WHY ME?

Have you ever asked, “Why me?” when you faced pain or heartache? How can a church or a church leader minister to hurting people who are asking the question, “Why?”

Let me propose three crucial facets of ministry to people who might ask this question in the midst of hardship. We must deal with this issue by teaching, love, and encouragement.

Teaching is foundational to ministry in such situations. The question itself can be prompted by bad theology. Many of us living in sheltered and affluent societies have the notion that if you are a Christian, or possibly a good person, God will not allow terrible things to happen in your life. This is a false doctrine. You will not find it anywhere in Scripture. I believe it is legitimate to ask God that you not be led into the temptation that comes in trials. But in John 16:33 Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” Your people need to know that God has not promised them the American dream. The purpose of life is not comfort or pleasure.

However, it is important to note that you need to teach these things before your people come into heartache. The parents of a teenager killed in a car accident don't need your teaching in the crisis. They need God's love through you and through your church. Sometimes the less you say in a tragic situation the more God's love can be poured out through you and your presence with them. It is more important to pray with them than it is to teach them. They need your prayers and the prayers of the whole church family to endure the trial.

Even in trials you can encourage people to pray, to seek God, and to see that He is at work in the situation. And you can encourage them to seek God's glory in the midst of crises. There is an answer to the question, “Why.” It is actually the same answer to the question of why God blesses us. The purpose of heartache and blessing is to glorify His name. One of the ways God will be glorified through trials is by the character that He develops in you. You can encourage people to trust that God is working in their lives. James 2 calls us to rejoice when we fall into many kinds of trials, because we know that tribulation develops patient endurance. James goes on to say we must let endurance produce its perfect work in our lives. In Romans 5 we find the same promise. There Scripture tells us that endurance develops character. And character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God is poured out on others through our lives. 2 Corinthians 1:3,4 speaks to this.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

So, let patience have her perfect work

Of character and hope in and through our lives.

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SPIRITUALLY NEEDY

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:3

I am not sure we think enough about the Beatitudes. Jesus gave us these truths as the foundation of His kingdom in our lives, in the world, and forever. I love the name, “Beatitudes,” because these eight principles are not just something we are to hear like a lecture. They are what we are to become.

The first of the Beatitudes given us by Jesus is, Poverty of Spirit. Are you poor in spirit? All of the Beatitudes are counterintuitive. They go against all human thinking. But I think this first one is the most alien to our thoughts about spirituality. The point is, you are not going to make it on your own. Jesus is saying you are blessed if you are spiritually deficient, because He provides what you lack.

Let me give you a picture of deficiency. Can you imagine being in a boating accident? Maybe you were going out of a bay into the ocean when your boat overturned. As you are thrown free you realize some things you had not fully understood when you were still in the boat. The water is colder than you ever imagined. And The ocean is bigger than it looked before. You could never swim to a distant shore, which you can't see from the water. You wouldn't even know which way to swim. You go into panic mode, kicking your feet and flailing your arms. Your panic increases as you realize you can't keep this up much longer.

Then from nowhere it seems, a Navy SEAL appears. He couldn't have got there this quickly had he not been on watch when your boat went down. As he approaches, you are still kicking and whipping your arms about. Your fist actually blacks one of his eyes or bloodies his nose. But he speaks words of hope to you. “Calm down. You will never be able to save yourself.” If he were not there those would not be hopeful words. But those words force you to relax in his arms. And he begins drawing you with his confident strokes toward the shore.

You are actually blessed by the fact that you could never save yourself. Jesus came to save you. Your weakness is a blessing because you have a Savior. And the fact that you could never save yourself helps you rest in His arms.

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MOURNING WILL BE COMFORTED

Matthew 5:4

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

I recently listened to a re-dramatization of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. Dame Agatha drew that marvelous story out of the heartache of mourning. The story was built around the extended grief caused by the kidnapping and murder of a child.

Mourning is indeed one of the most painful aspects of life in this fallen world. Every pastor has to deal with such heartbreak. Many years ago I was pastor in a dairy community near a large city in Texas. A family I did not know came knocking on my door one morning before daylight asking if I would pray for their baby. Unfortunately their baby, who turned out to be a four or five year old child, was already dead. The child had died that night in a careless accident. And, of course, the hearts of that whole family were broken.

My Father's heart was broken when my mother died after they had been married 60 years. I had no memory of seeing my father weep in my entire life, even at his own mother's funeral. But for over a year after my mother's death he hated to go anywhere because he could not seem to speak to anyone without tears streaming down his face.

The one time that Scripture tells us Jesus wept was at the graveside of a friend. Jesus knew He was preparing to raise Lazarus from the dead. But He also knew the depth of pain death inflicts upon those whom He loves.

You can read a great deal about means of comforting those who have lost loved ones. And I am sure many of them have some efficacy. But there is a depth of pain there that can never be completely alleviated in this life.

And yet we find this promise from Jesus, that those who mourn are blessed because they will indeed be comforted. The comfort Jesus is speaking of is greater than any comfort we can administer. And in fact this is a comfort we can only grasp by faith in this life. God alone can bring about complete comfort to those who mourn.

In the Return of the King, the final book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Sam Gamgee wakes up after the ring has been destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. He is amazed that he is alive. And Gandalf, whom he was certain was dead, is standing before him. And he asks, “Is everything sad going to become untrue?” Though we must endure heartbreak in this life, we are promised all things lost will be renewed and every tear will be wiped away when we stand before our Lord in the end. And while it is hard for us to believe from this perspective, the goodness of that day will be good enough to turn even our heartache into comfort. Our deepest heartache will be replaced by Joy.

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THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5

We use the word meek so seldom in Modern English that few of us are certain about its meaning. And in fact the concept may be quite as alien to us as the word. To be meek means to be pliable or submissive. Now there are at least four crucial aspects to meekness. First, to be meek means to be teachable. And here we automatically assume benevolent parents and teachers.

Possibly because it sounds similar, many think of weakness in relation to meekness. But that is in error. A football coach loves a player who is meek. That is the player who will do whatever his coach tells him to do. I have a favorite story from the book Watership Down where the the warren is being attacked by other rabbits. Hazel gets an idea that will save the warren. But he has no time to explain. He tells Bigwig not to let anyone enter the main entrance until he returns. Bigwig blocks the tunnel with his own body. And the enemy rabbits attack him mercilessly. They torture him for hours without any results. They decide the only way they will ever get him out of the tunnel will be to talk him into giving up.

“Why don't you give up?” they ask. “Why are you are you staying here and enduring all this?” 

Bigwig confounds them with his answer. “Because my chief rabbit told me to.” That was meekness, not toward his enemies but to his own leader. Meekness may in fact be the opposite of weakness. Meekness can be disciplined strength.

The second aspect of this Beatitude is more general and much more difficult. Later in the same sermon Jesus told us not to “resist the one who is evil.” If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other. If anyone sues you to take your shirt, let him have your cloak too. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. It is difficult to discern when you must submit, and when you cannot. There are times when you become evil by giving in to evil. But Jesus frames this as a general principle trusting God to take care of you when you are mistreated.

The third aspect of meekness is in the realm of success and failure. Jesus is not telling us we shouldn't do our best to succeed at what we are given to do. But when you're in the situation where everyone else is grasping for prominence, you can let them have this world's glory as you wait for honor in the eyes of God. And of course in this world the meek will not be given success without a fight. Those who grasp and fight will win in this world. Those who demand their own way will win the Earth. But the children of the resurrection will inherit the earth from God.

These first three aspects are encompassed by the overall aspect of meekness toward God. We are to spend all of our lives becoming more and more submissive to the will and purpose of God. 

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WHAT DO YOU HUNGER FOR?

Matthew 5:6

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

But someone may ask, "Aren't our hungers natural? Aren't they beyond our control?" To some extent I think that is true. But they can also be trained or tantalized.
A child asks, “Can I have some more candy?”
The parent answers, “No, it will ruin your supper.”
The parent knows a child can be trained to desire roast beef and carrots. If she only wants candy she will find tooth decay, obesity and death, rather than satisfaction.
You may not have to think too hard to remember times when you desired something desperately. But when you finally got it, you were disappointed. It may even have turned out horrible. Wouldn't you rather have spent all that energy and time longing for something that would have satisfied you deeply?
Real satisfaction only comes from things that are right with God. But we live in a world that is hopelessly rebellious against the will of God. One of the places you can see this most clearly is in our attitudes toward righteousness. If you think of righteousness in terms of satisfaction and joy, you have probably been a believer in Jesus Christ long enough that experience has changed your perspective.
It is more likely that you see righteousness and pleasure as opposite ends of the same scale.
You may want to ask, “Why isn't that, or he, or she, right for me? That is why the Bible uses a word we seldom use in other contexts. The word “righteousness” is more comprehensive. It refers to the whole purpose of something being to please God.
Of course, nothing in this world can completely fulfill our lives. But we can long for and put our faith in heaven where righteousness will be complete.

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THE BLESSING OF SHOWING MERCY

Matthew 5:7

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

This is the first of the Beatitudes that may come close to making sense to modern Westerners. However that is because we really do not understand. This almost sounds like Jesus was saying, “If you are nice to people, they will be nice to you.” There is some truth to that. But it misses the reality of human nature and society. The world is not made up of nice people who will always be nice to you. If you only know those kinds of people your life is indeed sheltered.

I recently heard a testimony of a man who shortly after coming to faith in Christ heard Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler, talking with a prominent Near Eastern Sheikh who was ordering the death of 8 Israelis because 4 Palestinians had been killed. Brother Andrew ask him, “But where does forgiveness come in?” The sheikh answered, “That is only for those who deserve it.”

Much closer to home, I heard a woman tell about a man in her child’s Public School who mistreated and lied about her daughter. This was a horrible time for their family. Later she got some perspective on the events because the man was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She said, “I can forgive him because we found out his behavior was affected by the tumor. But I can't forgive other School Employees, and even friends in our church, who believed him when he said those things, even though they had known our daughter all her life.”

I understand her hurt, and why she said what she did, but that was not what Jesus taught. Christian Mercy does not end with those who are excusable. Later in this same chapter Jesus tells us we are to be like our Heavenly Father who sends sunshine and rain on the just and the unjust. We are even to love our enemies with the love of God.

What some of you are already thinking is important to understand. It is not true that your enemy will show you mercy, if you show him compassion. What then did Jesus mean? Like all of the Beatitudes this looks beyond the rewards given by other humans on this Earth. Jesus was pointing to the ultimate mercy of our Heavenly Father.

Toward the end of Mark 11 Jesus gives us one the most powerful promises of praying in faith. And then in verse 25 he extends what he says about faith with these words.

“And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Jesus clearly links trusting God to forgive our own sins with forgiving those who have wronged us.

Matthew 5 concludes with the words, “Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” How in the world are we ever going to obey this command? The only way we could do it is through the gospel. When we receive Jesus Christ, we receive His mercy, His righteousness, and His forgiveness for all who receive Him. Are you striving and praying to show His mercy toward those around you? We receive His power in our lives to love and forgive as He forgives. But we will not know our final Christ-like perfection until we stand before the Father in His forgiveness and grace.

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PURE IN HEART

PURE IN HEART

Matthew 5:9

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

One of my favorite spiritual songs is Change My Heart O God by Eddie Espinoza. The lyrics read,

“Change my heart oh God.

Make it ever true.

Change my heart oh God

May I be like you.”

Purity of heart goes deeper than actions. It is purity of motives, purity of desire, purity of devotion to God and His righteousness. Purity of heart is purity in the very depth of your being. Purity can mean sinlessness. There is a sense in which purity means single mindedness. It also means transparency especially before God. And the promise here fits this latter meaning well. If you are open and transparent before God, He can reveal Himself to you. Purity of heart does not mean ultimate sinlessness except in the life of Jesus. But it does mean a willingness to be honest with God about our sins.

And I think it must extend to honesty with people, not operating with hidden motives. Someone once told me about hearing someone say about a friend, “He pretends to like me, but he probably talks about my behind my back.”

The man answered him, “No, you're wrong. He (the friend they were talking about) is as pure as water.” But to be honest, it is easier to give examples of underhanded motives than pure hearts. That is until we think about Jesus. One of the best places to observe His pure motives is when He was attacked and accused by the religious leaders. His purity always showed up their false motives.

In the 21st chapter of Matthew Jesus entered the temple not long after driving out the money changers. The scribes and Pharisees challenged Him asking by what authority He did those things.

Jesus said, “I will answer you if you will answer one question. ‘The baptism of John was it from heaven or from man?’”They talk among themselves saying, 'If we say it is from Heaven,’ he will ask us why we didn't believe in John. But if we say, 'It was from Men,’ We will lose popularity because all the people held John as a prophet.” He had them by their own prejudices. This is not the only example of their duplicity. Again and again they revealed their false motives.

So in Matthew 5:20 Jesus told us,

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

But Jesus was saying much more about our righteousness in this verse. He was saying unless His righteousness, His purity of heart, was given to us by God, we could never in our own righteousness enter the kingdom of heaven.


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