Poor & Mourning
Sermon on the Mount: Beatitudes • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Alright, we are continuing our series on the / / Beatitudes that are found in Matthew 5:2-12. We are in a greater portion of scripture called the Sermon on the Mount, which is all of Matthew 5, 6 & 7. And we are looking at this because this is what Jesus said we should do when we follow Him.
It’s so easy to think in terms of title rather than action.
When someone says, “Do you follow Jesus?” we automatically think, “Of course, I’m a Christian.” But simply giving the title of Christian doesn’t mean we are actively following Jesus.
We broke this down a little bit over the last couple weeks, that although salvation is found only in faith, or believing that Jesus died on a cross to conquer the effects of sin, He was raised back to life, proving that He was man, God and Messiah, and by the Grace of God that death now covers all of what we deserve because of our own shortcomings.
That’s salvation. Jesus said in John 3:16 that if we believe we will have eternal life. That’s our faith by His grace.
But, as Richard Foster points out when we confess Jesus to be Lord and Savior of our lives, meaning we recognize that we can’t be free of sin on our own, no amount of good works will give us eternal life and the consequence of sin, or falling short of God’s standard is death, when we recognize all of that, and say, “OK, Jesus, we receive your life, we believe in you as the Messiah, as our savior.” we don’t just receive eternal life, but we step into a kingdom, and in that kingdom we serve the king. We become disciples. There is no step 1 and then when we feel like living that way, step 2.
Think of it this way. In the Old Testament when the Israelites left Egypt, they were so used to be slaves that they didn’t know how to live free. And as much as we want to think living free is no rules, it’s actually the other way around, boundaries give us the good life. So God gives them the law, the Torah, the instructions on how to successfully live in the promised land. Deuteronomy 30:20 says exactly that, / / …if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not because he punishes them if they don’t, but because without living the way you are supposed to, you’ll create problems and eventually mess it all up. We do that as humans.
So this kingdom that Jesus is inviting us into, is very similar. Paul says we have been slaves to sin, but now we are in this Kingdom, and we don’t know how to live in a kingdom as free people. So, we are called into discipleship where Jesus teaches us how to live as Kingdom people so we can live the life he wants for us, and don’t mess it up with our shortcomings, our sin.
Ya know, the more I think about this, the more I see God’s patience and love at work in the world by seeing how bad things can actually get. How’s that? Well, our God is an emotional God - and I don’t mean that in how you might call someone emotional in a negative way. God’s love is vibrant and real, but his despair is equally as real. God’s heart breaks for people that are still trying to sort this life on their own without him. I’m convinced God feels deeply for mankind when he watches us fight and struggle in our hurt and pain.
So, Why doesn’t he just take it all away? Why doesn’t he give us utopia now?
Because that would be contrary to the heart of love. Not contrary to the desires of want, but to the heart of love.
1 John 4:7-10 says, / / Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love - not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Ok, so God is love, and real love isn’t that we love him, but that he loved us and sent Jesus to make a way for us, but that way is through a sacrifice we have to accept to receive. Right? John 3:16, anyone who believes.
John 3:18-21 says that Anyone who believes is not judged, but anyone who doesn’t believe is already judged. How? By their sin. By their own actions they are judged. The sacrifice of Jesus took the consequence of our sin, our actions, on himself. But if you don’t believe that, then your actions are still condemning you.
So, love has said, “Here is a way to no longer be condemned, but you have to believe and follow.”
But then we get to what Paul says about love in 1 Corinthians 13. It’s a famous passage of scripture. If you’ve been to a Christian wedding you’ve probably heard it read.
/ / Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
A couple really powerful statements in there.
/ / Love does not insist on its own way. What is that? Control. Love does not control.
If someone forces themselves on someone else we call that a punishable crime, right?
So, can we honestly think that God, who is love himself, who can do nothing that would be contrary of what true love would do, because he defines what true loves is…do we think he would force himself on us?
The second important part of that scripture is that / / love endures all things.
2 Peter 3:9 says, / / The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
So the next time you want to pray for Jesus to return, instead pray that all would come to repentance. That is the heart of God. That is the heart of love. That all people would find repentance and salvation in Him. And he’s not going to force it on them. But he truly does want them to find it.
