The Grieving Heart

Grief

Good morning…I have to tell you and I want to be transparent for just a second…is that ok with yall? My heart hurts this morning. Matter of fact my heart has hurt all week. I have been grieved in my spirit at the images that have been played over and over throughout our nation. Even more than that I am grieved at the circumstances that got us here. Here is where I will take my stand.

Genesis 1:31 says

31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

Racism of any kind is pure evil. God created every one of us....and to consider someone of another race inferior is to shake your fist at the almighty God and say to Him something He created is inferior. This is a time for the church to demonstrate the love of Jesus to our community. Turn off your news go find someone who doesn’t look like you and give them a hug....with your masks on. Take the good news of the kingdom out of these walls and into the streets and stores of our community. Truly love our neighbors as ourselves and look out for the least of these as we never have before. That and only that will bring hope and healing to our nation.

With that said my sermon this morning is called The Grieving Heart. We are gonna talk about grief and all kinds of grief today. I don’t have any jokes today but if you will just hang on with me for a few minutes I think we will find some hope today. Can everybody say Hope this morning? We are gonna find hope before we leave today.

Now i want to let you know that I expect yall to interact today. If you feel like saying amen say it…it you want to clap then clap…if you need to stand up and stretch then by all means do so. Are you with me this morning? Ok let’s dive in.

I want to read some scripture first and I’m going to start with the end of the sermon in mind and then we will back track to it.

We are going to start in the Gospel of John Chapter 11 beginning in verse 17. This is the story of Lazarus.

John 11:17–23 (NLT)

17 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. 20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

32 When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them.

They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.

Remove the stone…man i love that…Somebody say remove the stone....

Ok so put a pin right here we are gonna come back here in a little bit.

How many of you have experienced grief raise your hand. Ok I saw a few hands that were kinda unsure whether you have or not. Let’s get something out of the way right from the start. Because some of you are sitting there saying well this grief that i’ve dealt with isn’t as important as someone elses. I want to tell you right now that your grief is important…whatever it is your grieving. It MATTERS. IT MATTERS TO YOU AND IT MATTERS TO GOD.

NO ONE CAN TELL YOU THAT YOUR GRIEF ISN’T IMPORTANT.

In 2 Corinthians Chapter 1 Paul writes:

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 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.

Paul says God is the God of ALL comfort. He comforts us in ALL our affliction. ALL OF IT. Think about that for just a second. Let that sink in. There is not one thing that you can grieve over, that can afflict you, that God doesn’t care about. Not only does He care but He cares enough comfort us through all of it.

Some of you right now in this room or watching online or on TV are grieving something right now. For some its a loss of a pet, or a job, or income, or a relationship, or a prom and a graduation. For some of you its the loss of a family member or loved one. For some of you its knowing a loved one doesn’t have long left with you and you are already grieving. If it’s important to you it’s important to Him. Cast all your cares on Him. He will comfort you in ALL of your affliction.

Think about this for a minute while we are here and then we will come back to it a little later. How many of us, I know I’m guilty of this, have said or thought something like this....so and so needs to get over that or stop grieving over that it isn’t even important. Or so and so has been grieving long enough they need to move on. We will come back to that in a minute.

They say there are 7 stages to grief. I looked them up to be sure I had them right and I had 6 of the 7 nailed down. Here they are and I want you to try and see which one I didn’t get.

shock or disbelief, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, depression, and acceptance/hope.

The one that I didn’t get was the last one. Acceptance and Hope. I think the reason I couldn’t get that one is because it is a rare commodity to get to that point. It seems like these first 6 stages just kind of cycle back through again and again and again. Anybody with me on that.

There are a couple of ways to combat this endless cycle of grief and it falls on all of us to pitch in.

The first thing is to surround yourself with a body of believers that love and care for you.

For the rest of us we have to be willing to listen to our brothers and sisters when they grieve. Grieve with them....Lament....

Paul tells us this in Romans Chapter 12 verses 12-15

12 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 13 When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. 15 Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.

