Romans twelve, fifteen.

Yes.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

What a profound verse when you think about that.

You know, that calling to enter in with others.

Uh and I think diametrically opposed to the human nature in every way imaginable.

You know, people are weeping um and we're in a good mood or we're happy.

It's like, eh, you know.

Paul's call isn't when you feel like rejoicing, find others that are rejoicing and rejoicing, or when you're weeping, but it's like, hey, enter into people's lives.

Yeah, you you can't sit this one out, right?

You you can't say I'm an introvert, or um, you know, I I haven't experienced what you're experiencing, so maybe you should talk to somebody else, or you should somebody else should sit with you rather.

You know, um there's no way out of this.

This is not a personality preference.

This is a call to every person who names the name of Christ.

You sit and you laugh with those who are laughing, rejoicing, right?

And you weep with those who weep.

There's no sitting this out.

This is the this is where things are difficult and hard for sure, but uh you you can't take a pass on this.

Weeping and emp empathy should not take us away from from truth.

And so you think like rejoice for those who rejoice, we would know immediately distinctly that that does not mean rejoice when someone's rejoicing over sin.

We wouldn't rejoice with them, right?

We would stop at that.

But weeping with those who weep also has a similar contingency in that weeping should never end with just empathy.

It we should also take into consideration truth.

And so let me give you like a context or an example.

Sometimes there is no truth to be said, you just simply weep with those who weep.

But other times, I've seen this happen in the church where someone is struggling, but the people around them are refusing to also point out the sin in their life.

It's like their weeping gets stuck with empathy.

I I've experienced, I've seen it happen where you know a woman's husband gets found out, he's sinned against her, he's sinned against the church, but there's also stuff that she's involved with, and the church just refuses to hold her accountable or to show her certain things in her life, and and it they they get stuck with empathy.

And so the point is weeping with those who weep, but not at the cost of truth.

We weep with those who weep, but we also are iron that sharpens iron.

And I think it takes wisdom and discernment on how to do that the right way and gently, but we can't ignore the reality that even though someone's struggling or weeping, sometimes they also need to be pointed back to the gospel or to the law.

That's so profound, man.

That's so true.

We need to look to Jesus to see when he wept.

He wept over Jerusalem.

Why?

Because he knew what was coming, the wrath that was going to come upon that city.

Those with child and all that he spoke of in in detail.

Yeah.

What was going to happen?

Was it Titus come down and must have been horrific?

But then he wept uh at Lazarus' funeral, ex-funeral, or post-funeral, whatever it was.

It was it was the Undertaker's nightmare had to give the check, get the check back to the undertaker or from the undertaker.

But why did Jesus weep at Lazarus?

It's it seems very strange because he knew what he was going to do.

And the only conclusion I can find is that he empathized with the pain that they were going through at that present time.

Yeah.

Am I wrong?

He did not bypass the pain because he knew the outcome.

He he knew he knew the outcome.

He could have just said, What are you weeping for?

Yep.

Do you not realize this is what's going to happen?

You silly idiot.

No, he wouldn't have said that.

Right.

He I mean he he didn't do that.

He he didn't just meet theologically, he met emotionally.

He met people where they were at um at that exact moment.

And that's what we need to do.

We we need to be able to read the room.

Yeah.

You know, we I think that we have the ability to turn every situation and conversation back on ourselves.

And I walked on the moon, um, which with Brian Regan, right?

It's I have a better story than you, right?

And Jesus was never like that.

You know, he met them exactly where they were at.

And I and I I want to be like that.

I want to be so dead where I could be like that, where he can do those things through me.

It's huge because we can participate in what I heard one person called spiritual bypassing, which is someone's weeping, and we're like, oh, don't worry about it.

Like God works all things out for those who Romans 8 28, brother.

Yep.

And we think like, okay, well, Romans 8 becomes comes before Romans 12, but that doesn't mean we should go there before we go, Romans 12.

Sometimes we need to weep first and then remind them and they're up to it.

Yeah.

And then remind them of the goodness and sovereignty of God.

And you're exactly right.

Jesus, what why did Jesus weep?

He was weeping over the consequences of sin that's ravished the world.

He was witnessing death.

Yeah and he was weeping over.

He knew the outcome, he knew the end of the story, but he still wept over the ravishes of sin on this world.

And that means that we have a God who has empathy for that, that which we go through.

Okay, but then let's go to rejoicing.

We I think we we've hit weeping a lot, but how about like rejoicing in people's like growth and sanctification?

That's good.

And entering into that.

Like, man, that that demonstration of seeing growth in someone means the world to them, especially if it's it's someone who's been struggling with something for a long time.

Like that word of just like, man, I just want to say, I know you had a hard time with this.

I've been seeing you excel in this.

That's cool.

You know, I I think that's a form of being able to rejoice with this.

Is life in those words?

Yeah.

Yeah, giving life through through the words that we speak.

Our rejoicing is not contingent upon pay raises.

Right?

Our our rejoice, we rejoice because our name is written in heaven, right?

That that's our that's the overarching big picture here.

We are just passing through this.

This is not our home, right?

And because this is not our home, we have the ability to rejoice when the rest of the world raises their fists at God.

We we never raise our fist at God, and we always find ourselves uh rejoicing in something, right?

What what can we be rejoicing at today?

It's sometimes uh rejoicing mechanical.

I mean, in what way, right?

I think that it we have a muscle memory, yeah, right?

That like when our enemy does us wrong, when we get a flat tire, when something negative happens, we have to remember that these are not issues in our life.

These are stepping stones to get us to where we need to be.

And this is why Romans 8.28 is so powerful because all things are working together for good.

I've often said, right, even your spouse's infidelity, your wayward child's rebellious actions, that financial difficulty, that cancerous news, they're just stepping stones to get us to be where we need to be so we can lift up holy hands in the middle of the night in the midst of our insomnia because God is at work in us both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

So we rejoice, especially as we mature in believers, as believers.

Sadly, we have a proud heart, and that's what probably is the basis for our not rejoicing when someone has something wonderful happen to them.

I was just thinking, there's a it's hard to reconcile the two that you and I are full of joy unspeakable, and yet we weep at what's happening in this world.

And our example is Jesus.

He was anointed with an oil anointed with an oil of joy above his fellows, and yet he was a man of sorrows.

Yeah.

Acquainted with grief.

Wow.

And when you look around this world, we're acquainted with grief.

Everywhere you look, there's just horror beyond words, people that are suffering in terrible ways.

Then you think of the fate of the ungodly and how heavy that rests upon you.

And one thing that makes me weep is the fact that I don't weep very often for the fate of the ungodly.

And that shows how hard my heart is.

And it breaks my heart that I don't have a heart that's tended towards the lost.

That's crazy to hear from you because when I think of someone who weeps over the loss, I think of you.

Like you're always thinking that way.

Yeah, but it's not as it should be, I don't think.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

And this is obviously in the analogy of Paul talking about the body.

Like, look, we're all one, we're all united, we're all connected.

And and you can draw on that for rejoicing too.

Like, that's the problem with the the modern individualistic mindset.

Like, it's all about me and my world and my kingdom versus like, man, okay, like I didn't score that touchdown.

I didn't score that game-winning buzzer beater, but our team won.

You know, like we're all getting rings, we're all, you know.

So it's it's that mindset too of like, well, wow, this is good for the kingdom of God, you know, kingdom-mindedness.

Like, if we can again find those areas in life like to master, why don't we perfect righteousness in our lives?

Like, because we're free to do so.

Like to not go with the whole, oh, well, you know, we're not saved by works.

Yeah, we got that.

Like, come on, we're we're beyond that now.

So let's, because we're saved, redeemed, regenerated, let's be free and like saying, man, I want to, I want to fine-tune that.

You know, I want to hone that in, like to understand what kingdom-mindedness means.

Because I think that changes everything.

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