And he’s doing all he can. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is active in this earth convicting people of sin. But they have to see it for what it is.
I was talking to someone just the other night and said that there are people in this world that truly don’t believe they even need a savior. They have not seen, what John Calvin would call the depravity of their human nature. Only God can truly reveal to the heart of mankind that we need Him. Begin to pray that you encounter the people who are ready to believe. Don’t pray for the hard cases, where you have to convince someone of their sin. No, if the Holy Spirit has already been leading someone to recognize their humanity apart from God, then you become the catalyst to introduce them to their savior.
I was at Publix yesterday and just wearing my God Loves You shirt, and a lady literally pulled over, rolled down her window, called me over and said, “I was just going through a really tough moment and I looked over and saw your shirt….. thank you for being obedient to God…” You can’t make those moments happen, but you can be ready for them when they do.
And think about it. We’ve read over the last few weeks, when we hear that call, as Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” because this is an invitation to die to what we know, die to our own way, die to ourselves, so that we can live in Christ. You have to be prepared for that decision!
What does it mean to live in Christ? It means to so let go of ourselves and commit to His way that we live out of servitude to Christ. Paul goes as far as to say that we become slaves to Christ. And that’s not a bad term when used of a loving, compassionate, caring God.
Paul says that before we believed we were slaves to sin. And he says something very interesting, he says in Romans 6:16, / / Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves to sin, but now you whole-heartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
Let me encourage you, as homework this week, read Romans 6. It’s such a good chapter.
But, HUGE note here. / / Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you CHOOSE to obey?
This is a voluntary commitment of life to someone else.
By choosing to obey God we are choosing also to be under his complete command.
Do what He says to do, Go where he says to go, live how he says to live. But everyday is a choice, and the choice IS ours, but are we choosing to follow His way? To die to our own desire and live in Him.
God does not take control of our bodies and make us live righteously. I wish he did. But that’s not how it works. We choose to obey him, which leads to righteous living. Why? Because we chose to.
Now, here’s the great part. When it comes to transformation, when it comes to change, this is the exact thing we are supposed to do.
I want you to see this, because when we are talking about all of this kingdom living, and the Sermon on the Mount, this kingdom manifesto, what our lives are supposed to look like, there actually is a really amazing ROI. Return on Investment.
Jesus doesn’t tell us to follow him so that it benefits his life. He tells us to follow him TO life. He’s doing it for us! All he’s every done has been for us. Creating the world, the garden of eden even, God said to Adam, “Look, I have created all of these plants, eat of every tree in the garden - except that one”. He made it all for them. God’s intention for humanity is good. But we have to follow him to it.
So, Jesus says in John 15:5, / / “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.”
It’s all about being connected to Him. How do we do that? By following Him.
And what’s the promise? Fruit.
What fruit do you think that is?
Galatians 5:22-23 says, / / But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Who wants those things in their lives? I do. For sure I do.
I love that I’m going to a Christian University. I was in an English Class on Friday evening and my professor started talking about this fruit of the Spirit and just went down this rabbit trail, and as he was talking the Holy Spirit was just highlighting a portion of this scripture for me. Self-Control.
Yes, it’s “Self” control, but it’s a fruit of the Spirit. If I want the Spirit of God to produce in me self-control, meaning I can control myself, then I need to make being connected to the vine more important than me trying to control myself. Does that make sense? It seems backwards, doesn’t it?
Paul says in Romans 7:15-17, / / I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
What’s he saying, He’s saying I have to die to myself a little bit more.
I need to be connected to the vine, a little bit more.
I need to choose to obey so that I can become a slave to the God of love.
And as I do that the Holy Spirit will produce fruit in me.
Now this can be a bit tricky, because it seems like we need the things the Spirit gives to do the things we need to do, so that the Spirit can do what he wants to do in us. Right? If I’m going to do all the things Jesus says I need to do to follow him I’m going to need to be patient, but I can’t truly be patient without the Holy Spirit producing that fruit in me, which doesn’t happen unless I’m connected the vine, which is me following the way of Jesus.
To that I say, Yes. Welcome to step one.
