Praise the Lord, everybody! The message that Apostle Holcomb preached this Sunday, 17 October 2010 at our 10:30 worship service is in the series, The Blessedness of Happiness. It is entitled, Lost, Precious and Loved. (Matthew 5:1-4) is the scripture text.
"And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." Last week we spoke about being poor in spirit, which equates to being rich toward God, realizing that we all need Jesus. When we are rich toward God, we see people the way God sees them as we view the world through the dove eyes of the Father. This enables us to look beyond the faults of others as we see and address the needs of those who are less fortunate. The emphasis today is on verse 4, "blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." The Greek word for mourn is pentheo. It carries the connotation of lamenting, which is crying with God. There are times of rejoicing in our lives and there are times when we will mourn. It is of the essence that we are balanced individuals. (Romans 12:15) says, "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." There will be times that we experience the lost of loved ones and things that we hold dear to our hearts. It is important that we never suppress emotions that need to be expressed because in doing so, it could lead to depression. God gave us emotions and they serve needed purposes. Our emotions function as outlets and safety valves because we have an innate need to respond to given situations. The Bible speaks to us about occasions when even Jesus wept. Therefore, we realize that God cries with us. Even as we cry over the lost of loved ones that have passed on, we must also cry over loved ones that are lost. Souls are important and precious in the sight of God. He will always leave the 99, to go after one lost soul. The questions become, why are souls so important to God? What makes a soul valuable to God? What is a soul worth? The Bible teaches that our souls are worth more than the gain of the whole world. Our souls are of much value because they are desirable and they are durable. God desires our souls and so does satan. In (Luke 22:31), Jesus said to Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat."
Our souls are also durable which means that they are eternal. We will exist eternally somewhere. We must not allow the devil to fool us by causing us to believe a lie. There are consequences associated with our decisions in this life. The devil is going to hell and he desires to take as many of us with him as he can. Please realize that there is a Heaven to gain and there is a hell to shun. In essence, Heaven is a real place and hell is a real place. We do not come back and get to try again as something different. We do not come back! The truth is that we all have an appointment with death. The question becomes, where will we spend eternity? God loves us and He has made provisions for us by giving His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. If we accept His Son, we receive everlasting life. Every sheep needs a shepherd. Every sinner needs a Savior and every soul needs the Sovereign God. Remember to remain in the place of grace. Remain in the place by Jesus!
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