Part II
January 3, 2016
At one time or another you might of heard these words growing up, sissy, cry baby, winer, wuss, pansy, cream puff, scaredy cat, wimp, all names that we use for people who show emotions in emotional ways. As much as our culture likes to think that it is a culture that is becoming more and more sensitive but the case is were not.
Were scared to death of deep emotions, emotions like grief and sadness especially any kind of emotions that concern tears. People crying make us feel uncomfortable. They make us feel helpless and inept, they make us feel even a bit guilty for not knowing what to do or how to deal with things.
Emotions particularly the ones that come with tears are something we find very disturbing to our souls, in particularly if it happens with men, because men are taught at a very young age that big boys don’t cry.
We are a culture that doesn't like showing emotions and particularly tears. When people cry around us there are times we can get angry, because we look at their emotions as being self centered. Being in despair over their own difficulties and their own problems and making us have to feel bad. Because of their deep feelings, and yet we are a culture that says it is ok to cry even though we don’t want anyone to cry.
Is there a right time for tears? Is there a right time for demonstration of grief and sorrow? This morning we are going to continue a study that we began last week through the Beatitudes.
We began this study because we said that going into the New Year it just seemed right because what we tell everybody that we wish them a Happy New Year. There is no better place to start on being happy than the Beatitudes because literally the word blessed means to have the favor of God upon your life. Being Blessed is far much richer and greater and deeper than the happiness that we think of. Having the favor of God upon your life means that you live a different kind of life. You live a life that is successful and guaranteed of personal success as far as your growth with God that nothing else can offer.
We talk about wanting to change but real change is the kind of change that God brings. This morning we are going to look at what it means to be blessed and particularly as we look at the second Beatitude.
The first Beatitude was an intellectual Beatitude, Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He was saying blessed are those who come to an understanding, who get it, finally wake up with a recognition that they are desperately and helplessly in need of God’s grace. that without God’s grace they can do nothing.
This morning we will be looking at the second Beatitude, It is the Beatitude that makes us scratch our head even more when we look at it.
Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
Last week we said how when Jesus taught it wasn’t like it was today with podiums or standing it was just the opposite, they would sit and the people would stand or gather around. Taking up a position of authority of a rabbi or a teacher, Jesus sat and he began to teach the people what would make a difference in their lives, what would make them not just happy but would them blessed.
The Beatitudes
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Let us look at this for a moment. We don’t think like that do we? Blessed are the cry babies? Blessed are the winers? That is what we think about when we think about people crying and spending time wallowing in their tears. Or in a more generous light we look at them as kind of sad a pathetic but we sure don’t look at them as blessed. We don’t walk up to a widow or widower and say “you are so blessed”. For the most part we understand that in peoples grief they don’t feel blessed. So what is Jesus saying here? “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Mourning Is The Regret Of A Heart Looking For A New Morning
The mourning that Jesus was talking about isn’t the kind of Mourning that we think. It isn’t the mourning of your crying over your difficulties and your hardships in life. It isn’t the mourning of even the loss and grief that comes to us. It was a different kind of mourning.
The first Beatitude, blessed are those who get it. Who recognize that they can’t save themselves. Blessed are those who come to that understanding in their head there is nothing I can do to be holy enough, smart enough, righteous enough, there is nothing I can do to save myself from my sin and Jesus says “blessed are those who get it”.
Jesus moves from the intellectual to the emotional. Not only blessed are those who get it but also who mourns over it. Blessed are those who in their heart feel a deep regret over their sin. Blessed are those who cry out in pain when they truly have recognize just how lost, just how sinful, just how depraved they are. He said, blessed are those who mourn in such a way, not only do they know that they are sinners but it breaks them, they understand that it separates them from God. They understand that it leads them down a road of destruction and pain for others. Blessed are those who earnestly ache over their sin.
You can buy into the fact that you are a sinner, and you can even intellectualize the answer “if I’m a sinner, then I need a savior, and Jesus came and died and saved me.” Well it makes good sense to latch onto a savior if your a sinner. Yep I want that, I want to make sure my bases are covered. I want to make sure I’m good with God, because it makes sense that if God created everything, God determines where you go at the end of this then it makes good sense to be connected with a guy who has good connections. Sadly, that is how much of the church comes to Christ. It is almost like getting a good stock tip. It is almost like someone telling you, Look you want to make life easier on yourself, you want to make sure you have a place in the end? Then do this. But you know what, it’s meaningless unless what you know hits your heart and you are broken by it.
You want to know what someone really believes? See how they feel about it. I love God but I can’t go to church right now, money is tight I can’t give to missions, I love my wife, I love my husband but I love this other person too. Something gets lost in the translation. It’s not real until you feel. It’s not real until you come to that place where you acknowledge you are a sinner and it breaks your heart. When you come to that place then you get it. Then as Jesus said, you are blessed.