In 12-step we call that, / / “We admitted we were powerless over what controls us - that our lives had become unmanageable”
What does Paul say, we are slaves to what we obey.
I like how the Overcomers workbook describes step one: / / I admit that I am powerless over the issue controlling my life.
Now, if we are slaves to what we obey, either slave to sin or slave to Christ, in any way that we are not a slave to Christ, meaning, we are still holding on to our own choice in this world, we are powerless over the issue of sin. So this is not an addicts problem but a human problem. We just don’t know it.
Ever hear the phrase, “Functioning Addict” - it means the person who is struggling with addiction has come to a point where they need the substance to function, and they’ve learned to function with the substance in their system. An alcoholic that goes to work drunk because they can’t handle being sober, so they have to get drunk just to make it through the day, but they’ve learned how to function just enough to get by and not destroy their career, while being drunk.
That’s the worlds issue with sin. We’re functioning sinners. We are trapped in our sin to the point where we have become ok with living with it. Ignoring it best we can, while thinking we need it to survive. It’s not until we can admit we have it, and in our own strength can’t control it, that we can begin to move toward freedom.
And this is straight gospel, listen to the next two steps:
/ / 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. That is God.
/ / 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.
Again, I like how the Overcomers book describes this step: / / I decide to submit my life to the care of God as He guides me.
As he guides me. That is powerful!
And that is the journey we are all on, whether you identify as an addict, as a sinner or as a saint, we are submitting our lives to the care of God as He guides us. It’s the same mission for everyone, no matter where they are at.
And that is this Kingdom life that Jesus is talking about. “You want to live in the Kingdom of God, it’s not what you thought it was going to be. It is not me setting up the kingdom of Israel and ruling over our enemies. It is giving our lives to a greater life, a life of peace, sacrifice, service and love. In that you will find freedom. Let me guide you there!”
And this is the basis for these beatitudes.
We are going to cover two of them this morning:
Matthew 5:2-4, / / And he opened his mouth and taught them saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Alright, so we’re going to look at the first two beatitudes here, and remember what we talked about. This is a / / Be Attitude, or an attitude we take on to Be something. Be a follower. Be a disciple. Be a kingdom person.
And the reason we’re going to look at these first two together is there is a connection in how we have to recognize our current condition to benefit from what Jesus is saying.
Each of these statements either benefit us or benefit someone else. Some are inwardly directed, and some our outwardly directed. Being a peacemaker is outwardly directed, but mourning is inward. Being merciful is outward, but being poor is inward. These first two are both inward focused and take recognition and humility to follow Jesus in this way.
/ / 1. Poor in Spirit
Ok, so we looked at what it means to be blessed last week. It wasn’t having all the things, right? It’s not winning the lottery, or having a big house, or fast car. All those things are fine in their own and not an issue if your heart is right, but that’s not what it means to be blessed. Blessed is being truly happy, content with whatever your position in life is. Blessed is whether I have or have not I am secure in the love of God. Blessed is a place only Jesus can bring us because it is being truly connected to Him in all that He is. Blessed is not of this world, it is spiritual, it is supernatural, it is what Paul says in Philippians 4:12-13, / / I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
So, Jesus is saying that we are blessed, or happier, when we recognize that we are poor in spirit.
The NLT says, / / God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
So, I’ve been saying I like the ESV because it says, “Blessed are those…” And I find it is a little clearer than the NLT using the phrase, “God blesses those…”, but in this case I like how the NLT says this second part, “those who are poor and realize their need for him…”
So, for this we need to define poor and we need to define need. That’s what is important here.
First, let’s just admit, no one wants to be poor, right? And we certainly don’t like to admit that we are, and so in this first part, this first sentence of teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember, we skipped ahead and have now come back, so this is actually the first words out of Jesus mouth in this grand sermon. And he challenges two huge things. / / Our self awareness and our pride.
/ / Are we willing to admit that we are poor?
Everyone who has a problem with being seen as poor is going to be triggered by this sentence immediately. “I’m not poor.” “How dare you even insinuate that I’m poor in anything.” “I can look after myself”
It’s going to be hard to admit you need God if you don’t think you need anyone or anything.
