Those Who Mourn

Introduction

Who slept how many hours?

ILLUSTRATION: AMIT ACTIVITY

People in a large circle (oblong)

Step into the circle if you:

Slept less than 5 hours

Hate spiders

Can play a musical instrument

Mental health

Loneliness

Bully/Bullied

Think God doesn’t care about you

The first type of Mourning

Today going to talk about next beatitude

Matthew 5:4 ““Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Two levels for this term “mourn”

The first level = deep sorrow about our sinfulness and our walk with God

awareness of the sheer amount of sin in our lives

inability to escape it

It’s one thing to be aware of sin, another to genuinely mourn it

opposite of taking a light-hearted approach to sin

How many of us sin and think nothing of it? = lose its weight

we lose sight of the seriousness of sin

ultimate consequence = repentance stops

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

repentance is an integral part of our faith

Christian who does not repent - is not taking faith seriously

Repentance is not merely saying you’re sorry - it’s turning 180 degrees.

Jesus is saying those who recognise the real issues that are close to His heart are truly blessed

sheer amount of sin in the world, oppression of the poor, injustice, plight of the unloved

those who mourn the things that Christ mourns in this world - they will find comfort.

ILLUSTRATION: Struggling to be a pastor

When I first became ordained as a pastor back in FCC, I was young - and a truth that not many people know is that I really struggled to pastor. I am definitely more of a leader, someone who is far more comfortable naturally with strategy and big speeches and charting direction. I am not naturally gifted as a pastor, I do not naturally come by empathy. You know in youth ministry they just come up to you with the most menial small issues - “Oh pastor, I got a B in my exam, how am I going to survive?” “Pastor, this girl doesn’t like me”, “Pastor I just feel so bored all the time - I’ve got nothing to do” it may sound dumb to you but I was always aware that I just could not see these kids as God sees them. Honestly - it never bugged me that much, I was a pastor, they should know I was too busy for this kind of stuff; and I had leaders who were incredibly empathetic so problem solved - you’re welcome.

One day a youth came up to me, same kind of problem - “Pastor, I didn’t do very well in my tests.” I remember that I was writing a sermon at the time they bugged me so I dismissed them the same way - “well buddy better try harder next time.” I remember looking up after around 30 seconds of silence to realise that they had walked away. Later that week I had a leaders meeting where one of my leaders came up to me and told me that one of her kids had reported he was being physically abused by his parents and that we may have to call the police to intervene. I asked who it was - it was this same kid. Turns out that his parents would beat him when he got anything below a B, but as someone who was learning challenged - he struggled to do better than that; that kid was so scared to go home because he effectively knew he was always going home to a beating - and I had just told him to try harder next time.

I went straight home and prayed about this issue - God break my heart for what breaks yours. And that’s when I stumbled across what is today my favourite prayer. It’s by Mother Teresa:

“O Jesus, even if you are hidden under the unattractive disguise of anger, of crime, or of madness, may I recognise you and say, “Jesus, you who suffer, how sweet it is to serve you.”

Seeing Jesus in every person - God opened my eyes to see what He saw. And I started to see His youth group as He saw them. From that time on - any problem one of my youth had, I made time to listen, doesn’t matter how big or small. Loving people came before planning programs, or preparing sermons.

Our hearts need to be in line with God - we need to rejoice the things He rejoices, mourn the things He mourns

Our hearts need to break for the things that break God’s heart

unloved, lonely, widows and orphans, poor and needy, lost, victims of injustice and persecution, the bullied, the unpopular, the “least of these”

The Second type of Mourning

More to this definition of mourning

Psalm 34:17–20 “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”

God is close to the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.

Just like many who responded by stepping into circle today - brokenness is everywhere

God is near to those whou mourn - He is drawn to the brokenhearted

“When the righteous cry for help”

symbolises dependence on God

Submission of our brokenness to God

Are we too proud/ashamed to submit that side to Him?

Issue: Brokenness that remains unsubmitted to God can become barrier in our relationship w/Him

Choose not to trust God

Brokenness -> Burdens which we carry around and affects everything

Brokenness submitted turns into breakthrough

God wants to repurpose it so that it will grow you, not harm you

ILLUSTRATION: Ministering in Singapore

I was preaching at a church in Singapore a couple of years back. And when it came to the altar call I decided to do an altar call on self hate. Now this was a very conservative church, and according to the pastor this was the first time they had done an call on this subject so we had no idea what to expect. So I did the altar call - and a group of people came forward, but the group that came forward had extreme responses - one girl was screaming more than she was crying, another was making retching noises, a few were sobbing uncontrollably, a few were wailing - you get the picture. When they came forward, the leaders had no idea how to react because they hadn’t seen an altar call like this before - even I was a bit taken a back by how extreme the responses were. There was this awkward lack of movement after I had asked the leaders to go pray - none of the leaders moved, I think they just had no idea what to do. But one leader, a young girl started moving to the respondents, first to the girl who was screaming she knelt next to her, whispered to her and prayed over her and the girl stopped screaming, hugged her and started crying. After this, all the leaders moved in to minister but I couldn’t take my eyes away from this leader who moved with such boldness and tenderness to all the respondents, praying over them, whispering to them - many people were watching her and I know I wasn’t the only one who was moved by her ability to minister to this group of people. Later all the leaders went out for supper and I got a chance to chat to this girl, whose name I found out was Charmaine, I told her that I was so moved by how gracefully she had ministered to those people who responded to such a tough topic. I told her she had a gift for ministry, that was when she turned to me and pulled up her sleeve - which revealed multiple deep scars, a clear indicator of self harm. She them told me how she was one of those kids, and one of her youth leaders had loved on her, ministered toher and walked her through the self-hate that she was experiencing as a youth. She just said, “I became a leader so I could do the same.”

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit”

1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

God cares about what you’re carrying

It’s quite easy to make the mistake of picturing God as someone who doesn’t care

He has no time

Bigger fish to fry

Can’t see Him so I don’t believe He does

Contrary to all the above - the biblical God is one who cares

goes as far as to ask you to cast your cares on Him

every small thing, every bit of brokenness in your life

What brokenness are you holding?

Mental health

Bullying

Broken Families

Broken Relationships

Health

Grief/Loss

Sometimes it’s easier to tell yourself not to care

= hindrance on your relationship with God. Wants to use your brokenness to draw nearer to you

What if God meant for your brokenness to be a part of your breakthrough?

ILLUSTRATION: Mum passing away and God using it

For those of you who don’t know, my mum passed away in 2008. Stage 4 Melanoma, she fought for 10 years but finally succumbed. My mum was as godly a woman as you would ever meet, and so for years I wrestled with God about why He would take her away. It was a burden I carried for a long long time.

Until one night at youth, around 6 years later. I don’t remember who spoke but I was co-ordinating the response. Probably around 100 kids at the altar, all crying and stuff. But God pointed one kid out to me - a newcomer, year 7, never seen him before. I actually didn’t go for ages because I reasoned that I needed to be on stage to make sure everyone was prayed for etc. But the prompting never left, and somehow people just never ended up praying for this kid.

So I went up to him and sat next to him, and I asked him what I could pray for - he looked up at me, tears in his eyes and told me his dad had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It was only a matter of time. And at that moment I felt God speak a phrase into my spirit; I later learned it was from Hosea 14:3 “In you the fatherless find compassion.” I knew in that moment God wanted to take that brokenness I had been carrying for years and use it to love those who had lost/were losing their parents.

Altar Call

Front altar call. Submit brokenness to God for Him to use as breakthrough.