Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

We could use a few cases of water for the water ministry.

This Thursday June 2 at 6:30pm Kevin will continue the study of Revelation

Introduction

Good morning church!

Praise God from whom all blessing s flow!

Amen!

We are grateful that each one of you have joined us this morning to worship God is Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time, one book at a time.

And we hope that you have come with expectation.

What expectation?

The expectation that we will hear from the Lord.

Let us open our Bibles to Matthew 5 and we left off in verse 3.

Read Matthew 5:1-5

PRAYER

Lord, your word says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted and God Texas and all of the world is mourning over the tragedy that occurred this week so we please ask that you would comfort the broken hearted and encourage those who have suffered such great loss.

Help us Father, to not become desensitized to the sin of this world and our own.

Lord today, would you teach us what it means to mourn and be comforted by you!

Not by strength, nor by power, by by your Spirit heavenly Father.

Remove all distractions and speak to our hearts.

In Jesus Name!

We Love you!

Amen

Review

You might be wondering why we stopped in verse 5 today???

It is because we will cover these two verses as we exegete this text.

Last week we slowed down the plow are we turned the motor down to turtle speed, because we must first understand the depths of what it means to be poor in spirit.

Poor in spirit means that we are spiritual bankrupt, that we are in deep spiritual poverty.

And this is not only the beginning of our great salvation, but this is how we stay near the heart of the Father.

This is where we all start church!

I can’t, He can, and I need to let Him!

This is where we let go and let God

This is where surrender starts and surrender stays

It is when we think we are capable of doing life by ourselves that pride enters our lives and goes before the fall.

I think we need to remember that the climate that Jesus walked into, was one of serious religiosity and politics

When Jesus starts his sermon, he is very kind, affirming, and compassionate.

He turns Judaism upside down and says things that are contrary to the religion of the day.

Let’s remember that there is a multitude of people here, but the sermon is for his disciples...

So we are blessed, when we are poor in spirit church and understand our spiritual poverty.

Church, those who need THE Physician are poor in spirit!

How many of you came to Jesus on a winning streak?

By the way, notice I did not say religion.

Relgion cannot reform our flesh, but it can enslave us, and blind us, and stop us from seeing our spiritual poverty.

Jesus stepped into a very religious culture

EVERYONE has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence.”

That means every person – regardless of titles, bank accounts, possessions, and accolades – is spiritually destitute.

Our sin puts all of us in a helpless, hopeless, and desperate state.

Outside of Christ, we are spiritually and morally bankrupt.

So for us to enter the kingdom of heaven and be disciples we must be poor in spirit

Then Jesus moves onto mourning and comfort, why??

I think it is important for us to remember ministry started he said:

Jesus ministry was one of teaching, preaching, and healing for sure, but is crucial as we make our way through the Be-attitudes that we remember he said this.

To enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus is laying out principles for entrance and not only entrance, but these principles will keep us there.

Yes, we are saved by grace through faith, but if you think about your salvific story, most of these beatitudes were present and these are what we need to be a life long disciple of his.

Jesus shifts from spiritual poverty, from being poor in spirit, to mourning.

And we are not talking about morning, noon, and night...

What should we be morning over church?

Let’s first look at the word mourning:

Mourn-pentheo- to cry or lament, grieve, bewail, sorrow, to mourn for the dead.

There are in the Greek language nine different verbs used in the New Testament that speak of grief.

This is the strongest of the nine.

This is the most severe.

But the very fact that there are nine different verbs in one language to express the concept of grief is a pretty good indication that it is a way of life, that it is part and parcel of just living.

And, in fact, the whole of man’s history is the story of tears, and it’s the story of sorrow, and, by the way, we have had a lot of it but we haven’t had anything like what is yet to come.

Everyone of us have mourned and may still be mourning over loss, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a career or job, the loss of a relationship, the loss of finances, the loss of our health and this word can mean this, but the most significant meaning is not outside ourselves, but rather inside.

The Lord does comfort all who have suffered loss church because this is his character, but we are talking about discipleship here, we are talking about how to be righteous so here it is....

To mourn is to care deeply, to know godly sorrow for sin, to be deeply concerned about the evil in the world and to know the meaning of suffering because of the sin, injustice, and perversion in society.

When we mourn over our sin and the sins of our community, state, nation, others, and the world, Jesus assures us that we will be comforted and we will look at being comforted in a moment.

But first I would like to take a CLOSER LOOK at morning over sin, for when we have this, repentance is a by-product.

Look at what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth as he called them out on their sin in love:

Paul did not regret sending this letter to the Corinthians even though it caused them great sorrow or morning if you may.

Why???

Paul knew that their sorrow over their sin would lead them to repentance and thus to obedience.

This is godly sorrow.

But wait!

I have another illustration I would like us to look at in Leviticus

The first offering that a man of Israel was required to bring to God in the tabernacle was the burnt offering.

Listen to all that had to be done to an animal that served as the symbolic substitute for the sinner who seeks to approach the holy God of Israel.

That's what a sinner had to do in order to approach God.

And as hard as it may be to do, I suggest that we place ourselves, in our imaginations, in the position of the one who offered such a sacrifice.

How do you think you would feel about your sin while you watched, as such a thing was being done for you?

You'd certainly get a sense of the dreadful seriousness of your sins, wouldn't you?

Now, your initial reaction to such a thing might be to be repulsed by it and turn away from it.

But please, instead, make yourself stop and think about it.

Can you imagine watching such an ugly procedure of death being performed, knowing that it was something that was absolutely necessary in order for you - a sinner - to even be able to approach God?

Can you imagine how you'd feel, knowing that it was your sins that made such a thing necessary?

Even more gruesome was the description of what needed to be done in the case of a peace offering;

Church, it was the sinner himself who had to kill the sacrifice before the LORD; and then watch as the priest drained the blood and sprinkled it all over.

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Then, he had to watch as the animal was divided in such a meticulous manner - with fat and entrails taken out and spread upon the wood of the altar.

What a sobering pageant of blood and death it must have been to watch - especially knowing that it was because of your sins that it was being done.

How vividly the cost of your sin would have been displayed before you - in all its bloody, gory detail!

And as I read this text, I wonder how anyone making such an offering could do so without going through a deep sense of personal, inward mourning for their sins!

For years, I've read those passages and thought to myself, "How glad I am that I live in the age of grace!

How glad I am that such things are no longer necessary!"

But I was wrong to think that way.

It's true that I live in the age of grace, and that I no longer need to come to God through the sacrifice of an animal.

And it's true that I'm very glad for that.

But the fact is that death is still as necessary as it ever was for my sins!

My sins are as costly now as they ever where!