Genesis 23:1-4 NKJV Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. (2) So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. (3) Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, (4) “I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
- We now come to the end of the story of Sarah, Abrahams wife, and the first matriarch to the Nation of Israel.
- After todays message we will talk about Abraham’s business dealings in the rest of this chapter, and then we have just one more chapter before we talk about the death of Abraham.
- If you are new to Christian Life Church, this is what we do here, we preach through Scripture… and God has us going through Genesis right now.
- We have seen through Genesis the life, the faith, and the failures of Sarah, Abrahams wife.
- She was incredibly beautiful, even in her old age.
- She was a faithful, albeit Jealous wife.
- She was a loving, albeit it slightly bitter, mother… miraculously giving birth to her son Isaac at 90 years old.
- She desired and sought the things of God, though sometimes she missed the mark in how to pursue those things.
- All in all, through Sarah we see a very human, and yet very faith-filled woman.
- But now she is dead… at 127 years old, the only woman in the bible to have her age at death recorded… she is now gone forever.
- And the question today that I will ask, and intend to answer, is this: How are we supposed to respond to the death of someone so dear?
Now I have three points this morning, so we are going to go kind of quick, but if you are a note taker, here are the three points:
- Point One – Love Demands Mourning
- Point Two – Faith Demands Rising
- Point Three – Live a Life Worth Mourning
Point One – Love Demands Mourning
Genesis 23:1-2 NKJV Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. (2) So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
- You know, I think mourning is one of those things we don’t talk about enough as a church.
- In fact, I think the only time I hear about mourning in any real meaningful sense is during funerals, so much so that I actually felt like I was writing a funeral message for Sarah as I was writing this sermon.
- But death is a large part of the human existence. Mourning is a part of the human experience.
- You will either live long enough to be mourned by your loved ones.
- Or die early enough to be mourned by your loved ones.
- Let me start by saying this: This is nothing shameful or wrong, or even un-manly about mourning.
- Mourning is not an emotion reserved for women. Here in our scripture we see one of the mightiest men of God who ever walked this earth weeping over his wife.
- Should we suggest that Abraham is in the wrong, that this somehow makes him weak? That this somehow makes him faithless? OF COURSE NOT.
- Abraham loved Sarah, and I believe that Love Demands Mourning.
- And I will prove it to you that Love Demands mourning, I will prove it from Scripture.
- Let me ask you a question: According to Scripture, Who is Love? GOD! GOD IS LOVE.
1 John 4:16 NKJV And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
- So God is love. If we want to know how love behaves, we need to know how God behaves… and the easiest way to know how God behaves is to examine the life of Jesus, God in the flesh.
- So I think it would be safe to say that God is Love, and Jesus is God… therefore if Jesus mourns… then Love mourns…
- Did you follow that insto-facto line of reasoning there? God is Love, Jesus is God… Therefore if Jesus Mourns, the Love mourns…
John 11:32-36 NKJV Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” (33) Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. (34) And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” (35) Jesus wept. (36) Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
- Jesus, approaching the tomb of Lazarus weeps.
- Just like Lazarus’ sister.
- Just like the Jews with her.
- Jesus wept.
- So much so that the Jews saw it as a sign of love “See how He loved Him”.
- Here we see Love in the flesh, Jesus, showing His love for a dead man by mourning.
- So mourning is not faithless, mourning is not week, mourning is not feminine.
- In fact, love demands mourning. Abraham loved his wife Sarah, so he wept for her.
- Matthew Henrey puts it this way “Tears are a tribute to dear deceased friends. When a body is sown, it must be watered”.
- Now the fact of the matter is, the Bible has quite a bit to say about mourning…
- And at CLC we love God’s Word, so let’s dig into some of the things Scripture has to say about mourning:
Matthew 5:4 NKJV Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.
Psalms 34:18 NKJV The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Psalms 147:3 NKJV He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.
Psalms 116:15 NKJV Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints.
- Church I want to encourage you this morning… if you have recently lost a loved one…
- It is ok to weep, it is ok to mourn, it is ok to come to church with your mascara running, or to have your eyes swollen from tears.
- JESUS WEPT… It’s ok to be like Jesus… it’s not just OK to be like Jesus, it is imperative to be like Jesus.
- Love demands mourning… and by the way, if you love your brother and sister in Christ, then you ought to mourn with them.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NKJV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, (4) who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Romans 12:15 NKJV Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
- This is what we do as a church, this is what we do as a family. When someone’s loved one dies, we ought to drop everything we are doing and go and love on that person, cry with that person, comfort that person.
- Romans 12:15, by the way, was not only written to pastors… it was written to the church. This is a calling for all of us, that we would mourn together.
Genesis 23:2 NKJV So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
- Church, I don’t know who needs to hear this today… but I love you… whoever might be here mourning the lost of a loved one, a child, a parent, a friend, a sibling… I love you, and I am so sorry.
- I know what it feels like, and I hate the feeling… but know that you are loved by God, and you are loved by me and my family, and you are loved by this church.
- *Pray for those mourning*
- So point one this morning is that Love Demands Mourning… and point two, the follow up, is this” Faith Demands Rising.
Point Two – Faith Demands Rising
Genesis 23:3-4 NKJV Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, (4) “I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
- Abraham stood up… Abraham got up… Abraham rose up.
