Real Life Christian Church | Lessons On Blessings: Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

[Music] [Music] hey real life i'm so glad that you decided to join us today as we continue in our series lessons on blessings but in preparation for our time i just want to pray for you and then we're going to jump right into some great worship let's pray god thank you so much for today thank you for this moment but father most importantly we pray that you would just bless this time of worship in jesus name we pray amen [Music] the head the words was [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] your name your name is victory all praise will rise to christ our kings [Music] i [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] jesus by your spirit i will rise from the ashes of defeat the resurrection is resurrecting [Music] [Music] [Music] me in your [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] victory [Music] oh [Music] that's who we're so just was borrowed for three [Music] [Applause] days [Music] [Music] is [Music] victory [Music] the [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] uh oh come on [Music] is hey friends every time we get a chance to worship we get a chance to be reminded of god's goodness and his greatness but when we take communion together it's a reminder of the sacrifice that he had to make in fact the bible says that whenever we take this we proclaim his death the death that gives us life until he returns for us so if you have your elements go ahead and grab them let's give thanks together let's give thanks for the bread which represents his body lord we thank you for the sacrifice that you made for us and we receive that right now let's go ahead and eat [Music] together and as we hold the cup lord we give you thanks for the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins that makes us holy and righteous before you and we receive that let's go ahead and drink together let's go ahead and pray lord we just thank you and we proclaim that your sacrifice was necessary for us to come near to you and have a relationship restored to you jesus we thank you and we proclaim that you are our savior and we say this in jesus name amen what's up real life we're so glad to have you joining us today we want to know if you were able to make it to worship night last sunday if so drop a comment about how god moved in your life so we can all be encouraged i know for me personally it was so great to come together in unity with you to worship our hearts out to jesus we'll keep you updated once we know when the next one is if you're new here welcome we want to make sure that you have an opportunity to get plugged in so head on over to real.life connect or you can use your phone's camera to scan the qr code on the screen right now real.life connect helps you stay up to date with next steps message notes and upcoming events you can also find the link where you can follow along with all of the scriptures mentioned in today's message well today is a very special day happy father's day to all our incredible dads out there including my own shout out we're so grateful to have a community full of men who seek the lord and do their best to live out the unconditional love of god to their family and friends we appreciate all the work you do and the burdens you carry on behalf of others the impact of a father is one that is hard to match so today we honor you and we know for some this day doesn't always feel so happy so for those of you who are struggling with loss or grief today know that our prayers are with you the bible promises god is close to the brokenhearted so we pray that you feel the nearness of our heavenly father today hey and if you need prayer for anything at all today and you're on a platform that has a chat room we have prayer partners who are ready to connect with you if you're on a platform that doesn't have one you can email your prayer request to prayer at real.life or simply go to real.life connect and one of our team members will reach out to you soon and don't forget when you give you're really giving true real life to the vision of change lives we cannot thank you enough for your heart of generosity that keeps this vision and mission going right now lives are being changed through our summer vbs kids programs and our middle school youth camps we can't wait to find out all that god is doing in little lives this summer and you are a part of making that happen to find out more about giving and generosity simply go to real.life connect and click the give link this week continues our series called lessons on blessings where we dive into the beatitudes or the blessed are statements of jesus we've got pastor jeff wallace in the house today and we know this message is going to hit home so don't go anywhere let's get started [Music] staring back at me with a heart so free and i just wanna be where you are [Music] in this moment i could stay forever hold you in my heart just like a [Music] treasure lessons on blessings i'm thanking god for this message if jesus said to tell me who am i to contest we are made in this reflection when it gets up i just turn on my god for the rest [Music] [Music] hey what's going on real life how is everyone doing today well i am so excited that you've decided to join us today from all over the world and it's really kind of cool that you've joined us this particular weekend because it's father's day weekend and i gotta say to all of the amazing fathers out there holding it down for your family i know you've already been given a shout out but i want to also give you a personal salute and say happy father's day to each and every last one of you for me personally one of the greatest joys in my life is being a dad i absolutely love it i love my three big old kiddos jay cj and cam and there is nothing in this world that i wouldn't