Sermon on the Mountainside The Blessing of Mourning Turning in the Morning

Sermon on the Mountainside

The Blessing of Mourning Turning in the Morning

There is a

A time to weep and a time to laugh Ecclesiastes 3:4

We are living in the reality we have created and that reality of sin hurts us all

It angers us and it angers God

He will leave us in the consequences of our sin only for a season

That we might see our wicked ways and repent

For his anger lasts only a moment,

but his favor lasts a lifetime;

weeping may remain for a night,

but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalms 30:5

There is a morning coming, a time of laughing and rejoicing

Weep over sin and turn to the Lord

For God wants to turn your mourning in the morning

Don’t give up hope

The Blessing of Mourning Turning in the Morning

If you have ever sat around

a loved one in a hospital bed

If you ever walked the halls of Hospice

Or, been to a funeral

You know what it is to mourn and weep.

As a pastor, I have had the privilege

 to be with people as their loved

ones were being taken from them.

These times are sacred and holy.

They are powerful and moving.

These times, stop time in the

sense that all the other activities

in the world, don't matter.

When I see someone crying over the

loss of a loved one, I like to tell them…

“A tear is the greatest gift

of honor you can give.”

 

“Why?  Because it expresses the fact that

that person’s life meant something to you.”

Tears describe love.

You cannot mourn or weep without love. 

It is a love that grows deep

that brings out the tears of sadness.

If you have wept at the loss of a loved one,

you are blessed to have had someone in

your life that has meant so much to you.

Jesus talks about those who weep and mourn.

He says they are blessed and they will laugh.

He is not talking about the loss of a loved one.

Yet, for us who have lost a loved one,

 we can relate to weeping and mourning.

Weeping and mourning comes from

an absence of something we love.

No one cries over things that don’t matter.

 

The more something matters…

The more we care.

 The more we care…

 The more we do not want

to be without that thing.

Jesus in His famous sermon

is talking about His Kingdom…

A way of life in this world

and the afterlife in this world. 

When I see flowers…

 I am reminded of my

Grandmother, Arletta Davoll.

 

She owned and operated a flower

shop with my Grandfather, Bill Davoll.

When I see flowers I miss her

and my mourning for her returns.

In the same way, when I see sin

in the world it brings a sadness.

Sin is the absence of God’s

goodness and His Kingdom.

For those who understand the teachings of Jesus…

 Understand the message of the Kingdom

is a message of righteousness, peace and joy.

A message of a King who loves us more

than we have ever been loved before.

 Maybe you have lost a loved one to cancer

and you not only mourning over the loss…

 But you mourn because you see

Jesus went about healing the sick.

You mourn over the pain and suffering

that comes from living in a fallen world.

You and I long for day when there will

be no more sickness, sorrow or pain.

A day when Jesus will wipe

away every tear from our eyes.

Jesus’ message is a message of hope.

I know a woman who tragically lost

her daughter and never regained her hope.

Although she lived many years later,

she lived in a house where

the drapes were never open.

In darkness she slowly died,

 never laughing or enjoying her other

children and the life she could have had.

That is not the life Jesus wants for you.

There is a story of a pastor in Ohio

whose wife had died…

 He believed she would come back from

the dead, so he put a phone in her casket.

There are some things we cannot hope for…

Things that bring us a lot of pain.

Jesus knows about your pain…

 We find Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

 Jesus wept over the death of His friend Lazarus.

Jesus wept at the thought of losing His own life.

It is this Jesus who reminds us of hope.

Not a false hope like wishful thinking.

But a hope backed with truth and facts.

A hope of an eternal Kingdom

and hope for that Kingdom to

come in earth as it is in heaven.

We see the limits of God’s Kingdom in earth,

 but those limits don’t discourage us.

Those limits increase our longing

for more of His Kingdom.

Jesus is saying you are so blessed

if you can mourn and weep as

you see the failures of this world…

The effects of sin and rejection of our loving God.

If you have tasted that the Lord is good.

When you see bad…

 You cry, but not without hope.

We do not mourn as the world mourns…

Because we have hope.

We may not always see it in this life,

 but we will when Jesus comes again.

If you are mourning, the God of

all comfort wants to comfort you…

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

2 Corinthians 1:3-6

There is a…

A time to weep and a time to laugh

 Ecclesiastes 3:4

We are living in the reality we have created

and that reality of sin hurts us all.

It angers us and it angers God.

He will leave us in the consequences of

our sin only for a season that we

might see our wicked ways and repent.

For his anger lasts only a moment,

but his favor lasts a lifetime;

weeping may remain for a night,

but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalms 30:5

There is a morning coming…

  A time of laughing and rejoicing.

Weep over sin and turn to the Lord.

For God wants to turn

your mourning in the morning.

Don’t give up hope.

Scripture Reading

Matthew 5:4 NIV

4 Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Luke 6:21 NIV

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.