The God Who Feels: A Review of ‘Blessed are Those Who Mourn’

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:00:04] That's Stephen. I like the leaf picker. Awesome.
[00:00:46] I got it, but I'm not going to stop you.

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[00:00:56] Hey, Sylvester, and I'm so thankful to be with you this morning,

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:08:19] and we are so glad that you are here and joining us for this new year.
[00:08:24] I want to draw your attention up to the screen as well.
[00:08:26] We have a QR code for you.
[00:08:28] If you're new or you've been here for a while and you want to take a step towards connecting further, you can click on that QR code, the link it will take you to, and learn about all the things that are happening in the life of the church.
[00:08:39] I want to start this morning just by praying and opening our time.
[00:08:48] You, God, are my God, and earnestly I seek you.
[00:08:51] I thirst for you.
[00:08:53] My whole being longs for you.
[00:08:55] In a dry and parched land where there is no water, I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.
[00:09:05] Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
[00:09:10] God sometimes life does feel parched and dry and weary and God we come knowing that your love is better than life and we need you so desperately and we invite you here receive our worship we love you in Jesus name Amen

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:09:33] amen good morning y'all it's good to see you why don't you join us in worship as

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[00:09:42] we sing together Jesus went to a town called name and his disciples and a

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:15:32] large crowd went along with him as he approached the town gate a dead person was being carried out the only son of his mother and she was a widow and a large crowd from the town was with her when the Lord saw her his heart went out
[00:15:48] to her and he said don't cry then he went up and touched the buyer they were carrying him on and the barriers stood still he said young man I say to you get up the dead man sat up and began to talk and jesus gave him back to his mother they were all filled
[00:16:08] with awe and praised god a great prophet has appeared among us they said god has come to help his people the news about jesus spread throughout judea and the surrounding county country the word

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:16:22] of the lord you need to sing or we'll say easier to sing slightly harder to say and walk out and

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:21:37] believe every day so god i pray that as we sing it that would be true as we walk it if it's hard for us to sing it god may you gently lead us to be able to sing it and believe it lord because you
[00:21:51] are trustworthy you love us so god gently lead us to trusting you more and calling out your name we love you we put all these things in your name amen you may be seated hello again um if i missed

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:22:09] you earlier i'm amy sylvester and i'm the director of small groups and we're so thankful that you're with us today. As we step into a new year, we're often thinking about new rhythms and routines
[00:22:21] and priorities and maybe even deeper, more connected relationships. And I recently read a study that said that half of adults say that they feel lonely or isolated regularly. And I can relate to that. I don't know if you can. There are moments that I feel that as well.
[00:22:41] but that's not how we were created to live or to grow. And here at Story Hill, we really do believe that growth happens in community, not in isolation. And so I really want to encourage you
[00:22:55] to take a step further into a community this year. You have a couple different opportunities or ways to do that. You don't have to do all of them, but I encourage you to do at least one of
[00:23:08] them. You can sign up for our community groups and this QR code will take you to a form and you can fill that out and let us know, hey, I'm thinking about this and we can get you more
[00:23:17] information. Or you can, after each service next Sunday, we will have tables out in the lobby and you can stop and ask any questions. You can hear about Bible studies that are coming and also the
[00:23:29] community groups. So we hope that you will come by and say hello and just take one more step towards connecting. Um, one other opportunity we have coming actually really soon. It's on Monday evening, January the 12th at 7 PM. This is hosted by the men's ministry. So all you men,
[00:23:47] we hope you will come out. This is a great chance to bring a friend or a colleague.
[00:23:52] And I think this is so cool. I was actually living in New York city when this happened and it was crazy. Um, but it was the miracle on the Hudson. If you've heard of that and
[00:24:02] slowly landed the plane back in 2009 on the Hudson, Warren Holland is going to come and tell his story. And not just his story, but also how that situation and what he lived through there
[00:24:15] shaped his faith. And so I just want to invite you to come to that event next Monday. And ladies, we've not forgotten you. Just stay tuned for more coming for us in the probably close in February.
[00:24:28] So I just want to push you one more time to take one step this winter into deeper connection here at Story Hill. And so I want to ask you now to turn to your neighbor and share one thing you

