★ MY SERMON NOTES
@ Family Worship Centre (FWC)
Wuye, Abuja
Sunday Service
21st August, 2016
 |
| Pastor Sarah Omakwu |
☆ Rules of Good behaviour that you must Inculcate as a Believer at Social Occasions:
1. When you are invited for any occasion, study the Invitation card properly
→ Do not bring another person(s) along if you were the only person invited (except with the prior permission of the organisers)
→ If you cannot afford the precise dress or colour code, try as much as you can to wear something close to what is required. This adds beauty to the event.
2. Never attend any celebration (birthdays, naming ceremonies, bridal shower, baby shower, house dedication, etc) empty handed.
→ Always prepare to take an appropriate gift along with you, no matter how small.
→ Do not just go to a party to eat and leave. If you do that, you are a liability!
3. If you are invited as a dignitary at any event (eg. Chairman), and you accept, you must perform that function honourably by also giving good gifts to the celebrants or organisers.
→ NOTE: Your transportation expense to the event (via road, air or sea) is not part of your contribution and does not suffice as a gift!
4. Always attend every event on time
→ Lateness is a sign of disrespect
5. Do not take your children with you to a party where you are invited, unless it is a children's party - or the organizers have specifically invited them too
6. Realize that anytime you are
given an invitation card, you are expected to add value to the event
→ Bear in mind that the organisers specifically thought about you before writing your name. Do not disappoint them.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
SERMON:
* Speaker: Pastor Sarah Omakwu
* Topic: My Be-Attitudes 3 (Attitude of Mourning)
* Text: Mathew 5:4 →"Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted."
* NOTE: Mourning was an attitude that Jesus had while on earth.
→ As a believer and follower of Jesus, you should have that same attitude
* Being happy (blessed) while in a state of mourning sounds like a contradiction
→ Happiness (blessedness) is produced by the experience of God's favour - not by external circumstances.
* This be-attitude (godly mourning) is the other side of being poor in spirit
* To mourn means to experience deep grief.
→ It is an expression of intense sense of loss, helplessness, hopelessness or despair
→ It is to be contrite and penitent
* To be penitent is to feel and express regret, a sense of guilt and resolve to amend your life, to change.
* There cannot be penitence without a corresponding action
* Contrition involves FEELING sorry; while Penitence involves ACTION (doing something to amend the wrong)
* You must realize that you cannot help yourself, and a spiritual bankrupt, therefore you surrender to God by coming back to Him
* Genuine mourning is composed of both contrition and penitence
→ when you FEEL something (eg, a conviction), you should DO something about it (eg, repentance)
→ when you feel convicted about a particular sin, you should repent and turn away from it
* Repentance is to completely turn away from sin
⇒ It involves a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction from the confessed sin
→ Those who mourn do not hide, trivialize or justify sin.
★ John 8:11
* When you hide or trivialize your sins, you can never know the comfort that comes from a pure heart; you will never enjoy the ministry of the Angel of Comfort!
* A pure heart is one that has mourned before God and surrenders to Him
- He (God) removes the sin from your heart, washing it with the blood of Jesus thereby restoring it to Himself.
→ A pure heart is not something you do (through your personal effort); It is something God does Himself
* The reason why people always repent and still go back to the same sin is because there was no real repentance in the first place
* There cannot be real rejoicing where there is no real mourning
* This generation does not know anything about mourning
→ Today, people do not mourn and groan over their sins
→ There is so much busyness and distractions by gadgets and quest for prosperity that we forget or neglect to be contrite and penitent before God
* You must take time to reflect in prayer and weep over your sins, and intercede for others
* You must not brush over your sins and hide under the 'grace of God'.
⇒ NOTE: Jesus Himself who is the Lord of all grace had occasion to mourn severally while He was on earth.
* Question: When was the last time you closed your door and truly interceded for the salvation of others?