So, Jesus is asking, “Are you willing to admit that you are poor in spirit?” And second, “Are you willing to admit that you don’t want to remain that way, but you know you can’t change this, so you’re willing to come to me to allow me to change this in you?”
Major hit to self-awareness and pride.
Can you admit you have a problem?
Can you come to me for help?
Those are two different things, aren’t they?
Alright, so, the word used for / / poor means to be reduced to beggary (asking for money), to be destitute of wealth, influence, position and honor. lowly, afflicted, helpless, powerless to accomplish an end, lacking in anything.
That’s about what we all think poor means I suppose, right? Doesn’t sound like a fun situation.
And the second word, spirit, means the breath, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost. it’s the greek word pneuma. breath.
Maybe this is why Jesus starts with this one. Forget us for a second, who is he speaking to? He’s speaking to a group of people who have just endured 400 years of silence. The book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, was written some 500 years previous to this point and there had been no new prophets speaking to the people of Israel on behalf of God for 400 years. Israel as a nation was poor in Spirit, let alone each individual person.
So Jesus is asking, “I know you’ve become accustomed to living life on your own and just following the rules and religion, but can you admit that you need God?”
This is why at the end of the Sermon on the Mount it says, / / When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority - quite unlike their teachers of religious law.
What’s that saying, He taught in the power and influence of the Spirit of God. People felt something when he preached. There was anointing on his words.
So he’s asking, Can you recognize that you need more of me? More of God? More of the Spirit? Can you recognize that trading me in as your king all those years ago wasn’t the greatest idea, and can you see you need God as your king again.
If you remember when Israel wanted a king, the prophet Samuel told them, “This isn’t going to go well for you.” And God said to him, “They aren’t rejecting you, they are rejecting me.” Now the question becomes, “Do you recognize an earthly king, and an earthly kingdom left you wanting?”
Now, this is no different than today.
We have the same mentality. As humans we are constantly trying to do it ourselves, make our own way, prove ourselves and take as little help as necessary. It’s hard to admit we are poor. It’s hard to admit that we need help. At least for me, I know it is. I don’t like admitting it, and especially don’t like asking for help.
We tend to be proud beings, don’t we? We live a life of self-reliance, self-confidence, self-determination, self-esteem, self-will, will-power. We want to prove we can do it. Ever hear the saying, “Jesus is just a crutch for weak people.” somehow implying that we are weak and incapable and that is why we need Jesus, that religion is a crutch for the weak, and whoever is saying that is implying that they don’t need that crutch, they don’t need religion, they don’t need saving - that they are strong on their own, they can make it on their own and don’t need help.
Think about it, even in our faith. We tend to gravitate more toward the victory verses than the ones like John 16:33 when Jesus said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows…”
Here’s the point that I think Jesus is making when he says we are blessed when we are poor in spirit - When we allow ourselves to come to that place of knowing that we need Jesus, that’s the very best thing we could possibly ever experience. Coming to a place where we know that we need more of the Spirit of God is not a bad thing, but a wonderful thing, because that is when we recognize that there’s only one place we can find what we need, God and God alone.
No one looks at someone with a broken leg and says, “Why are you using a crutch? That’s so lame, can’t you walk on your own?” So why would we look at our own lives and say, “I need saving, but I’m not willing to use what is available to me to prop myself up. I’ll figure this out on my own… because I don’t want to appear weak.”
Jesus said in Mark 2:17, / / “Healthy people don’t need a doctor - sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Note how he says that. I have come not to call those who THINK they are righteous. This isn’t an issue of whether they actually are doing what is right or not, it’s that they THINK they are righteous of their own doing. How many know that it’s impossible to help someone who is unwilling to recognize they need help?
We’ve all had a friend like that. Never ourselves. But that friend, that you know needs help, but won’t admit it. You know they have a problem, but they just can’t seem to see it.
See, Jesus isn’t writing anyone off here, he’s saying, “If you want to experience all that God has to give you, you have to recognize and admit that you actually NEED what God has to give you.”
