Sunday morning, I heard a great sermon by Brian Bill (from Romans 9:1-5) entitled "Connecting People to Jesus". I got a lot out of it, but there was one thing I found perticularly interesting. Here is a clip from the sermon...
2. Sorrow. Beth and the girls like to tease me about how easily I cry when we watch a movie together. They can watch moving moments without tears while I blubber my way through them. In fact, sometimes I cry during commercials! But my tears are nothing like Paul’s anguish. In verse 2 he shares some pretty intense feelings: “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.” While sorrow refers to heavy sadness, anguish is deep consuming personal pain. Some commentators believe that sorrow is an intense inner feeling while anguish is the outward expression of it.
We could all stand to have more sorrow for the unsaved. Listen to these different passages.
When the psalmist sees a disregard for God’s law, a faucet of tears cascade down his cheeks as he writes in Psalm 119:136: “Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.”
Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet, writes these descriptive words in Jeremiah 9:1: “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.”
In Matthew 9:36, we see that Jesus was moved deeply when he saw people in distress: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Later, when Jesus came up to Jerusalem for the final time, He broke down in Luke 19:41: “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.” This word for “wept” literally means that he “convulsed uncontrollably.”
And in Acts 20:31, Paul recalls the tears he shed in Ephesus: “Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”
Where are our tears for those who transgress God’s laws? Why don’t I cry for the unconverted? When will I stop being so selfish and start really caring for non-Christians?
A man said to his friend, “I hear you dismissed your pastor. What was wrong?” The friend said, “He kept telling us we’re all going to hell.” The first man then asked, “What does the new pastor say?” The friend replied, “The new pastor says were going to hell, too.” “So what’s the difference?” asked the first man. “Well,” said the friend, “the difference is that when the previous pastor said it, he sounded like he was glad about it; but when the new man says it, it sounds like it breaks his heart.”In a previous post I commented on the meaning of names and how my self-bestowed alias, Lola, means
sorrowful. At first thought, 'ugh! That's kind of a stinky meaning to my fave name!' But after listening to the sermon yesterday about how Paul was so torn up about the fate of the people around him, I realized there was suddenly a new meaning to my name. Sorrowful...God calls us to be sorrowful for the people around us who are on the wrong path.
It's like a personal reminder to me that God did not intend for us to sit in our comfy little lives and admire our comfy little possessions. He wants us...me...to care so much about other people that my heart breaks and I am filled with sorrow. And...hopefully...through that sorrow I will feel the need to DO SOMETHING!
~Lola~
P.S.---To check out the whole sermon, go to http://www.pontiacbible.org/index.php?/sermons/more/connecting_people_to_jesus/