We Become Like God:
When you get it in your head and you get it in your heart that you ache over it. You become like God. Why? because as far I can see when I search the scriptures, there is only one circumstance that makes God cry, and thats when sinners are stuck in their sin. Remember Jesus when before he entered Jerusalem to be crucified, he looked over the city and he wept for the city. Why did he weep? because he knew that they weren’t going to accept him. He knew that they weren’t going to turn to him, give their lives to him, and have their sins taken away from them, and so he wept.
When we get it in our hearts, we become more like God. Why? Because when we weep over our sin, when it becomes a heavy burden on our hearts, we desire holiness, and thats what it’s about. I am crucified with Christ, I no longer live but Christ lives in me. That can only happen when I am so broken by my sin that it breaks the pattern of my sin and now what I desire more and more of is being holy like God. When I am broken in my heart when there is regret in my heart that I mourn looking for a new morning a new start, a new life, I become more like God.
We Make Real Change:
The deal of real mourning is that we mourn and mourn less because there is less sin in us to mourn over. New Years resolutions what are they about? Change. What kind of change? I want to loose weight, I want to find a better job, I want to find a boyfriend/girlfriend, I want to get married, I want blah blah blah... Is this change? How many of us say I want more of what God wants for me and less of what I want for me. I want to become real as he has meant me to be real.
When you mourn your physical things it doesn’t make you feel any better it just makes you more aware of what you lost. but when you mourn your sin then real change begins to happen you begin to go in a different direction, you begin to desire better things. You begin to say “I don’t cry so much about myself and my hurts, I cry about the hurts of others and I cry about how I hurt God. I don’t cry about my self centered difficulties.
We Mourn Less:
How does being blessed by mourning make you mourn less? Because the more I mourn about my sin the more I’ll deal with it, the more I will let God’s Holy Spirit inside of me to take over, and the more I do that the less I have to mourn, the more I become like him, the more that change takes place and when that happens the less I have to mourn.
When was the last time you really mourned your sin? You were really broken by it? We only mourn less when we truly mourn the things that are worth mourning. Do you mourn the way you treat others poorly? Do you mourn how little you think of God during the week? Do you mourn on how much you gossip? Do you mourn on how greedy you can be? Do you mourn addictions? Do you mourn self-centeredness?
If you do the good news is this the less you have to mourn it, because that is the beauty of what God does. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
We Draw Nearer And Deeper To Others:
Because the more I mourn my sin, the less I can hold the sin of others against them. When I really really get it, and when I am really broken by it and I see someone else doing it or something like it, I can look at them and say I know. In fact what God really wants is me to mourn their sin too. What is the route to evangelism? What is the route to sharing the gospel? It’s a mourning of sin and the lives of the people around us, and that is something I don’t think we do. We get so caught up in life that we forget to step back and feel, to truly mourn the sin of the people around you.
We Gain Greater Vision:
The more I mourn my sin the clearer I see the truth. The more I mourn my sin the easierI find my way. Because mourning is the regret of the heart looking for a new morning a new start, a new vision in a new direction. That is why Jesus said, blessed are those who morn. They get it, and it connects to their heart. Maybe that is why we don’t like crying. We don’t want to cry about our own sins so we don’t want to cry about anyone else’s problems. Maybe if we did cry about our sins, we would end up with a more tender heart to care about other peoples lives, so that when others cry we cry because we mourn for them.
Luke 15:10
10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
When we mourn and we cry out to God all of heaven is filled with joy. Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Because when they do that they will open themselves up to God’s incredible love.
John 16:20
20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
When we mourn about the right things God begins to mend us he begins to comfort us and gives us a joy we have never known before.
What does it mean to be comforted by God?
Assurance:
Knowing that you are always forgiven. That God will never look at you and say, that sin is way out of the ball park, no redemption for, I can’t help you. What is it that you need when you are mourning your sin? What is comfort? Comfort is knowing that you have the assurance that you are forgiven. Can you imagine what it would be like to come to the full understanding of your sin and all you know is your doomed? That is why Christ died on the cross. To give you assurance.
Remember the two criminals with Jesus who were crucified on the cross and one of them knew he was a retch and he turned to Jesus and he said, remember me when you go to your kingdom and Jesus said, by the end of the day you will be with me in paradise. Jesus didn’t ask him any question, he didn’t care, he wasn’t asking what religion he was, all you have to do is mourn and you will always be comforted with assurance.
Deliverance:
You need the help from God to be moved from where you are to where he would have you to be. You want to be delivered from something, mourn about it with all of your heart.
Guidance:
Real comfort is comfort that gives us guidance, Jesus gives us the assurance, deliverance and then he gives us the guidance to head in the right direction. Because he blesses those who mourn. If you don’t mourn you sin you won’t make room for God’s spirit.
Jubilance:
That God will bring us to a place in our morning of rejoicing. Become joy comes in the morning. God says, casts your cares upon me because I care for you. Cast your lot with me be like me. Love what I love and Hate what I hate and we will rejoice all that is good.
Notes taken by: Lorelllawrence@comcast.net The notes is for you to have for review in the series, also to reflect on during the week.
God Bless,
Sermon by: Pastor Frederick Williams