* David was called a man after God's own heart because He was acquainted with mourning (See: 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22)
* As a Christian, you must be passionate for the salvation of the souls of people who are lost
→ This is what is in the heart of God
* Those who really mourn for their own sins find the peace and comfort of God
★ See: Psalm 51
* The person that hurts another and then apologises half-heartedly will only attract anger and more wrath from the offended party
⇒ Never explain or justify your weakness, shortcoming or sin
→ Repentance (to God or to any person you have hurt) must be genuine and unconditional
* When you truly repent and mourn, the Holy Spirit then works on your heart, thereby giving you comfort
* There cannot be genuine repentance without 'righting' the wrongs you have committed
☆ Biblical Examples of Mourning:
1. Nehemiah wept and stopped eating when he learnt about the desolation of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1-4)
2. Jeremiah mourned and wept the captivity of the Children of Isreal (Jeremiah 4: 19-31)
3. When the Jews were facing eminent genocide from their arch-enemy Haman
→ Mordecai and all Jews mourned (Esther 4:1-3)
→ Esther fasted and mourned (Esther 4:15)
4. Hannah mourned over her reproach of barrenness (1 Samuel 1:8-10)
5. Paul suffered in the course of ministry (2 Corinthians 6:3-10)
☆ When you Should Mourn:
1. When you have personal sins, mistakes and failures
2. When you experience any kind of personal loss arising from bereavement, loss of money, a bad investment, etc.
3. When there is sickness or loss of any bodily function
4. When you cannot do what is natural for other people (e.g. natural conception, etc.)
5. When someone around you is afflicted, going through crisis or a challenge (Job 2:11-13)
★ Romans 12:5 →"Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep."
6. When you are going through personal tribulations and challenges
* NOTE: Whenever you go back and fall before God in total surrender, you are endeared to Him!
* The things you do not have and the challenges you experience in life should draw you closer to God and cause you to pour yourself completely to him in dependence.
7. For the condition of the world
8. For false religions, false prophets and heresies that exist in the world
9. For Christians who are persecuted all over the world
10. For the terrorized world
11. Christians should mourn over the rise of all manner of perverseness and immorality in the world
→ Instead of judging and criticising homosexuals, lesbians, murderers, drunkards, fornicators, adulterers, etc, intercede for them!
★ 1 Corinthians 5:1 →"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father's wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you."
12. When a sweet relationship breaks down
★ 2 Corinthians 7:10 →"For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death."
* NOTE: Any Sorrow which pushes you back to God for comfort is godly sorrow.
→ You must always run back to God whenever something go wrong.
→ Do not seek solace or comfort outside God.
* When you mourn 'properly', God comforts and heals you
☆ Instances when Jesus mourned:
1. When John the Baptist (His cousin) was murdered by king Herod (Matthew 14:1-13)
2. When Lazarus died (John 11:35)
3. When He saw the condition of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44)
4. In the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-39)
5. When He carried our sins on Calvary (Matthew 27:45-46)
* NOTE:
→ You cannot be greater than your master
→ You must intercede for those who are in darkness and those who do not know Jesus
→ You need to start praying for the salvation of your relations who are far from God
* Jesus was always seeking the face of God in prayers as a sign of dependence
* "Those who mourn are happy" (Mathew Henry)
* You must be mindful of things that are important to God
* NOTE: God cannot do anything in this world unless we give Him permission in prayer
* Real Christianity is accompanied with moaning, groaning and prayer
* You need to get to the level that the things that worry God are the same things that worry you
→ Be connected to God's High Tension Grid!
☆ Challenge:
→ when was the Iast time you groaned in prayer over somebody else's problem?
→ when was the last time you groaned over somebody's lost opportunities?
→ when was the last time you prayed, groaned and wept over your own sins?
☆ PRAYER:
Help me father
to mourn for my sins,
Help me to be
contrite and penitent
for those who are going through
I pray for every hurting person
l pray for the Chibok girls,
than they be restored to their families
I make you Lord over my life
I pray that Your kingdom come and
May your will be done
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