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:24:42] enjoyed over the holidays. I'm Michael Flake, part of our pastoral team here. Great to be together as a church family this morning here in beautiful 2026. So, so good to be together as a church
[00:27:06] family as amy said especially if you're newer we have these little connect cards on the tables as you enter and exit the sanctuary take one of these use the qr code at the very least to get signed up
[00:27:17] for the weekly newsletter so that you can find ways to connect into the life of the church we would love that whether you are cautious about jesus curious about jesus or committed to jesus there is room for you at story hill may this be a place where you heal where you grow and where you
[00:27:33] engage. So long as you don't have it all together, you'll fit right in. I want to take just a fast minute to celebrate getting to celebrate Christmas Eve for the first time in this structure. I think
[00:27:45] it was on the 24th of December. Thank you to all of you who jumped in and served in various ways.
[00:27:53] It was a beautiful evening. Over 2,000 of us came together and worshiped together that evening, which is a fun milestone to mark. But if you're new to Story Hill, you might not know, although that's fun and we really love that, the thing we really love is week in and week out
[00:28:10] growing closer to Jesus. That's what we get most excited about. As we worship together on Sunday morning, as we grow together in our community groups, our Bible studies, as we serve together inside these walls, outside these walls, and Jesus transforms us in the process of all that to live a
[00:28:28] more Christ-centered life. The week in and week out of growing closer to Jesus is what we love most of all. And so if you were here with us over the holidays, or maybe today's your first Sunday
[00:28:41] because you're trying to start the rhythm of seeking God, growing closer to God, we are so glad that you're here. And you picked a fun time to join into the life of the church. By my rough
[00:28:52] estimate, about a third of our congregation has been here less than a year. Like Cain, when we moved into this building and about a third of our congregation has been here since before the pandemic when we worshipped in a school and that third has been through a lot of change
[00:29:09] good change change that aligns with what god has called us to do and a lot of change and then there's the middle third who came in between those two but here's the deal uh we're
[00:29:22] just one congregation, one church family on one mission. And that is God's mission. God is doing something in this world. And so we are not here to just go through the motions of church. We are
[00:29:35] here to join God in what he is doing in this world. So my request for you echoes Amy's request for you. My request for you is that in 2026, all of us find a way to say a fresh yes to how we
[00:29:49] engage with God's mission at Story Hill. And for you, that may mean engaging in the church for the first time. Not saying I attend Story Hill, but I am part of Story Hill, engaging in the church
[00:30:01] for the first time. For you, that may mean that you find an opportunity in the church that is new to you and you say yes to engaging in that way. Or for you, it may mean that you look at one or
[00:30:13] a couple of the things you already do in the church and you say a hearty yes to engaging in that way. Not going through the motions of church, but actually engaging in God's mission in this
[00:30:24] world through the opportunities at Story Hill. And if we will all do this, if we will all say our fresh yes together, we will continue to live into what we hope for this building, which is that it
[00:30:36] is a tool for ministry. It is an outpost, a launching pad for the hope and the mercy of Jesus. And that's not something one of us has to do. We are together trying to do that. We are
[00:30:48] better together and since we're together that means none of us has to do everything and since we're together it also means none of us will get everything we want out of this church but we are
[00:31:00] together we are better together and as we say our fresh yes in 2026 together i think god will do amazing things in us and do amazing things through us so that's my ask of you as we come to 2026
[00:31:12] and near the one-year mark of being in this tool for ministry.
[00:31:18] But today we want to continue a series of sermons called Blessed.
[00:31:22] There are a lot of voices in the world and thus a lot of voices in our mind telling us who we should be, what matters, how we should live.
[00:31:29] So we want to start off the year amplifying the most important voice, which is the voice of Jesus.
[00:31:35] Specifically, we are looking at his beatitudes at the beginning of his sermon on the mount.
[00:31:41] If you were here last Sunday or were worshiping online or in this room, you saw Mark Dickman start this series off in a really wonderful way.
[00:31:49] We'll continue it today.
[00:31:50] The Beatitudes are statements that reorient our reality.
[00:31:54] Some of the Beatitudes turn our world upside down.
[00:31:59] As Jesus reveals to us, there's blessing, there's goodness, there's rightness in things we would have never imagined.
[00:32:07] So Mark preached very well that the first beatitude is very much an invitation in.
[00:32:12] Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[00:32:16] And now as we continue through the beatitudes, what we're going to see is that Jesus is going to join a virtue of God's kingdom to a promise of God's kingdom.
[00:32:28] And throughout the series, I'm going to ask you to take a moment and select a beatitude or select a couple beatitudes to memorize.
[00:32:35] A beatitude that really connects with you.
[00:32:37] but I will invite you to say them with me this morning, all right?
[00:32:40] You don't have to do them from memory. Let's put them on the screen.
[00:32:45] Jesus taught this. Say it with me.
[00:32:48] Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[00:32:53] Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
[00:32:57] Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
[00:33:01] Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
[00:33:06] blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God blessed are those who
[00:33:22] are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven today we want to focus in on the second beatitude which says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. And to understand more of the
[00:33:43] heart behind this beatitude of Jesus, we want to look at an encounter that Jesus had with a widow in Nain. This is the passage that Zana read for us earlier. Now, if you don't have a physical Bible,
[00:33:55] we also have those on the tables as you enter and exit the sanctuary. We would love for you to take one of those as our gift to you. And you can find the passage I'm teaching on this morning,
[00:34:05] uh luke 7 starting in verse 11 so that means you find the book called luke you find the big number 7 that's the chapter you find the little 11 that's the verse the chapters and verses were added later
[00:34:16] by editors and scribes so that you and i could refer to passages and reference passages they weren't in the original it was just one long bit of text in the original they didn't even have spaces in greek you don't put spaces or punctuation even it's just a long run-on sentence
[00:34:33] essentially. Luke chapter 7. As we look at Luke chapter 7 we want to explore questions like why is it a good thing to mourn? Why is mourning a virtue? What is good? What is right? What is
[00:34:47] blessed about mourning? And what happens if my situation my outcome is different than what happened for the widow in Nain? So you may have heard of the little girl who was in her class at
[00:35:01] church drawing a picture. Her teacher asked her what she was drawing and she said oh I'm drawing god and the teacher said well dear no one knows what god looks like and the little girl said
[00:35:13] something like well just hold on a few minutes and then you will when we ask a question like what does god look like which is a different way of asking what is god like people will often
[00:35:28] describe something like the lincoln memorial a stately man with a beard kind but firm sitting in this great chair that's not a bad guess there is one problem with the lincoln memorial though lincoln is stone-faced literally stone-faced his expression does not change we often think of god
[00:35:54] that way as well that god watches the world god watches our lives stoically calmly not all that upset, not all that happy either. And yet, when Jesus the Christ, fully God, fully human, the God
[00:36:11] of all creation, wrapped himself in humanity, moved into the neighborhood, when Jesus Christ walked on this earth, he gave us a different picture of what God is like. And there is something about mourning that helps us see God more clearly and less stone-faced. And that's
[00:36:30] what we see in our passage as a widow in Nain is mourning the death of her son. Now Jesus' statement blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted is not just about death. It is about
[00:36:44] all the ways that we grieve the brokenness and the fallenness of our world. In the first chapter of the Bible, God creates the world. By the third chapter of the Bible, that world is in rebellion
[00:36:56] against God. We are in rebellion against God. We have experienced what theologians call the fall and everything broke when we fell. We see the brokenness of a fallen world all around us.
[00:37:13] And when we are honest, we see the brokenness of a fallen world in us. And as we learn to grieve this brokenness, this fruit of our collective rebellion, as we learn to mourn this brokenness,
[00:37:31] not justify it, not ignore it, as we learn to mourn it, Jesus says we will be blessed.
[00:37:40] That there is a goodness, a rightness, a blessing in mourning, because ultimately we will be comforted. So we may not be mourning death as the widow in Nain is. However, like her, we are mourning the brokenness of a fallen and rebellious world. And so in this passage, we will see two
[00:38:02] attributes of Jesus that we need to hold on to, that we might be blessed, comforted as we mourn.
[00:38:11] The passage begins, soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him as he approached the town gate a dead person was being carried out
[00:38:23] the only son of his mother and she was a widow and a large crowd from the town was with her so jesus and his earliest disciples and also a big crowd of people curious about jesus
[00:38:36] are walking together and they come to this small town oh little town of nain and in this small town, there is a funeral procession. There is the body of a young man is being carried on a buyer.
[00:38:50] That's like a tabletop that four to six people could carry. There would have likely been a thin sheet draped over his body as happens in most small towns and in most small colleges and in
