Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Great stuff. Well, it's great to see you all this morning and we are continuing our series on the Be Attitudes which we began last week. The series is called The Revolution of the Heart. And the word revolution is not an understatement of the words of Jesus. He literally shakes up the very fabric of our understanding of our life and our society and he radically intervenes and brings fresh understanding for what our heart should be like. Let me start straightaway by reading all of the Be attitudes which come at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount and they say these words, blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. We looked at that last week. This week we're gonna look at this next verse and it says, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. And then over the following weeks we'll be looking at these.
Speaker 1 00:01:03 Blessed are the humble for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they will be show mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they we'll see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. As we look at the mornings small verse amongst the short lines that have become some of the most famous words of Jesus, these radical transformative words of Jesus today, we'll look at these words, blessed or happy are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Now you've probably, no matter whatever stage of life you're at, you probably have lost something at some point. I hate losing things. If I lose a key, I, I'll turn the house upside down to try to find it.
Speaker 1 00:02:17 I hate it. There are sometimes Nita wears um, contact lenses. Sometimes we've been out and about and she's lost a contact lens. There was once where she was going into a department store with those old revolving doors and she'd lost it in the revolving door and it was like, stop <laugh> somewhere there's a contact lens. I've pulled the plumbing apart on our sink in order to try to find a contact. Lense has gone down the sink. I hate losing things, but the loss is a lot more dramatic than losing some level of convenience in our life. Maybe you've lost, I know those of you here this morning, there are a number who have lost loved ones and the pain of that, the devastation of feeling like that which you've known so far has all changed. But it isn't just losing loved ones. It can be loss of routine, a loss of job, a loss of seem significance.
Speaker 1 00:03:21 And when these things happen, they can affect everything. They affect your routines, they affect your hopes, they affect your dreams. They affect your feelings for sure. It can dominate you. Grief, mourning loss can impact everything about our lives. Now, when I was growing up in South Wales, it seemed to me that grief was considered to be something that needed to be hidden away from children. Every household on the street, when someone died on the day of the funeral, everybody would draw their curtains, everybody would wear black, everybody would hush tones speak. It was like we don't know how to process this, deal with this. We just need to create that quiet privacy that symbolizes some of that difficult, tragic loss of a life. Of course, other cultures deal with it differently. You remember the time when Jesus healed Jesus's daughter and he goes to her home and he puts the whalers out the mourners.
Speaker 1 00:04:33 These weren't family members, these were professionals. You could get a job, you could have listed on your LinkedIn profile. I'm a professional mourner. And basically they were people that would express sounds, grief, cries of grief. And the idea was that in honor of the person that's gone, that the loudness would be symbolic of their, their significant loss in their life, but also that grief that often sits deep needs to come out. And the wailing of other people might encourage that for you to process your own grief. Different cultures deal with grief in different ways. But one thing we can be sure of cross-culturally that mourning or grief is never understood to be anything other than sad. But here Jesus says, happy are those that mourn. Surely that is a complete contradiction of terms. Isn't that an insensitive thing to say? Happy, blessed are those who mourn.
Speaker 1 00:05:47 Well, in the same way that the verse we looked at last week, blessed are the poor in spirit. We understood that poor in spirit wasn't a reference to material poverty in this world. It wasn't making some um, sort of great accomplishment or sacredness out of poverty, lack need. It was poignant to a spiritual truth, the poverty of our spirit, our utter need and dependence on a savior. And in the same way this verse is dealing with a spiritual principle, blessed are those happy are those who mourn is not so much about those who are losing loved ones or losing important things in their life. Although I'm so glad that the scripture tells us that our God is the God of all comfort. Yes. And he comes alongside us in our grief. He cares for us. He hugs us. Sometimes he just sits with us and doesn't say a word and he's just there.
Speaker 1 00:06:52 He's present presence. Someone we were reminded in one of our sessions, yes, they're being present when someone's going through grief is one of the most important things you can do cuz you can't fix it, you can't resolve it, you can't give a quick lib answer, just present, be present and God is present. But here, Jesus wasn't talking about losing loved ones, he was talking about a deeper spiritual truth of something we need to mourn. And right at the very epicenter of the meaning of this verse is what I would say is one of the biggest problems we have in the Christian Church, particularly in the West.
Speaker 1 00:07:37 We have developed a shallow repentance which has produced a shallow Christianity. Let me explain what I mean because I am mindful that as my children were growing up, that there would be times when they may do something that we felt needed to be corrected as their parents and we would say to them, say sorry, I'm sure you have never had to say sorry in your life cuz you all are like a perfect bunch this morning. But as a child crayons, wallpaper, it's quite tempting isn't it? And so, you know, a work of art, a Picasso on the living room wall. And so a parent walk walks in and says, no stop. It takes the crayons gently over the Charles hands and says, say sorry. Now I don't know what level of incentive or punishment you had as a child as we were bringing children. It was something called the naughty step.
Speaker 1 00:08:56 And you'd set them on the step for one minute for every year of their life. And you know, and hopefully that was punishment enough, you were basically depriving them of some freedoms to be able to play with their toys and you know, and if they said sorry they come off might be, unless you say sorry you're not having dessert tonight unless you say sorry we're not taking you to Cree's Adventure park next week. Basically we say, if you say sorry, there will be a reward if you don't say sorry, there won't be. Yeah. And I wonder if in some of our parenting what we've actually taught our kids is not to be deeply sorry for the pain that they've created. Now as a parent that I've either gotta spend half a day painting the walls or redecorated in some way to deal with what you've done. And we don't create a sense of remorse in the child, we just create an understanding that the word sorry is a magic word and that it gets on their benefits back. And I wonder whether some of our sorrys to God are based on the incentivization that if you say sorry to him, you can know eternal bliss with him in heaven. If we say sorry, we can enjoy his presence. I wonder whether our understanding of, sorry is a little bit shallow. We offer general prayers of Jesus. Sorry, I am a sinner. Please forgive me.
Speaker 1 00:10:31 Now, a few weeks ago, few of us in the family, we enjoyed getting our old camcorder out, plugging it into our TV and watching a number of a, what felt like a myriad of tapes that we've taken over the years of recording of special moments in our family life. Except when we watch it, it feels like their entire childhood consisted of birthdays or Christmas <laugh> cuz that's when the camera largely came out where a few snow scenes thrown in for good measure. But it's probably the favorite thing that we watch together as a family because we love to reminisce around those times. And you saw my six foot something son earlier on and my other six foot four son is around here somewhere in the youth and my daughter who's now married and and living in Luton and serving the Lord with a husband and a church there.
Speaker 1 00:11:20 When you see them today and then you see that they were so small and cute and cuddly, you know, it just, it got a little bit emotional. We were deeply touched by the beauty of remembering those memories. All of us. It was precious. And while I'm so glad that they've grown up to find young men and women today, um, and we're so proud of them, um, there was something in me that thought, I remember when I used to be able to hold him in my arms. Yeah. Rather than get a stepladder and do that to hug them. And there was something, oh I remember those days. That was so lovely. So such a privilege to be their dad. I see why some parents now whose kids have grown up look forward to the grandparent stage <laugh> so that they can hold a little baby once again in your hands and even better you can hand them back at the end of the day <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:12:25 But as we watched these videos and we might have nostalgically remembered and thought, oh that was nice, I've, over the years I've heard some people share their testimonies of their pre-Christian, their precht life and their post Christ life. I don't mean they've gone on from Christ, I mean they're living in the realities of Christ. And I've seen some people get really excited about the Precht bit when they share in it and then they get all serious when they talk about finding Christ. Oh, before I came to Christ we used to go out every Saturday, we used to get drunk with the lads. We used to go to football and we'd have a big fight afterwards. <laugh>. And you know, every week was exciting and Rey what was gonna happen. And we used to take all these substances and man, I don't remember half of the stuff that went on, but it was, it was just like a wild, wild day. And then one day I came to Jesus and now I'm full of his peace
Speaker 3 00:13:23 <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:13:27 And I, and I just think that there's something that's a little distorted about our understanding there because in fact, let me take you a bit further back. Let's rewind that family tape back. Not to the moment before you came to Christ, but let's rewind it back right to the beginning of the Book of Genesis. Because when we go back to the book of Genesis, we see that God took some dust of the earth. He formed man in his image, in his likeness, his DNA flowed through every part of us. And then he breathed his life into it. Yes.