St Augustine said, / / “Without God we can’t, and without us, God won’t.” There’s a lot of truth in that statement. As long as we are unwilling to recognize our need for God, we will not turn to God for our needs, and God will not violate our free will, He will not force himself on us, or force us into his blessing. We just established that, love doesn’t do that.
So, what’s the other side of what Jesus said in Mark 2? / / “I have come to call…those who know they are sinners.”
Are we willing to admit that we aren’t perfect? Willing to admit that however far we’ve come, however redeemed we may feel, however different we are from what we used to be, we are still not perfect. We are still in need of MORE of Him, more of his redemption, more of his Spirit, more understanding of who He is and what He had done and who we are in him?
So, / / Blessed are those who REALIZE their need for the Spirit of God.
Which means what?
It’s recognizing our powerlessness in ourselves.
It’s a sense of spiritual bankruptcy and helplessness before God.
It’s a recognition of our human / sinful nature, in the face of a perfect God.
It’s an understanding that we are unworthy, and yet, he calls us worthy.
It’s knowing that true joy, true happiness, true fulfillment come from God alone because of His grace.
But, it is not those things from a, “I’m a such a worm, I’m useless, Won’t you take pity on me.” No, it’s “I can’t on my own, but I know you can in and through me.” It’s, “I know YOU are the healer, the doctor, and I’m the sick one, the sinner. I can’t be perfect, it’s just not in me, But I know you are. I recognize my need for you.”
The second part to being Poor in Spirit is that this is something we need to become comfortable with, because this does not ever go away.
Remember I said last week, these are not stages of our salvation. We don’t move from one beatitude to the next like we passed a test and move on. This is a constant. Jesus is saying this is the way we live, all the time.
Do you remember the Dos Equis commercials? The most interesting man in the world? What does he say, “Stay thirsty my friends…”
Never have enough of God.
Never be fully satisfied with what you’ve experienced.
God has an infinite amount of grace, mercy, forgiveness, His presence, love, you name it, If God said that He has something, he has it in an infinite, never ending, never expiring, never decreasing amount. Which means, regardless of what we have experienced already, there is more.
This is why we pray, “We thank you for what you have done, what you are doing, and what you are YET TO DO in our lives” Because there is always more.
And what is the end result? Jesus says, / / Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
What’s that mean? Well, what does it mean to be brought into a kingdom?
This has been depicted in a thousand movies. The hero has lost their horse, they are being chased by the enemy. Up the hill toward the gated city. The enemy on their horses is gaining ground, and right at the last minute the gate opens to the city, the hero gets through the gate and the gates shut on the face of the enemy.
The hero is safe.
Why? Because they made it into the kingdom. They are under the protection of the King.
So, blessed are those who are poor in Spirit, those who recognize they need God. For they fall on their faces in humility before Him and are brought into the protection of His kingdom.
We talked about this during Advent, when we talk about the Prince of Peace, how do we engage with the peace of Jesus? By giving him the authority in our lives, right? By making him our authority, our ruler, our king.
So let’s define this first verse like this:
/ / Poor in Spirit is a constant recognition of our dependence on God to be God in our lives, to receive from him more and more.
And this has been my experience. The more I give of myself to God, the more I encounter him, the more I experience of Him. And it’s cyclical. The more I experience God’s transforming power in my life, the more I WANT to experience. Freedom gives hunger for freedom. Which keeps me in a place of being poor, of want for more of what and who He is.
Who are the ones who miss out? Jesus says the ones who don’t think they need a doctor.
As long as you think you’ve got it handled, you won’t actually experience the goodness of God in this way because you yourself are actively blocking it. Humility is key.
You can’t buy the Kingdom of Heaven.
You can’t win the Kingdom of Heaven.
You can’t bargain for the Kingdom of Heaven.
You are completely 100% reliant on the Spirit of God.
Ok, that’s why I said this beatitude is about our recognition of our current state. We either recognize we need God, or we don’t, and when we don’t, we miss the opportunity to receive from Him because we don’t think we need the doctor.
/ / 2. Those Who Mourn
The second one is very similar, but different in need. Matthew 5:4,
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Now, I would usually spend a whole sermon on this one verse because it’s incredibly profound and needed in this time we live in. In the same way that it’s difficult to admit we need help, or to try and do it all on our own, like in the first verse we looked at, Jesus is now challenging another aspect of our pride:
/ / Are you willing to admit you don’t have it all together?