Weep with those who weep. Weep with those who weep....Let me say it one more time....Weep with those who weep. That is our job. We are to come alongside each other and help in times of trouble…and sometimes all we need is someone to cry with us. Someone to mourn with us. Not grand words and a huge deeds but a hug and a cry. When Job lost everything including his children the one thing his friends got right was this....

In Job Chapter 2 verses 12 and 13.

12 When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to show their grief. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.

No grand speeches....no chin up…no WORDS…LAMENT

They wept, covered themselves in dust and sat with with for 7 days and nights. They wept with one who was weeping. They didn’t say get over it, its time to move on and they didn’t down play the grief. They wept and sat there.

There are times when that grief, especially the grief we experience with the loss of a loved one is so deep and so profound that it comes at us in waves and happens at random times. Songs or sights, special occasions, holidays, can trigger that wave of grief. I want to tell you today to let that wave come. Let that grief come. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard my wife try to hide her grief and go into another room to cry when it hits. I’ve wondered before why does she hide it. This week it hit me. I’m not weeping with her enough. I’m not weeping with the one who is weeping. So for those of you like me who are in a supportive role don’t ask them why, don’t say it’ll be ok....just weep with them.

For those of you who are grieving, who are weeping…that hope that we are looking for comes in Jesus Christ. Watch what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4

New Living Translation Chapter 4

13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

We do not have to grieve without hope. Hope begins in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is where you will find your hope. Trusting that He will be the one who will always be by your side. He even told us I will never leave or forsake…I will be with you until the end of the age. Let’s go back and look again at some of the scripture I read at the beginning.

John chapter 11:32-39

32 When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them.

They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.

Roll the stone....Now check out what happens next…I know a lot of you know this story but bear with me.

New Living Translation Chapter 11

40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” 41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” 43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

If you go back to the shortest verse in the Bible it says Jesus Wept. He was weeping for 2 reasons

the first one because He loved Lazarus and He was sad. The second is because Mary and Martha were grieving, and he was weeping with those who weep.

Even though, and this is important…Even though Jesus knew what was about to happen He still wept. Even though he knew before the foundation of the world that this moment would happen....He Wept. It is ok to weep even though we know the outcome. Even when our full faith is in God and what He will do it’s ok to grieve.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:4

4 God blesses those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

You see for the believer we get comforted in 2 places..The here and now and in eternity. Jesus isn’t giving us empty talk here. He isn’t patting us on the back telling us it’s going to be ok and rolling His eyes saying they need to get over it. JESUS WEPT. He weeps with us and comforts us. As Christ followers we have the Holy Spirit who Jesus also called who.....THE COMFORTER. All 3 persons of the Trinity are comforting us when we grieve.

And then oh man you gotta get excited about this....And then when God finally closes this chapter and we are in eternity with Him....Here is what Jesus promises through His revelation He gave to John....

In Revelation Chapter 21 v 4

4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

To sum this up: It’s ok to grieve. It’s ok to cry. But as believers we have a hope beyond this world.

God Will wipe away every tear....Eternity is the time when there wont be any grieving no sorrow no pain....ALL THESE THINGS ARE GONE FOREVER. I for one am ready for that day. I am ready to trade in my sorrows and pain for peace and joy and pure worship. Are you Ready?

Romans Chapter 6:23 says

New Living Translation Chapter 6

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

For those of you today who have already placed your faith in Jesus Christ He is your hope. And here is the hope for you and for me and for our community and the entire world.....In that passage we read earlier it says “Jesus shouted Lazarus come out and the dead man came out…Alive. Every one of you have answered that call of a dead man or woman coming out of the grave. When I surrendered my life to Christ He was saying BRAD COME OUT!!! I was dead in my sin but now I am alive in Christ.

If you haven’t yet given your life to Christ now is the time....Today is the day of salvation. You may be grieving and hurt and afraid but let me introduce to the one who comforts you in all your affliction and who one day will wipe every tear from your eye. The one who gave himself on a cross just so He could restore our relationship with Him.