Speaker 1 00:14:19 And we read that as a result of the DNA of God, the image of God residing in mankind with the life of God fill his lungs. We read, of course a, a Adam of rib was taken and Eve was created as well. And we read that there was an intimacy that they had with the Lord. They walked with the Lord, they talked with the Lord that there was no pain in the world. There was no need for food banks. There was no need for NHS hospitals. There was no need for mental health charities. There was no need for any supportive structures to be in society because what God made, he made perfect.
Speaker 1 00:15:08 What changed all of that sin. It ruined everything. Yes. So when we nostalgically look back and we see our pre Christ life and understand it in nostalgic trivial terms, we are failing to understand the sheer devastation that sin has caused. Because when sin came into the world, everything changed. And as we see this evidence in a verse in Romans five says these words in verse 12, therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, the death and death through sin, there was no weeping, there was no mourning, there was no tears, there was no loss, there was no bereavement, there was no death. And sin came in and death came in through sin. All the sicknesses we've been praying for this morning came into the world because of sin. It may not be your sin, but it's sin. There was no sickness in this way.
Speaker 1 00:16:41 Death spread to all people because all sinned the perfect communion in that rewinding tape back to Genesis, the origins of humankind. As the tape goes back to that moment, we see that perfect communion was broken. Yes. Walking together changed to hide in from God. Death came into the world, mankind lost its purpose because his purpose, Ephesians one 12 says in order that we were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. Yes. If someone is separated from God because of sin, they don't know that purpose that exists in their life, mankind lost its innocence. Mankind lost its clear conscience. I'm sure that many of the mental health crisis we are dealing with today are because of an unclear conscience in people's lives. Damaged, broken and lost. Yes. Why? Because of sin. Yes. It's only when we experience and understand the full extent is when like the lights go on and a fresh revelation comes of the full extent of our sinfulness and our fullness, that God is truly able to reveal the fullness and the wonder of his salvation. Jesus said to a woman that had led, led a life that was reputed to be of much sin when she was criticized for her worship. Jesus said these words, those who have been forgiven much love much.
Speaker 1 00:18:39 When I used to read those words as a young person or as a child, I got something very wrong. Let me explain. I grew up in a Christian family. My parents are lovely God fearing people and they brought me up in the ways of God and I'm so grateful for that. But I used to read that verse and think, that's not fair. It's not fair how this person who has been forgiven lots seems to be able to love God more than I do. Do you know what I was saying? I'm not as bad as they are.
Speaker 1 00:19:27 I don't I I don't know what it is to have the depths of sin that other people have had. What a pompous self-righteous young brat I was but I didn't really rebel. There was a period of time when, you know my language was a bit enChoice in school. There were times when I didn't do what I knew the Lord wanted me to do, but I never really left church or rebelled. I never had the Nikki Cruz testimony that other people have. God is not fair. I never gonna be able to love you as much as some other people.
Speaker 1 00:20:10 Today when I read that verse, I relate to the woman and I say, I have been forgiven much. God, you're so kind. You're so gracious. Because sin has polluted the very depths of my heart and my mind and I need a savior. Yes. We are very good at putting outside impressions on, there was a word that one of NE's favorite preachers, Mike Bickle shared last year about some prophetic stuff that he sends God was doing in his church. And one of the things he was talking about was a new level of authenticity in worship and he really slated fake passion in worship. Yeah, I'm sure you've never done this, but I'm sure you understand what you need to do. If you want to try and convince other people you're passionate <laugh>, you know the ti, you squeeze your eyes and your hands, the the more passionate you are, maybe how high you lift your hands resembles how much you love Jesus. How loud you shout, how demonstrative you are on the instruments. Surely that's what passion looks like. Well yes. If it looks like that in your private place. That's right. If it doesn't, that's right. You're faking it
Speaker 5 00:21:40 Show.
Speaker 1 00:21:42 And Jesus is not interested in our show. He's interested in our hearts. Yeah. He wants authentic worship. Hold on. He wants us to live lives where the inside matched the outside. Yes. Now, in the day of Jesus walking the earth, it may have not been how high they lift their hands or how tight they squeeze their eyes or how demonstrative they play their instrument. In those days it was how long they wore their robes, how long the tassels were. It signified a deeper level of righteousness in their life or how big the offering they put in the basket was signified their seriousness for the things of God. But Jesus saw right through them, he saw beyond the robes and he saw the hearts. And Jesus' interactions with religious people wasn't unkind, it was just exposing. It was just revealing. This is what you manicure, but this is what you like.
