Who Is God?

We need healing conversations this morning! Solomon says grief brings joy! American culture tries to pass by death! We want to avoid conversations about it! Solomon says in verse four that the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. John 11: 32-35. Jesus knows how to grieve! In fact we see in this scripture that Jesus gets blamed for Lazarus death! Where have you buried him? Jesus wept! Why did Jesus stop and weep when He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead? We cannot skip over the sad places in our life! Jesus was fully man and fully God and is illustrated so plainly in these events! We cannot celebrate the miracles without paying attention to the process! Psalm 137. Two third’s of the Psalm’s are complaints and lamentations. The Jews were taken captive and taken to Babylon! The Babylonians took the best of the population back to Babylon and left the sick and elderly in Israel. Many of the grandchildren never saw their grandparents again! As the Jews sat by the rivers of Babylon they remembered Zion and wept! How do we grieve properly? First we must admit a new reality! Something is new about my life! Everything has changed about my life! It may be from a loss of a spouse, mother, father, sister, brother, job loss, sickness, financial loss, home or something else. I lost my dad in 2005. I miss dad but now a new reality. Second take time to weep. They wept in Babylon! Jesus wept! Slow down and grieve! Grieve properly! It is decompressing! Third remember the past! I have many good memories of my father! My father developed a barbeque sauce! He always wanted to get a patent on it. What my mother did not tell us for years is that she added some ingredients to the sauce so we could eat it! Tell the stories that make you smile at a funeral! See God’s imprint on our lives! Tell the stories that heal us and carry us on! What happens when we grieve properly? Our pain is confronted! We cannot ignore pain! In fact there is more pain for avoiding pain! Drug addiction is caused by trying to avoid pain! Invite the Holy Spirit into our pain! Jesus invited His Father into the pain in the Garden of Gethsemane! When we grieve properly we become available again! Your story matters! Millions of American’s have lost loved ones in battles of war in American history! Their stories matter! God is not finished with you yet! Your story is not over! Your final chapter is not the last one! God needs you available again! God will heal your heart! Even Jesus own disciples thought it was all over for them as Jesus went to the Cross! They scattered and went back to their old jobs! They could not look forward? God needs you available again! God knows what it is to grieve! Life was never the same when I lost my father! Storms are not forever! As we prepare for Communion let us remember the grieving of our Lord He has gone through for us on the Cross! Because He lives this morning we can live! He suffered so that we could have victory! He conquered death for us! Joy comes in the morning! He has Risen! Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado.