FOR WHAT ARE WE TO MOURN?
Matthew 5:4

Recently I was privileged to share with a young lady whose husband pastored a church in one of the Eastern European countries.  She told me of a young girl who had recently accepted Christ into her life and who had come to that particular church one Sunday morning.  She was moved by the message and began to smile, even to laugh out loud in her joy.  This joyful believer was soon rebuked by others in the church and told that church was not to be a place of laughter or joy, but of mournfulness and sorrow.  The young believer never returned and the young pastor and his family are devastated at the thoughts of having to wear mourning clothes every time they attend church.  Is that what Jesus was teaching when He said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted?  I don't think so!

However, I do believe that there are two areas where we need to exercise a mournful spirit.  The first concerns our response to the sinful conditions of the world.  I am reminded of the words of the Psalmist as he surveyed the world in which he lived.  He wrote:  Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed  (Psalm 119:136).  Or, how about these words of brokenness from Paul as he relates to the Philippians, for as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18).  The Apostle Paul was broken as he looked out over his world and witnessed the blatant disobedience to God.

Friends, when was the last time you shed tears for the innocent children who are being murdered at the rate of one every twenty seconds?  (Approximately twelve children will be aborted just in these brief moments we have together).  Friends, do we mourn for the young girl in the heart of the inner city who is told the only way she can get ahead is to sell her body?  Or for the young man who is told that his future can be improved if he sells drugs?  Do we mourn the thousands of families and homes being destroyed each year by addiction to alcohol, drugs, sex, or money?  When was the last time we mourned the sins of our society? 

The second area where we are to be mournful is in our personal response to the sins within our own lives.  Paul wrote as he examined his own life, What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  (Romans 7:24).  And you remember the words of Isaiah when confronted with the holiness of God, Woe is me!  I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty (Isaiah 6:5).  Let me share one other text.  It is the scene of Ezra praying.  We read in Ezra 10:1, While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites - men, women, and children - gathered around him.  They too wept bitterly.

Friends, when we begin to see our sins as God sees them, we are without excuse for our sins.  We need to be broken before God with our sins.  We do need to shed those tears of repentance.

In our next study we shall consider the rewards promised to those who mourn over the sins of their society and the sins within their own lives.

Father, Too many times we take sin so lightly.  It is as if sinning was no big deal.  We sin and You will forgive, so we don't weep over our sinful failures.  Lord, we need a brokenness over sin.  We cry out against the sins of our society!  We cry out against the sins in our own lives!  As Ezra, may we fall prostrate before You with tears of repentance, both for ourselves and for our nation.  And we shall praise You for Your forgiveness.  In Christ's name we pray.  Amen.

 

Return to Sermon on the Mount Overview