Speaker 1 00:22:51 And when we allow the spirit of the Lord to search our hearts, we mourn, whoa is me. In fact, when everybody thought that there were some levels of re of righteousness that they could attain to don't betray your wife or your husband be faithful. Jesus said when they brought the adulterous person before them, Jesus said, if you as even look at another person, lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart. See, he's not just interested in the actions, the outside. He's interested in the heart. Yes. It's interesting in our thoughts, our attitudes, our motivation, our desires.
Speaker 1 00:23:44 And the Bible carries on this theme. We see John writing in one John four verse 20. He said, if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. I don't just believe this is talking about your kin brother, but your church brother and sister, the family of God. It's like if there were two fountains flowing on the stage here, one was a fountain of sin and the other was the fountain of salvation. And I said, you can dance in the fountain. You can't dance in both fountains, it's one or the other and choosing one rejects the other. But so often in our life we try to craft the both of those waters together. And as we compare the old video reel that takes us back to Genesis. And as we wind it forward and we look at our pre Christ life and even when we fast forward and we see our present life in Christ, we see how far we have come and how much we have lost. And that's the morning. That's the morning right there. That's the grief.
Speaker 1 00:25:21 When we look at our lives today, we see in so many of our lives, let's go deep here. Insecurity. How many of you worry about what people think about you when you worship? What they think about what you say? I wonder how many of you, when I invited you to shout out some prayers, thought I can't do that. What were people think of me? We all live with those doubts, those insecurities in our life. Do you know they didn't exist before the fall? Sin has caused those insecurities, our struggles with pride needing to be the person that's elevated and understood to be an elevated person. Our fears of being rejected, our weakness and our struggles with sin. Our response could easily be well, oh well no one's perfect. Says who I am. The apostle Paul said in Romans seven, what a wretched man I am. See apostle Paul saying this, what a wretched man I am who will rescue me from this body of death.
Speaker 1 00:26:38 Throughout history, revivals moves of the spirit of God have been preceded. It's often said by prayer, but in that prayer it has been part of the characteristic of the prayer that people have cried out. What a wretched man I am. Evan Robertson, the was revival said, bend me, oh God, bend me. I need you to wrestle the inadequacy and the insecurity and the weakness of my life. I grieve for what I was, what I could be, what I should be before sin enter the world me. Read a few verses to you from Colossians chapter three. It says So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.
Speaker 1 00:28:01 Therefore put to death what belongs to your earthly nature. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, greed, which is idolatry because of these god's Roth is coming upon the disobedient and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now put away all of the following. Put away anger, put away wrath, put away malice, put away slander. Put away filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. Since you have put off the old self with its practices and you have put on the new self, you are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your creator,
Speaker 1 00:29:10 But as well as the mourning for our own lives. There's a cry of the spirit within us for the state of our world, the fullness of this world. Romans eight says, for we know that the whole creation has been grown in together with labor pains. Until now the world is creaking. The world is longing for its destiny, its original design and purpose to be manifest. Behold, I make all things new, says the Lord, his renewal, the kingdom of God come. He's desire to make all things new and the world is longing for it even though it may not be able to articulate it. Of course, our vision here rediscover is to reveal the glory of God to the southwest and beyond. It's not to just plant churches. Churches get planted so that more people can be mobilized so that more people can reveal the glory of God. But we want our communities to awaken to the original design of God. We want our communities to come alive with a transformative glory of our Lord that the inner inner darkness of our world or be transformed and beacons of light will shine all over the southwest, they were shining homes and villages and communities coming alive with the light of Christ bringing about transformation.