do for them outside of paying their car note their insurance and their rent forever because they have acts but my job as their father guys is to teach them a couple of things one to love jesus second they need to know to respect their mother respect women and respect people in authority but most importantly my job for my children is to teach them independence why because as their father i totally believe in teaching them independence because it will be an insurance that they will stay out of my pocket because that's what i want now guys i also realize that for many of you you're like me and your father is no longer with you and there are many of you who are still mourning over that experience well i totally get it because the truth of the matter for me on july 25th of this year it would be 10 years since my dad went home to be with jesus and sometimes i still can't believe that he's gone i mean i think about him every day and i miss him so much so if that's you just know this that although your earthly father is no longer here with you please take comfort in knowing that you have a heavenly father who said he'll never leave you nor forsake you now i gotta admit because of that truth i'm also really excited about today's message it is so timely and and it's really timely for me i think personally it is the perfect message for me and i pray will be the perfect message for you see we're in this series lessons on blessings and it's all about learning the path towards a blessed life and last week pastor jay he kicked us off uh by giving us a little back story and context on the beginning part of jesus sermon on the mount in matthew chapter 5. and here what jesus is doing he's sharing a few statements called the beatitudes and what i find most interesting about the beatitudes is the fact that like pastor jay mentioned last week they're so counter-cultural of these statements that jesus makes he really doesn't seem to make sense right it doesn't really seem to make sense to us in the natural or it doesn't make sense in today's society and culture and it's because the path jesus is suggesting to a blessed life is not ideal or popular to the flesh and in many ways this sermon jesus articulates represents the major ideas of the christian life it is the ultimate blueprint the words that jesus shares are great instructions that are clear that are practical and they're concise each one of the beatitudes it starts with a blessing now another word for blessing here could be the word happy and jesus has given us ways that we can live a life where it is both happy and a blessed life and the world doesn't really reward this kind of living that jesus is talking about but guess what god does the world says to all of us that a blessed life is when all of your dreams come true or you acquire all the fame and the fortune and the stuff you want you're blessed when you get everything you want and everything goes your way that's what the world says but jesus said the contrary jesus actually teaches that happy are the sad and blessed are the brokenhearted now i know many of you are like what really that really doesn't make sense now we've already learned how jesus came out of the gate hot with his teaching and he opened up with his first line in matthew five and three when he says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and this week we're going to discuss the second pathway that jesus talks about which is found in matthew chapter 5 verse 4 which simply says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted say what come on jeff now that doesn't make any sense blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted friends well if you're like me when you first hear this verse your first response is probably now that's a major contradiction and guess what you're a hundred percent right but this is what living for jesus is all about and that's how we experience a blessed life there is levels to this thing and i want to explain that to you today you see church in order to be spiritually victorious we must be willing to live in a way that is completely contrary to the common patterns of this world that's why paul writes in romans 12 and 2 he says do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind you see the life of a christ follower is really full of contradictions and paradox and here in matthew 5 and 4 the suggested paradox is simply that a christian cannot be happy until he or she is willing to experience sadness now i know some of you're probably in the chat right now like what jeff what are you saying have you lost your mind well guys just stay with me for a moment because it's going to make sense to you shortly this sermon jesus is sharing is a presentation of his kingdom program and the righteousness needed for all of us to enter into his kingdom the beatitudes are statements that are designed to teach us that until we're willing to totally surrender our lives to god and totally depend on him we will never experience true blessings that's why the poor in spirit in verse 3 refers to those who realize that they are they're spiritually bankrupt and they must ask god for grace and mercy and here in matthew 5 and 4 they're kind of three things that jesus is teaching us the first thing that he's teaching us is he's teaching us how to grieve now i've shared with you early on about the loss of my father and and outside of the loss of my father i've experienced grief so many times in my personal life and if we're all honest each one of us we all have a grief story that we can share we have a story where we've grieved over maybe a divorce or being abused or maybe losing a job or having a broken relationship or maybe we've grieved over uh dealing with an illness like cancer or receiving a terminal diagnosis or or maybe we've just simply grieved over a death but the truth of the matter is we've all experienced