[00:39:02] most small college towns, everybody is up in everybody else's business. And so there is a huge group of mourners surrounding the buyer. What Jesus knew, what his disciples began to piece together is that there was one woman weeping more bitterly than the others because her husband
[00:39:21] had already died. This left her a widow. And in that day and time, widows had almost no means of providing for themselves. Their best shot was that their sons could provide for them when they became
[00:39:33] of age and could enter the workforce. So the people with Jesus begin to realize here's a woman whose world has come crashing down once again. Verse 13 says, when the Lord saw her, his heart
[00:39:52] went out to her and he said, don't cry. The scripture says that when Jesus and this woman saw one another, his heart went out to her. The Greek word there is esplagniste. Easy for me to
[00:40:11] say. Esplagniste. That is a verb form of the noun for your entrails, for your guts. Like you know those emotions you feel in your gut, the emotions you feel here, not here, the emotions you feel in
[00:40:32] your gut. When Jesus sees the widow in Nain, he feels in his gut that he has to do something.
[00:40:40] This is the first of the attributes of Jesus we see in this passage, which is his undeniable compassion, his undeniable compassion, and not the sort of compassion where Jesus huddled with his disciples to get a sense of how best to care for the widow, Jesus just knew in his gut he had
[00:40:59] to do something. He has an almost visceral reaction when he sees this widow in name. In other words, Jesus, and thus God, for one of the things Jesus came to do was to show us what God was like.
[00:41:13] God has deep emotions. Now, his emotions never get out of control. He always expresses his emotions and ways that are consistent with his character, but God is not stoic. God feels things deeply.
[00:41:31] When we say Jesus loves you, you may hear that as Jesus doing his duty. Well, he loves me because he's supposed to. He loves me because he committed to. But what if it's a commitment that Jesus still
[00:41:49] feels deep in his gut? And what if your victories make him cheer? And what if your new steps of faith bring him joy? And what if your struggles break his heart? And what if your hard-heartedness
[00:42:04] makes him angry? And he loves you. He loves me. Fully invested in all the details of our lives.
[00:42:16] Never out of control, never punitive, never naive, but always loving.
[00:42:27] Now, I'm sure there's a leadership lesson here, which is something like there's a time for planning.
[00:42:32] There's a time for strategizing.
[00:42:34] There's a time for doing one's duty.
[00:42:36] And there is also a time to quickly, almost viscerally respond with compassion.
[00:42:45] But do you remember what Jesus said to the woman?
[00:42:47] he told her don't cry now the same word there is used in the biblical passage Matthew 2 18 to describe how in the very beginning of the Bible one of the earliest chapters of the Bible
[00:43:06] the Bible says Rachel wept and refused to be comforted so I don't think Jesus is trying to dismiss the widow's emotions I think in his compassion he is saying to the widow you don't have to weep how Rachel wept. You don't have to weep how Rachel wept because Rachel wept and
[00:43:36] refused to be comforted. Verse 14, he went up and touched the buyer. They were carrying him on and the bearers stood still. He said, young man, I say to you, get up. So Jesus' compassionate
[00:43:55] response continues. He walks up, he touches the funeral buyer almost as a way to halt the procession. Everyone stands, all the bearers stand still. Eventually I'm thinking everybody stands still like this is a little weird. And then Jesus breaks the silence with these words,
[00:44:14] young man, get up. Now things are really weird. What must the widow and name be thinking?
[00:44:25] or maybe this passage is not about what anybody is thinking but about what they are experiencing in their esplogness day easy for you to say verse 15 the dead man sat up and began to talk
[00:44:46] and jesus gave him back to his mother and the word about jesus continued to spread who is this man who is this prophet who raised someone from the dead? Now in the Old Testament, that's the first
[00:45:01] half of the Bible. In the Old Testament, you have a few prophets who raised people from the dead, but they always prayed first. This Jesus walks up to the buyer and says, young man, get up.
[00:45:17] No pomp, no prayer. Young man, get up, wake up. This is the second attribute of Jesus that we see in the passage, which is his unfathomable power. As easily as you might give a hug to a
[00:45:36] hurting person, as matter-of-factly as I eat tacos at the Taco Bell, Jesus walks up to a young man and raises him from the dead. What sort of true power must Jesus possess if he can raise people
[00:45:52] from the dead? It's almost like when he walked this earth, he was keeping his true power in check.
[00:45:59] But every once in a while, he let a little glimpse peek through.
[00:46:06] Jesus gave this young man back to his weeping mother, who is now not weeping tears of sorrow, but tears of joy.
[00:46:13] And thus ends the passage where Jesus raises someone from the dead.
[00:46:16] I repeat, the passage where Jesus raises someone from the dead.
[00:46:28] We don't seem quite as struck by this fact as maybe we should be.
[00:46:31] So let me think about it right this way.