Speaker 1 00:30:55 Last week we finished our understanding of blessed other poor in spirit by leading together in a prayer of humility. I know many of tho, many of you found that helpful and challenging. So I've written a new prayer for this week of our blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. They will experience the arms of the Lord coming around their life and bring in the joy of the kingdom. They will be happy mourners as we recognize the work of God's grace in our life just as sin entered through one man. So salvation came through the second Adam. God came into the world. He crushed the power of sin. He takes away the sting of death and he brings life. I'm gonna invite us to join me in this prayer. I'll come and recite it from the front row. I'll warn you there's one spell of mistake I noticed in the first service, please, administrative people don't get hung up on that
Speaker 7 00:32:26 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:32:30 I wonder if you'd pray this alongside me. Oh God of mercy. I am am in need of you this day. I have fallen so far from your original design sin infiltrates the deepest parts of my life. My words can be destructive, my mind can agonize with all sorts of evil. My heart wrestles with unrighteous intentions. Oh God of mercy. I am in need of you this day. My hands can easily tear down. My feet can quickly run into darkness. I can delight in listening to un wholesome talk. My eyes can be fascinated by unrighteous things. Oh God of mercy. I am in need of you this day. You designed us to be holy, for us to bear your image and ways we grieve how far we have fallen. We grieve how this world has cultivated the darkness within oh God of mercy. I am in need of you this day. So I surrender afresh. I invite your Holy Spirit to work in the deepest parts of my life, to cleanse and restore. I long to shine forth your glory. I long for you. I desire after you with all my heart. Amen. Let's pray together.
Speaker 1 00:34:23 They that have been forgiven, much love, much thank you for salvation, so rich and so free that while I was an enemy of God, Christ died for me, gave his life as a ransom so that I may be free. God of mercy, I'm in need of you this day. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. And in these final moments of our gathering, if you are here today or you're watching online and you've not given your life to Jesus, that can change now. You don't have to earn his salvation as a gift. You don't have to come to church for months. This might be your first time ever. Jesus has been expecting you and he welcomes you and he doesn't treat us as our sins deserve. He offers us his life and Jesus gave his life to show you that if you'd like to receive the forgiveness of God, then the way to experience that blessing is to recognize your knee of him and to repent, to turn away from your sin, to turn towards righteousness. Let me lead in a simple short prayer. And if you would like to give your life to Jesus this morning or to come back to him,
Speaker 1 00:37:00 Then would you join me in praying this prayer and maybe to encourage those who'll be saying it for the first time. We can all join in together and say these words as well. And the prayer goes like this. Jesus, I thank you
Speaker 6 00:37:17 Jesus. I
Speaker 1 00:37:18 Thank you that you gave your life on the cross for me. I'm sorry for my sin and the mess that it's made. Please forgive me.
Speaker 6 00:37:33 Please forgive me.
Speaker 1 00:37:35 Please cleanse me. Deliver me from the effects of my sin. And may I be pure and holy and clean.
Speaker 6 00:37:49 Clean
Speaker 1 00:37:50 And fill this clean vessel,
Speaker 6 00:37:52 Fill
Speaker 1 00:37:53 This clean vessel with your Holy Spirit, with
Speaker 6 00:37:55 Your
Speaker 1 00:37:56 That I might love you with all my heart. In Jesus name,
Speaker 6 00:38:02 Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:38:04 And just while you remain praying, if you prayed that prayer today, would you lift your hands where you are? When I've seen it, I'll acknowledge it and I'll include you in a prayer. Someone will come and bring you a helpful resource that will help you in your decision. Is there anyone this morning, if you're online, speak to one of the online pastors. They'd be delighted to pray with you.
Speaker 1 00:38:34 Thank you sir. Is there anyone else this morning? Give your life to Jesus. Receive his mercy. Hallelujah. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your salvation. Amen. I love you Lord. And my voice to you, oh my soul, joy, my king. What you here let it be our sweet, sweet sound in your Why don't we stand together and sing that a close. I love you Lord. I love you Lord, and to worship you oh my soul. Joy, my king in what you let it be Your sweet, sweet sound in your so church, go and be lovers of Jesus forgiven, extravagant lovers of Jesus may salvation, rejoice and skip and leap in your souls this week as you remember his great work in your life. The Lord bless you. Thank you for being with us this day. Keep your heart soft before the Lord. Well done to all of those who have participated in our fast over the last 21 days as well. Whether you join us for a day or an hour or the entire length, well done. And I pray that your sacrifice will be received as sweet smelling worship to the Lord. But bless you. We are now gonna invite all the parents who've dropped their kids off to go and collect their children as soon as you can. There's also refreshments available on the balcony. Do stay behind. Enjoy fellowship. Have a great week. Hope to see lots of you on Friday at some point. God bless you. Have a great week. Thank you.
