We talked last week about Matthew 5:3 and the importance of humility as we come to God. We are going to do a deep review this week because we really need to get Matthew 5:3 in order to understand Matthew 5:4.
It is when I see my own brokenness that God’s holiness becomes most clear to me, and the necessity of His continuing grace, His unending faithfulness becomes easily understood.
I asked you last week to search yourselves and more importantly to pray that God would reveal to you the unresolved sin in you that has been hidden — or ignored in your life and to then take that sin to the cross in confession followed by repentance.
As I said last week, I was confronted with a hard truth about myself when preparing for that sermon.
My wife and son had taken an overnight trip to see her friend in Ohio, and I was left with a higher than normal sense of detachment, and loneliness.
I rationalized that this was an admirable trait. After spending half of our lives together, I still long to be with my wife and I feel the pain of separation, even in short bursts apart.
But as I went to God in prayer, He made it clear that I have often been away from his Word for more than a couple 24 hours. Where was my longing for Him?
Where was my heartache for the Spirit?
Why is it that I sometimes have to remember to pray, but I think of my wife and anticipate opportunities to talk with her throughout the day?
Don’t hear me wrong. It isn’t sin to love my wife or my son. They are gifts from God to me. They bring me joy beyond words. The issue is, are they ultimate? Are they trumping God for my affections, my attention and my devotion?
Jesus makes this kind of priority setting clear in Luke 14: 25-26
25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate (read: love less than God) his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
As I sat there praying and these hard questions came at me, grief came with them. Sorrow flooded in and I couldn’t help but cry as God revealed the truth.
I cried out to God. Through tears I confessed my double minded nature. And I repented.
And, to the best of my abilities today, I am focusing in on the wonders of God’s work in my life personally, and in the world around me, because when I focus on God’s great love for me, my focus is directed back to the source.
Now that I’ve shared, we’re going to go around the room and I want you to all tell us where you’ve failed this week.
Just kidding.
But, I hope that you have been doing some introspection this week.
Have you found some issues you thought had been resolved, but that just keep coming up?
Have you finally come to terms with a reoccurring sin that seems to own you that you had not wanted to admit?
Or, has your struggle been with trusting God and knowing that He can save even you?
Whatever is going on between you and the Lord, our passage this week, continues through this painful, but fruitful area of our faith walk.
If we have searched, or are still in process of searching and digging into the impoverished areas of our spirit, Matthew 5:4 tells us what to expect once we find it.
Please read it with me
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
- blessed — As we said last week the blessing is that happiness that doesn’t fade with one bad moment, it is the happiness that is found in the Lord. So,
- blessed are those — those are the ones who have come to a realization that they are poor in spirit. We said last week, that once we get to that place, where we see our sins in contrast to God’s holiness, we are at the beginning of growth. And this realization will elicit a response.
- Blessed are those who mourn — Mourning is an outward sign of our inward grief and sorrow.
So, are all mourners comforted? I’d say no.
The rich man in Jesus’ parable in Luke 16 mourned not because he had a separation from God, he mourned his consequences of that separation. (Luke 16:19-24) Then, he went on to mourn for his family. (Luke 16:27-29) But, He never mourned for his sins or for separation from the Lord.
He also mourned too late. We have a patient God who has given us more time than we deserve in order to turn to Him, I pray that everyone here would be sure of their salvation now, because tomorrow, and really the next movement of the second hand on the clock could mark our last moment on earth.
If you have been waiting for something to happen before you accept Jesus as your lord and savior, I pray that you would be given a sense of urgency by the Holy Spirit and do it tonight.
So the mourners who will be comforted are the mourners who have faith in Jesus Christ and who come to that faith in this life.
The mourners do not only mourn for our own sin and inequity, but also for the pain that we deal with in this broken world.
We mourn those who have gone to the grave before us, we grieve over the sickness and poverty that is rampant throughout the world — whether it is our friend who has cancer or the hunger and disease seen in a third world country.
We also mourn the sins of those around us, for our family and our nation and our world. Sin is sin and what grieves the Lord, grieves His children.
But here is the bright side.
We have been coasting at bottom for two weeks and there is a wonder in all of this. Remember that we who are poor in spirit and we who mourn ARE BLESSED!
After the mourning they (we) SHALL BE COMFORTED!
When we see our sin for all of its ugliness and we grieve for our lack of gratitude toward our father in Heaven — He comforts us with his unending faithfulness, love and grace.
If we come to him in tears, He tells us, “My grace covers it.” Just stop abusing the grace.
When we come to Him with the grief of loss or the mourning that comes from seeing others suffer and when we come to Him with that powerlessness and sorrow, when we come to Him mourning over the way His name is dragged through the mud by the wretchedness of our culture today, He lets us know that all of this is temporary, that there will be a day when all sin, sickness, pain and tears will be wiped away. (Revelation 21: 1-4)
I hope that these first two passages of the Beatitudes have brought you comfort tonight. Just remember, God brings conviction to lead to humility and repentance.
Once we are there, He can bring us into healing, he can comfort our spirits and then He can send us out to proclaim the gospel.
God does not need people out there who are proud of themselves he needs people who are bold in Christ.
Likewise. We will never be able to share the Good News if we only dwell in the sin.
The Good News is that Jesus is our REDEEMER. He saved us even when we were in that state of rebellion.
As we go out tonight, and as we live in the world this week, pray that God make you ever aware of the areas where sin still holds you and when He does, don’t laugh it off, don’t hide it somewhere until later, face it, feel it and give it to Him. As Jesus told the adulterous woman in John 8:11, “Go, and sin no more.”
Live in His grace and represent His forgiveness so that you, so that we, may draw more into the fold.
Lets Pray…