[00:46:33] How many of you by a show of hands, how many of you by a show of hands have ever been dead?
[00:46:36] Not very many. Okay. But think about it. When you are dead, how well do your ears work?
[00:46:47] Can you hear anything? When you're dead, how well does your will work? Not your will and testament, like where you leave everything to Story Hill Church. Your will. When you desire to do something, when you decide to do something, how well does your will work? Can you decide to
[00:47:10] do something? And then can your muscles and skeleton set out to do that thing? Jesus has such unfathomable power. He says, young man, get up. And the young man answers a call he cannot hear. He responds to an invitation, even though he is dead. The human mind cannot grasp the
[00:47:34] unfathomable power of God who spoke into the darkness and created light, who does his best work when he has nothing to work with, who calls people to answer a call that they cannot hear and respond to invitations even when they are dead. Now, I did one of those little preacher
[00:47:56] tricks earlier, and now I've got to come clean on it. When I asked earlier by a show of hands how many of us had ever been dead, actually, all of us should have raised our hands. That's an old
[00:48:06] preacher trick because the scripture says this in Ephesians 2. It says, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world.
[00:48:21] So the Bible teaches that before we are reconciled to God, before we entrust our lives to Jesus, we entrust our lives to him that he will reconcile us to God. Not our good efforts, not trying to be moral. He will reconcile us to God and make us who we were meant to be.
[00:48:38] Before we entrust our lives to Jesus, the Bible says we're not just struggling, we're actually dead. In rebelling against God, in leaving God's path to go our own way, we have become disconnected from the source of life. And when we are disconnected from the source of life, we are dead.
[00:48:55] We are living a life that is not actually life. And the earliest Christians began to realize that what happened in Nain, this amazing God story in Nain, has actually been repeated an endless number of times. As Jesus walks up to people and says, get up, wake up. Nick, get up.
[00:49:22] Elliot, get up. Michael, wake up. If today you are a follower of Jesus, you have answered a call that you could not hear. You have responded to an invitation, even though you were dead in your
[00:49:39] transgressions and sins. And all of this is because Jesus is undeniably compassionate and unfathomably powerful. Now, if today or in the future, you become a follower of Jesus, it will be because you answer a call you cannot hear. As Jesus says, young man, young woman, not so young man,
[00:50:07] not so young woman, get up, wake up. And I know it can be hard when you've not crossed the starting line of following Jesus. It can be hard. You can get trapped in your brain. Goodness knows I can
[00:50:21] get trapped in my brain. And there's a great intellectual integrity to the Christian faith, but we also cannot ignore that thing that is welling up inside of us, opening us up, making us more willing to say yes to Jesus and his undeniable compassion and his unfathomable
[00:50:40] power. It's like our souls are answering a call they cannot hear. It's like we are responding to an invitation, even though we are dead in our transgressions and sins.
[00:50:54] it may not only be about what's happening up here it may be about what's happening in our esplanade this day verse 16 they were all filled with awe and praise god a great prophet has
[00:51:15] appeared among us they said god has come to help his people god has come to help his people that's what the crowd said God has come to help his people so what about you we
[00:51:33] don't all mourn what the widow and name was mourning but in different ways we all experience the pain of a broken in a fallen world we see the fruit of rebellion against God we see the fruit of our own rebellion against God so why
[00:51:52] is mourning a virtue why does Jesus say those who mourn are good and right and blessed well ultimately he says that because we will be comforted but there's more to the story because mourning also helps us see Jesus more clearly it helps us see his unfathomable power
[00:52:20] it helps us see his undeniable compassion because as we experience his comfort in ways that are big and in ways that are small in as we experience his comfort in ways that would bless everybody
[00:52:32] but also in ways that seem really tailored just to our hearts. We see Jesus more clearly and we realize he invites us to love him in our gut, not just intellectually. Yes, love him with your mind. Find the intellectual integrity of following Jesus. Love him with your
[00:52:53] mind. But he also invites us to love him with our gut, not just as a matter of study, but love him with your heart. Love him with your gut. Let your simple groans start to embrace him in a deeper
[00:53:06] way. Mourning and weeping and grief makes us at a heart level, at a heart level, hate the fall, hate the brokenness of the world, hate our rebellion against God, which lets us turn to Jesus in a new way with deeper longing, with deeper love, deeper need, and deeper trust.
[00:53:29] there is a battle going on in your heart. There is a battle going on in your heart.
[00:53:38] My heart too. There is a battle going on in our hearts and we do not have to weep how Rachel wept. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. So let me ask you to reflect on
