Blessed Mourners

The point: Examine if the church of our day would write 'Blessed are they who mourn,' contrasting it with the modern church's pursuit of making people 'feel good.'

This common phrase illustrates the world's pursuit of laughter and entertainment, contrasting it with Jesus's teaching on blessed mourning.

So that the world would write this kind of a beatitude from its very actions. All the world loves a clown. This is a phrase you heard growing up and I heard growing up. And if the Lord cares, our children will hear and grandchildren.

3:17 - 3:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He establishes a crucial link between the first Beatitude ('poor in spirit') and the second, explaining that a realization of spiritual poverty before God's holiness leads to…

This analogy illustrates how a man who perceives himself as wealthy will mourn when he realizes he has lost everything, connecting it to the spiritual realization of poverty of spirit leading to mourning.

this. He has great wealth. Patterns of thought, his standard of living and all the rest is geared to the fact that he's a wealthy man. Someone comes to him and says the stock market has crashed.

13:06 - 13:28 Read in full sermon

The point: As children of God, know what it is daily to mourn over sin and failure, conscious of weakness and rebellion.

This analogy distinguishes between a child of God and an unbeliever: a born-again believer, like a dainty girl, is uncomfortable in the 'mud' of sin, while an unbeliever, like a pig, is at home in it, illustrating the new disposition given by God's grace.

And when we sing, there's there's conviction and disturbance between the pig and the disposition made. The little girl is there in the bonnet, slips on the way out of the front porch and she falls in the mud. But there's a tremendous difference between her and the pig. It's against her dainty little woman's disposition to be in that mud.

25:51 - 26:26 Read in full sermon

The point: As children of God, know what it is daily to mourn over sin and failure, conscious of weakness and rebellion.

Martin quotes from David Brainerd's diary about an Indian woman who wept for hours over a moment of anger with her child, serving as a powerful example of a Christian mourning over sin.

instances of a Christian mourning over his sin as a Christian that I think I've ever read is found in the diary of David Brainerd. Amongst the American Indians, God so wonderfully used him, and he tells this instance that I thought you might appreciate hearing this morning. Those of the Indians who've obtained relief and comfort spiritually and have given solid evidences of having passed into true life in Christ, appeared humble and devout and behaved in an agreeable Christ-like manner. I was refreshed to see the tenderness of conscience among them.

28:29 - 29:04 Read in full sermon