- There is a time for mourning, yes… and we are here for you through it… but saints, at some point… you have to get up.
- You can’t stay by the bedside forever, you can’t stay teary eyed forever…
- Eventually you have to accept what has happened and move on.
- “Well that is a little cold blooded pastor”
- NOT WHEN YOU BELIEVE GOD IT IS NOT.
- NOT WHEN YOU HAVE FAITH.
- Because when you are a man or woman of faith, then your mourning should be temporary, because the death you are mourning is temporary.
- You know what Jesus did after He wept for Lazarus?
- HE ROSE HIM FROM THE DEAD!
- Immediately, the same day! The same hour!
- From weeping to rising… in this case literally raising Lazurus from the dead!
- Now why would Jesus weep over someone He would raise from the dead moments later?
- I think it was partly as an example for us… telling us it is ok to weep, it is ok to mourn… But Jesus ends that reminder with a different example… reminding us that those we weep over will live once more!
- We will all be raised from the dead, Lazarus was not unique in that…
- Therefore, we do not grieve as others grieve, we do not mourn as others mourn…
- When someone who doesn’t know Christ is grieving, they have no hope, there is no light at the end of the tunnel… for those who don’t believe in Jesus… how dark it must feel to grieve a loved one, believing they will never see them again.
- If you believe that when you die that nothing happens… man, how hard it must be to grieve the loss of a loved one.
- But we don’t grieve like that, because we know that the dead in Christ will rise again… just like Lazarus, we will rise again.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-16 NKJV But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. (14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. (15) For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. (16) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
- We don’t mourn as others mourn, we mourn yes! But we mourn with hope! Hope in an everlasting Kingdom… hope in heaven. Hope in Christ… Hope in the resurrection.
- Lazurus rose from the dead. Christ rose from the dead. My friend Eddy who died when I was 18, he will rise from the dead.
- My grandma Ruthie, who loved Jesus and love me… who died when I was 12… I will see her again.
- My great grandmother Vanitta and her husband Lewis… The will rise first. I can’t wait to see them again, for her to know that her prayers resulted not just in my salvation, but in a church plant in Cedar Rapids IA!
- My mom who died at 68… I am going to see her again, because she is in Christ… and the dead in Christ will rise first.
- So here is the hard part church… some of us need permission to grieve… some of us need permission to mourn… but there are others who need to be encouraged “GET UP AND GET TO WORK”.
Genesis 23:2-3 NKJV So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. (3) Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and [he got to work]
- There was still work that God had for Abraham to do… if not, then God would have called Abraham home too… but the fact that Abraham is still alive is proof that God still has more for him.
- The fact that YOU are still here is proof that God still has more for you.
- More work for you to do. More calling for you to walk in. More blessings for you, and to pour out on others through you. God is NOT done with YOU yet… Your loved ones may have finished their race, but you still have a race to finish… and you can’t finish your race if you never get up from the bedside of those you have lost.
- I have seen lives destroyed and decades waisted by people who couldn’t STOP mourning…
- That is not to say you will ever stop loving those you lost, that you will ever stop mission them.
- But you have to get up, and move on… move on with hope knowing you will see your parents, or friends, or children, or siblings, or spouse again… YOU WILL SEE THEM AGAIN. They are not gone, they just changed their address…
- So you need to take care of business HERE before you join them there.
- Jesus wept, and then he immediately got back to ministry.
- Abraham wept, then he got up and got to business… literally making a business deal and planning a funeral.
- Don’t surrender your life to grief, place your hope instead in Christ. Get up and get to work for the Kingdom. YOU WILL SEE YOUR LOVED ONES IN CHRIST AGAIN!
- **PRAY FOR THOSE MOURNING WHO NEED TO GET UP**
- Now I will conclude with my final point, and an invitation to accept the Gospel
Conclusion – Live a Life Worth Mourning
- Maybe you are listening to this sermon and you have not lost someone close to you.
- Maybe you are not close with your family and don’t have many close friends…
- And you are thinking “What is in this sermon for me”.
- I have an encouragement for you too… live a life worth mourning.
- I have officiated many funerals, and have attended many more.
- I have been in funerals of people who had lots of family and had a very successful life… yet the church was nearly empty during their funeral… because even though they were surrounded by people in life, they never made an impact.
- I have also been to funerals where the person who passed had very little family, and few friends… but the church was packed.
- Eddy died when he was 18, he had two real close friends, me and Denis.
- He was an only child, and lived with his dad. His mom and grandma were his only other family, and they lived in Russia.
- Two friends, a dad, and a far away mom and grandma… yet his funeral was PACKED!
- Why? Because Eddy loved people. Everyone Eddy talked to, he was kind and loving. He showed the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
- He was always very slow to anger, and very quick to forgive.
- He never held grudges, or kept records of wrong.
- He lived a life of love… and hundreds of people showed up to our little church on West Valley Highway in Kent Washington, it was standing room only.
- And people wept, we all wept, we all mourned…
- Church, I don’t know how you live your life… I don’t know if you show kindness and forgiveness, I don’t know if you walk in joy and peace… But one day there is going to be a church that holds your funeral… and the way you lived life will be very apparent to anyone paying attention… live a life worth mourning…
Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God. Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids. 2808 Schaeffer DR SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404. www.CedarRapidsChurch.com
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