Whenever I sit down to write a sermon and then stand up to preach a sermon, there is so much that I don’t say. There is so much that could be said, that could be talked about, that is really very important for your eternity and your life, that isn’t said. But, for the sake of leaving you with one key truth for your life, perhaps something that you can hang on to for a day or a week or a lifetime, I work hard to narrow it down. Here are the sermons from the last week. You can always go back and watch or listen to them here.
Maundy Thursday: A Family Meal (PB).
Good Friday (1 pm): True Confessions (PB).
Good Friday (6:30 pm): Once and For All (PK).
Easter Sunrise: Running on Empty (PK).
Easter Festival: Still Rolling Stones (PB).
This last Sunday, one of the things that just didn’t and couldn’t find a place in the sermon was what God showed me in Matthew 28. Let me briefly share this one thought and truth with you: Who you commiserate with matters.
Online dictionaries tell me that commiserate means “express or feel sympathy or pity; sympathize.” The question is: when you are confused, or sad, or upset, or angry, who do you share that with? With whom do you share and trust your feelings? Who you commiserate with matters.
The women, when they had just witnessed the resurrected Jesus and still had mixed emotions and faith, where did they go? With whom did they commiserate? The disciples. And they were struggling just as much as the women were. They commiserated together with fellow believers and stood together in the end.
However, the soldiers, when they saw the same thing as the women, where did they go? With whom did they commiserate? With the Jewish leaders. And they were determined to keep this guy Jesus in the ground even if he still wasn’t in the ground. What would have happened if the soldiers had commiserated with the community of faith? What would have happened if they had gone to talk with their centurion who had earlier confessed, “Surely, this man is the Son of God?” That’s not the way it happened, but it sure is interesting to consider.
As a family of faith, we need to commiserate with one another. Over the next weeks, as we make our way through the Easter season, that is one thing we will repeatedly see: The church commiserated with one another. They didn’t have it all figured out, nor did they have it all together. But they were together. They shared joys and sorrows, doubts and fears, wins and losses. They were in it together. And so they were able to help one another with their questions and their doubts. They were able to share the truth with one another and give clarity in unclear situations.
What I’m getting at is this: We need each other! When we have questions or when we’re struggling, we can go out into Google’s marketplace to get some answers, or we can commiserate with our fellow believers. When we’re sad or upset, we can try to drown our sorrows in a bottle, or we can commiserate with our fellow believers. We need each other. I need you, and you need me. We need each other.
That is one of the biggest reasons that we have created “Connect Groups.” We want to give you a place to gather with your fellow believers to wrestle with the Scriptures and to bring it to bear in your life. We want to give you a place to commiserate with one another and to pray with one another. We want to give you a place to begin to do life together.
The next session of Connect Group starts the week of April 18. Sign-up today! Commiserate with us, won’t you? Pastor Nate