some type of natural sorrow and guess what god made us with the capacity to weep and cry in fact here is the truth in fact there are many heroes of the faith that cried in scripture including jesus himself and the bible actually teaches us that in ecclesiastes 3 and 4 it says hey there is a time to weep and there's a time to laugh god uses our tears church to heal our broken hearts and and to be honest when i grew up i grew up with this strong father and my father actually encouraged me to not cry because he believed as a man it showed weakness and that men we're supposed to be strong and we're not supposed to show any level of weakness or any type of vulnerability so for me for a long time when i was hurt or i was sad i really kind of suppress my feelings and men if we're being honest there are many of us that are like that can i get an amen because i know that we have all had those moments or many of us had those moments where we were like man i don't want to show any type of weakness but as i grew up and i matured in my faith i learned that it's really okay to mourn and it's okay to be sorrowful i also learned as i matured in my faith how we we should mourn and grieve over our own sins that's what we call this word convictions when we really grieve and mourn over our sins we are we're convicted of things and paul actually says in second corinthians 7 and 10 he says godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret but worldly sorrow brings death and in god's word we know that there's guys like peter and isaiah and others who actually grieved over sin jeremiah in the old testament he wept over a nation jesus himself he actually wept over jerusalem and we as the church we should be saddened by the things that saddens god sin guys is really no laughing matter and what breaks god's heart should break ours as well what i love about god is he gives us comfort in himself but he also gives us comfort in his promises and through his spirit you see church there is a big difference between natural morning and spiritual mourning see natural morning is grieving for something or someone you've lost whereas spiritual mourning it is the sorrow or grieving over sin against god spiritual mourning it it really arises from humility and it's a matter of the heart and it really is it's infused with a sense of hope and so so in this text jesus he teaches us not just the importance of grieving but also how to grieve but the second thing that we know jesus teaches us is he teaches us ways that we can grow now for many of you you know that i love to eat i confess it i own it it is my struggle and and if i was in an fa meeting which is a food anonymous meeting i would be the one standing saying hello my name is jeff and i love food and then i could hear my supporters sitting in the circle saying to me hi jeff well you know recently i had a doctor's appointment church and i want to share my doctor's appointment with you and when i sat down with my doctor he was very clear he left no ambiguity he says hey jeff you really have two choices and two choices only he says your first choice is you can eat whatever you want and then you're going to die early because of your family history but then he says the second choice is you can start getting serious about your health and live to see your grandkids well i thought about it for just a second so i was like well if you put it like that doc i'll take living a long life and seeing my grandkids for 200 alex that's a jeopardy reference so so what i did was i started here over the past three weeks this really intense diet and this diet only allows me to drink two plant-based protein shakes for breakfast and lunch and a very conservative dinner where i have to use my hand and my fists to guide me for my food portions so what it is is my fist represents my protein and my hands represents my vegetables well here is the problem well i'm a short dude with small hands so that means it's not going to be enough for me and i really really was struggling with it and have been struggling with it and if that wasn't enough church i can't snack i love snacks no chips you know what i'm saying no late night snickers the only thing that i can do is i can only drink water and i have to have these three meals and then there are some healthy snacks that they really provide for me but then church it doesn't just stop right there i actually i can't have any ketchup i love ketchup no sweet tea that is the drink of champions along with mountain dew and no caramel macchiato from starbucks now to be honest with you when i first started this diet the first week it was awful um i actually wanted to say a few bad words now in my head i did now i want to say i didn't outright out of my mouth but i thought about it but it was downright painful i had so many headaches and i was having sugar withdrawals but the only thing that kept me going was first and foremost my desire for a summer dad bod 2.0 but then also really seriously it was my desire to live a long life and to see my grandkids and as i began feeling better i also began to see some pounds come off and i would step on the scale with a little bit of excitement and i quickly church realized the reality that although change is painful there's purpose in the pain and in the process i've learned a lot about myself and i've had an opportunity to really spend deep devotion time with god it's been awesome church when it comes to our faith and learning about the path to a blessed life sometimes that path is painful but can i tell you every time there is purpose in our pain see god never wastes our pain and in fact there is blessing in our pain and all throughout scripture we see moments when god blesses the broken in judges chapter 7 when gideon broke the pictures the hidden light began to shine in second kings 4 when the poor widow broke the seal on the oil