrender.
OKAY – here’s the deal…
In these next few minutes as we worship together, I want us to —just kind of practice this aspect of mourning.
NOW – I do not have any sackcloth for you to wear.
HOWEVER - just like last week there are some different areas around the sanctuary. (They are) down front here, and there are tables to the sides and then in the middle and in the back. And on these tables you’ll find just a strip of rope…
And here’s my challenge to you in these next few minutes as we worship together: to make your ways to one of these stations, to take a strip of this rope, this sackcloth, to go back to your seat, to tie it around your wrist and to let that, this week, be a reminder that God blesses those who mourn.
To be a reminder this week… to:
• In your loss mourn
• For the lost world mourn
• For your own sin mourn
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
- Matthew 5:4