[00:53:59] that question. Where have you seen the grace and truth of Jesus beatitude? Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Maybe you've seen it in your own life. Maybe you see it in
[00:54:17] the life of others or keep your eyes open this week. See if you see the grace and truth of Jesus statement and action that Jesus is close to those who need his compassion, close to those who need
[00:54:29] his power. And when you see those things, may you say, as the crowd said, God has come to help his people. So one objection might remain, which is this. We don't often get the same result as what
[00:54:51] happened in Nain. So what do we do with that? We don't often or always have the object of our grief or mourning or weeping taken away so easily. So what do we do with that? This is a fair
[00:55:09] objection. There's no easy answer. But my response would be something like, however Jesus chooses to his character and thus the character of the god he reveals to us is the same as it was in name
[00:55:25] his character is the same and that is a comfort even as we mourn the old preachers had an expression which was your misery often becomes your ministry that given enough time given enough healing part of your comfort will be that you get to minister to people out out of what you
[00:55:48] have experienced. You will get to minister to people who are experiencing what you have experienced in the past. You will get to share with them the grace and the truth that you have learned. You will get to point them to Jesus and his compassion and his power and how Jesus has
[00:56:05] sustained you and strengthened you. In fact, one of my prayers for you is that as you say, as I say our fresh yes in 2026, that we might look for ways that God might open a door here or in the
[00:56:21] community for you to get to minister to somebody out of your scars, not out of your wounds. It's really hard to minister out of wounds, minister out of our scars, that our misery given enough
[00:56:35] time and enough healing has become our ministry. But I think there's a deeper answer to the objection. And it is this, we only get a glimpse of Jesus' true compassion in name. We only get a
[00:56:55] glimpse of Jesus' true power in name. Do you remember what he said? He said, young man, get up.
[00:57:09] In the Bible, we can actually point to three times Jesus raised people from the dead. He raised a little girl from the dead. He raised this young man from the dead. He raised his friend Lazarus
[00:57:18] from the dead and each time he addressed who he was speaking to before telling them to get up why do that why make clear and address a person before telling them to get up what if he had
[00:57:40] simply said and not addressed it to anyone in particular get up wake up what would have happened then Abraham would have answered the call. Moses would have answered the call. Rahab would have answered the call. Rachel would have answered the call. Jesus held himself in check in name
[00:58:06] by saying, young man, get up. That was not the day to just say, get up, but that day will come.
[00:58:17] I believe it with all my heart. That day will come. And on that day, we will know the full depths of Jesus' words, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Let's pray
[00:58:39] together. Let me give you a chance to pray, a chance to talk to God, to listen to God about whatever he's stirring up in your heart or your mind. Just take a quiet moment for personal prayer.
[00:59:28] Lord, thank you for loving us. Thank you for bringing us together this morning.
[00:59:32] we thank you for each person gathered here today and what being here represents and what you're doing in their lives but lord we thank you that you love us and not simply because you're doing
[00:59:48] your duty not simply because you committed to love us but that and the best human expression we can come up with you love us in your gut thank you that you're not stoic as you watch our lives
[01:00:07] but thank you that you're not out of control and punitive or naive as you watch our lives may you draw us closer to yourself lord whatever we mourn this morning whatever we grieve may we do it with you may we join with you may we walk with you may we be transformed by you
[01:00:38] we look forward to the ultimate victory of your words blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. In the meantime, Lord, for those of us who do not walk with you, who don't have an
[01:00:52] active relationship with you, may today be the day we begin. May we begin this new year with a simple prayer like, yes, Jesus, I will follow you and let you repurpose my life. We pray all these things in

[01:01:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[01:01:09] your matchless name. Amen. Amen. Let's stand and respond together. We can pray with you for anything

[01:11:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:11:56] in your life whether you walked in with it or it got stirred up while we were together or if it would help you to pray with someone as you make a big step in your spiritual life we'll have folks
[01:12:06] we'll be up right there in the prayer room right there after the service we would love to meet you there pray with you at the conclusion of the service as we've done today continue to look up
[01:12:16] continue to look around that together we might find life as we love god love people in all things keep christ in the center amen amen we'll see you next week Thank you.