god multiplied it and met her needs and in matthew 14 19 when jesus he broke the five loaves of bread he fed the multitudes and in mark 14 when mary she broke her alabaster box the fragrance filled the room but most notably church in matthew 27 when jesus was broken by a crown of thorns nails and a spear his blood was poured out for the cleansing of our sins you see real life god is in the business of blessing broken pieces jesus desires in matthew 4 to show us that when we mourn we will be comforted there there is no ambiguity around it there's no uncertainty when we mourn with god we are comforted and and when it comes to being comforted jesus when he's talking he's very definitive in his position and his posture this is the promise of god this is this is his promises god promises that great is our reward for those of us who are willing to mourn and i'm just telling you church it may not feel like it right now but it will be worth it now the third thing jesus he taught us was that okay now it's time to go see jesus he ends this passage right here in this statement he says that they shall be comforted now here's the question what does the bible teach us about comfort well paul says in second corinthians 1 3 and 4 he says praise be to god and the 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 here it is in trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from god don't miss that that's so good see what jesus says here in matthew 5 and 4 it is a direct contrast to what the world believes there are several ways in which the world will teach us how to experience comfort one of those ways that the world teaches us is to just simply ignore the problems it's the out of sight out of mind strategy it's that mentality that is seen in a song that we used to sing years ago and it was like voted number one for his class of music and you remember this song don't worry be happy right you remember this this catchy little song that had this hook where it says that you know what hey don't worry you know he says this little song i wrote and you can sing it note for no don't worry be happy and even though the hook was really catchy the song never gave a reason not to worry except to put on this fake happy smile and and and this is what we do it is the effort to ignore our problems and we think that ignoring our problems are going to be okay that they'll go away but the effort to ignore problems it really fused a counterproductive behavior that we see in culture nothing has been solved and in fact the problems may become worse because of our commitment to do nothing but here is another way that the world encourages us to be comforted the world says here's how you are comforted you replace sadness with happiness by simply changing your circumstances are focusing on something else that you enjoy see guys our market-based culture tries to convince us that there are some products or services that we can buy that will bring us joy and comfort our culture says that if you buy this or that you'll be happy no matter what your problem is just buy this and boom it's going to replace your sadness with happiness and and we're we're trying to attract this attention is positive attention to ourselves so that we won't worry about things but we think that that all these things that we acquire they're going to solve our problems but they really don't ladies you know how it is you say hey if i have problems maybe i'll just go shopping and i'll buy some clothes or some shoes or makeup or maybe you want to buy some hair or perfume and guys you know how we do when we're having mid-life crisis and we're going through things what do we do to be happy to feel good about ourselves we'll buy a new car a motorcycle a boat or a fancy some fancy tools for our garage or maybe for many of us we like to just go to the gym or buy a gym membership or exercise equipment so that we can become happy with our body but here is the fact worldly happiness is temporary but godly happiness is eternal and the word comforted is also used to describe the ministry of the holy spirit jesus said in john 14 and 16 he says and i will ask the father and he will give you an another advocate which translates comforter to help you and be with you forever it's like kids who run to their parents when they get hurt or when they are in need god is saying hey i want you to cry out to me and run to me when you need comfort when we send guys we need to cry out to god for forgiveness but it doesn't stop there and i love the way one of my pastor friends he puts it he says hey he says when we lament we should repent why because god has called us to be sent meaning that the very reasons jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted and to comfort all who mourn is so that we can in turn go out and comfort others who mourn the bible actually tells us this in isaiah 61 1 and 2 when it when it says the spirit of the sovereign lord is on me because the lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness from the prisoners to proclaim the year of the lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our god and to comfort all who mourn you see church here is the truth the other part of our story is that we've been saved to be sent god has placed us here on earth in our city in our our sphere of influence at this time in history for a reason there is a plan that he has for our lives which also means that there is purpose in our pain there is purpose in our sorrow there's purpose in our suffering we are called to be the hands and feet of jesus and we as the body of christ we are sent to represent god in every aspect of our lives so here's the question will you cry out to the god of all comfort today and let him not only forgive you of your sins and heal you of your brokenness but then will you in turn be willing to be in a posture or position of total