This is a deeply emotional message that Jesus is preaching.
Blessed are those who mourn.
So, we already read Mark 2:17, it’s not the healthy that need a doctor it’s the sick.
Let’s read another story. Jesus has come to his hometown of Nazareth and he goes to the synagogue. Jesus didn’t miss church. He loved being with the people of faith. And on that day they asked him to read the scroll. He begins to read:
Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
He rolls up the scroll and says, “Today’s the day this is fulfilled!”
He’s just read from the prophet Isaiah about what will happen when the Messiah comes. He’s telling everyone in the room that He is the Messiah.
And every translation of Luke and of Isaiah say essentially the same thing.
Luke 4:18
/ / … the oppressed will be set free… (NLT)
…to set at liberty those who are oppressed… (ESV)
/ / …freedom for the brokenhearted… (TPT)
…to set the burdened and battered free… (MSG)
/ / …to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity]… (AMP)
Now Isaiah 61:1-2
/ / …He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted… to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come… (NLT)
So, what Jesus says in Mark 2 and what He says in Luke 4:
/ / Only those who recognize and are willing to admit they need a doctor can get the help they need from the doctor!
The doctor that’s needed when we are mourning is one who can fix our broken hearts. That doctor is Jesus…
He is the one who has come to bind up the brokenhearted, the downcast, the hurt, to comfort those who mourn.
But that has to start somewhere. Blessed are those who mourn is not a given. Not everyone mourns. The question is: / / Are you willing to mourn? Are you willing to grieve? Are you willing to connect with your emotions?
Because mourning / grief / emotional pain is a choice.
I know there are extenuating circumstances, but most people have become very good at bottling up their emotions, putting them down. We have become really good at convincing ourselves that we’re ok. But are we?
We have a saying, / / Time heals all wounds. ???
But that’s not actually true. Time with the right treatment can heal all wounds. But if you neglect a wound, it actually festers and gets worse. And it doesn’t matter how much you ignore it, it’s not going away until it gets treated.
Last year they said that nearly 30% of all adults in America have said they were diagnosed with depression at some point. Up nearly 10% from just 2015. That’s diagnosed. That means they at least recognized it enough to go to someone. What about all the ones who don’t?
They say now 11.5% of youth experience severe major depression. How bad is it if they have to use two adjectives. It’s not just severe, it’s not just major, it’s severe major depression.
What kind of world are we living in?
What kind of world are we giving our children?
Now, here is the biggest thing about emotions. / / It’s ok to feel them. And the only healing you will ever experience is if you allow yourself to feel them.
Maybe you’ve heard this one before. You ask someone “How are you doing?” and they respond with “Blessed and highly favored”… now, if you use that, don’t worry, I’m not getting down on you, but if Jesus was in the room and said to all of us, “You are blessed when you can connect with your emotions and recognize that you’re not doing ok, because I want to heal you.” Would you say, “Naw, I’m good”…
You actually have to be willing to not be ok.
You have to be willing to grieve, to hurt, to feel the pain, to mourn. To wrestle with deep sadness and despair.
Not because it’s fun, or enjoyable, but because that’s the path to healing:
/ / Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted!
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, / / God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
So, why do I always talk about community here? And about building healthy community?
Because we get to find healing in Christ and become part of the journey of healing for others!
So, the first question is, Are we willing to feel?
Emotions are a God-given gift, and are meant to be indicators of deeper things. And yes, we need all of our emotions, but specifically this morning we are looking at what Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn”, because I truly think that mourning, or grieving, or this deep feeling of sorrow or regret is an indicator that something in us needs help.
I want to give you a caution and an encouragement this morning.
First, the caution.
/ / You don’t need to go hunting. God is gracious and merciful and there are times where we feel something is coming up and times we don’t.
And I don’t want to stir up some kind of emotional response this morning like you all need to deal with some major issue in your life.
There’s a saying, if you look for dirt, you’ll find it. If God isn’t leading you to search for something in your heart, you can leave it be.
BUT, and here’s the encouragement.