surrender and let him use you to bring healing and comfort to others around you friends here in matthew 5 and 4 the verb mourn is actually a present tense verb meaning that it is a continuous action our mourning should not just be over our own sins as the holy spirit convicts us but our mourning should also be over the sins of others because if we're not careful living in a sinful society can sometimes desensitize us to sin and impact our ability of having compassion for those who are in need of jesus but when jesus says blessed are those who mourn he is saying blessed are those of you who are willing to be empathetic for others as a church we should always love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us why because our haters and persecutors they really represent the mission field and as you know god wants us he wants us to comfort those that mourn and as the church as the body of christ we should know that god he forgave us of our sins through his son jesus and he's given us his word which is the message of hope so that we can give it to others but he's also given us a sure promise of a future redemption of all things in second peter 3 and 13 the bible says but in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells so i know some of you are probably asking right now okay jeff i love it that's cool but how do i practically learn this lesson on blessing and how do i move from a natural sense of mourning to a spiritual sense of mourning well can i suggest three quick steps to you first get to know god for yourself examine his character and his attributes but then secondly you gotta study god's word see when you study god's word it will reveal how ugly sin is to god and how destructive it can be to our lives and to god's children but the third thing that's important is we gotta seriously consider the price god paid through jesus who redeemed us from our sins and each one of these steps church i pray that as you walk through these steps that you will ask god to search your heart and that he will reveal any sin that is there and when we apply these counter culture principles and practices to our lives and totally depend on god guess what the outcome is a blessed life it's not a life where everything is going to be perfect no i would never lie to you and tell you that it's not a life where all things are going to just be put together and it's going to be all good but i can tell you it is a life where you will have a peace that surpasses all understanding it is a life where you'll have first and foremost comfort because you know that the lord your god is still with you i love what isaiah 41 and 10 says it says so don't be afraid for i am with you do not be dismayed for i am your god i will strengthen you i will help you i will uphold you with my victorious right hand but then friends you also have to know that when you live this blessed life you're going to have confidence because you'll know that god still loves you in isaiah 54 and 10 the bible says that though the mountains be shaken and the heels remove yet my unfailing love will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed but then guess what when you live this path of a blessed life you know what you do you trust in the direction of your life because you know that god is not only crazy about you but he's consistent that's why proverbs 3 5 and 6 says trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight but then lastly here's the beautiful part when we submit to these lessons on blessings you know what we find and what we have is hope because we know that god is still at work within us real life i want to encourage you today don't give up don't give out don't give in because god wants you to live your best life which is a blessed life and even when the world wants you to think that you're losing can i just tell you that's a trick of the enemy because the truth of the matter is with god you always win and in closing i just want to share but paul says in romans 8 and 37 where he sums it up best when he says this no in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us god bless you real life let's pray god i thank you so much for just a time that we can be reminded that even in the midst of mourning you want us to find comfort not just comfort within the truth that you said you'll never leave us or forsake us but god you want us to learn how to find comfort in mourning so that we can go and help someone else so father i pray that we will not only just learn these lessons on blessings but we will apply these lessons to our everyday lives we love you and we honor you in jesus name amen real life until next time don't forget god is crazy about you feel free to take as much time as you need to reflect on today's message in a moment there will be some questions on the screen that will hopefully start up some introspection and interesting conversation so take this time go deeper and see what god is wanting to do in your life don't forget to reach out to us with any and all prayer requests you may have either in the chat here or at prayer real life thank you so much for joining us today and don't forget god's crazy about you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] so you

Channel: Real Life Christian Church

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Keywords: Real Life Christian Church, Real Life Church, Real Life Church Clermont, real life christian church lessons on blessings blessed are those who mourn, real life christian church clermont, lessons on blessings, blessed are those who mourn, mourning, jesus teachings, the beatitudes, beatitudes, jesus teaching the beatitudes, beatitude on mourning, what does it mean to mourn, jesus teaching on mourning, sermon on the mount, jesus sermon on the mount

Id: PxtbGLGWhCs

Length: 44min 31sec (2671 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 19 2021