First, for those whose grief is right at the surface. You feel it day in and day out. / / Mourning is an opportunity for comfort.
If you are in sorrow, pain, hurt, grief, whatever it is you are going through that is making your heart bleed and you feel it, Come to the doctor this morning. Jesus is here to heal the brokenhearted. Jesus is here to bind up those who are feeling oppressed and hurt.
Second, if you are here this morning, or online with us and you’ve felt like there’s something, but you can’t put words to it. You feel like something is blocking you, or you feel shut down. Ask Holy Spirit to bring to light what it is you aren’t feeling that you need to feel so you can heal.
I’ve shared our story from one of the churches we were at. I was deeply wounded by the pastors of the church. My heart was really hurt. I was treated poorly. It was spiritual and emotional abuse. But we dealt with it. I pursued God for healing. I knew I was hurt and didn’t want to stay that way. I did the work of forgiveness and repentance. And lived many years free of any effect of that hurt and with a level of restored relationship as well.
Then suddenly, a couple months ago, maybe less than that even, I’m reading a book, and I am suddenly confronted, face to face with something this leader of mine had said that I had never recognized was holding back, but I was instantly overwhelmed with emotion over it.
It was a clear indication that this had influence and power in my life in a negative way and I saw immediately how that had taken place. The words were spoken. And the words were even vailed in some sort of compliment sounding phrase, but it wasn’t at all, it was a curse. Not that the person did it on purpose, I’m not saying that at all, but the words from their mouth to my heart were a curse. They may have meant it 100% well intentioned, but through the last many years of my life I’ve actually seen the impact those words have had on my life.
But I didn’t for quite a long time. It’s like there was a veil protecting me from the effects of them for years. And then suddenly it comes up.
Why? And what do you do? Well, you recognize it, you allow yourself to feel that emotion, and you ask God to guide you through it. Another round of healing. Another round of repentance. And the commitment to go through the process as long as it takes to see freedom in my life.
I didn’t have to work that up. My guess is that God thought I was finally ready to feel the pain and he opened my eyes to it. In his grace and mercy. Sitting right beside me.
Why? Because I’m a willing participant in the spiritual doctor’s clinic. I am a willing participant in Jesus plan for healing and comfort. I’ve told him whatever he wants to do in my life he’s allowed to. Well, a good doctor knows when it’s best to do something, right?
If I’m not following Jesus, doing my best to be obedient to His way, then I’m pretty sure these things don’t come up, and if they do, they break you, because you don’t know how to fix or handle them yourself. But I knew immediately what to do. And it’s a process, and I’m still praying through it as I remember it. But I’m confident in the doctor. In the healer.
You have to be willing to feel the pain. Recognize you’re not ok. Recognize there are things in your life, in my heart that I need to deal with and heal from.
Whether that is the pain of words someone spoke.
The grief of losing someone physically, either in death or in relationship.
The sorrow of going through all of the hard things in life. Life is not easy.
Honestly, I say it often, but you gotta turn to your neighbor and say, “Give yourself a break.” You are allowed to feel. You are allowed to not be ok. In fact, it’s encouraged.
When you come in here and someone says, “Hey, how are ya?” like that’s just what we say to say hi these days, we should feel 100% comfortable and ok with saying, “Actually, I’m not doing well at all… My heart is heavy. I’m sad. I’m depressed. I’m broken. I’m really going through it. I’m scared. I don’t feel like I have hope. I don’t feel like I’m going to make it.”
However small or big, we should be able to say it. Especially here. Why? Because we read it already, God our Father is the God of all comfort, and wants to give us that comfort so that when others also need comfort they are not alone in their sorrow and grief, but we can walk along side them, giving them of the comfort we have received so that they get comfort from both God and us.
That’s the promise. / / Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Comforted can come in stages and as a journey.
It may be instant healing for your heart. It may come in a wave of perfect comfort from God.
It may also come in a slow rolling of the tide, over time, that you feel comfort, but the situation hasn’t changed. You feel comforted, but you also feel like it’s not over. That’s ok. Keep going to the doctors office. Keep coming into this place and allowing the comfort of God and your community to bring healing to your heart.
I want to pray for you this morning…