Sunday Service – July 26/20

As always, you can read the transcript of the message below

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under the heavens:² a time to be born and a time to die,a time to plant and a time to uproot,³ a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build,⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,a time to keep and a time to throw away,⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,a time to be silent and a time to speak,⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,a time for war and a time for peace.

Romans 12:9-16a

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.¹³ Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Romans 12:9-16a
Springford Baptist Church: July 26, 2020.
BEING WITH IN LAUGHTER AND TEARS

“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Today we are focusing our attention on, “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” (vs. 4)

This week I was asking the residents at the care home where I am Chaplain to think with me about the happy times and the sad times of life (the times to laugh and the times to weep). Whatever age we are, we have experienced both.

Here is what we came up with for happy times: family gatherings; birthdays; births of new babies; weddings, graduations; Christmas; when someone gets a new job; when someone moves into a new home. You can add to the list. These are all times to “rejoice with those who rejoice.” (Romans 12:15) This is typically something we enter into easily. We really enjoy celebrating the happy times with people that we love and care about. The personal happy experiences that are closest to us at this time will be the clearest examples for us of, “a time to laugh/ a time to dance.”

The Scripture from Romans 12 urges us to, “rejoice with those who rejoice” or to be happy with those who are happy. It is good to laugh with those who are laughing. We cannot rejoice with those who rejoice if we are jealous of their blessings. We cannot rejoice with those who rejoice if we are critical of them and their decisions. We cannot rejoice with those who rejoice if we are stuck in a place of sadness and self pity ourselves.

Not only are we to, “rejoice with those who rejoice”, we are also to “weep with those who weep” to mourn with those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15)

The list that the senior residents and I came up with for the sad times of life included: death (saying goodbye to loves ones); illness; disappointments like broken relationships; misunderstandings; job loss; or saying goodbye to people who move away; the sadness that comes when things do not work out as we hoped for ourselves or with family or friends. The personal sad experiences that are closest to us at this time will be the clearest examples for us of, “a time to weep.”

Notice that Ecclesiastes 3 expresses in the second part of verse 4 that there is, “a time to mourn and a time to dance.” We do not deny the sad times and disappointments in our own lives when we enter into rejoicing and celebration of the happy times with others. There is a time for laughter and a time for tears. God enables us to be with people in both times when we are experiencing both times.

Romans 12 gives us insight into how it is possible to, “rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep.” (vs. 15)

The key is love, a love that comes from God. Romans 12:9 highlights that “love must be sincere.” God’s love is sincere and all encompassing. We can know that God never leaves us alone. He is with us when we are overcome with sadness and He is with us when we are overcome with joy. Why? Because He loves us.

When we think about A SEASON FOR SERVING (our summer sermon series), the only way that we can be with people as we consider ways to serve and to express our care for them is to be with them, whatever they are going through. This is sincere love. God does not abandon us when life becomes difficult and complicated. We must not abandon each other then either.

We know that making ourselves available to be with people in their laughter and in their tears has its limitations. We cannot always be with people, but God can. When we are thinking of someone and are unable to be with them in a happy time or a sad time, we can pray and ask God to be with them and we can know that He will be. Our prayers allow us to be with people in compassion and concern even when we cannot physically be with them.

As I looked around the room at the seniors I was talking with about the happy times and the sad times of life I could that there is something very hopeful here in this truth that, “there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.” There is “a time to weep and a time to laugh.” Our lives are not all one or the other. Even the tears that come when someone is sick or when there has been the grief of parting or when a huge disappointment has occurred, come because there has been and is deep love for another person. While we or someone we love may now be in a time of weeping, there will come again a time for laughing.

Our loving God has designed us to love each other in such a way that our hearts are touched by both the sadness and happiness of others.

When we are with someone in a time of sadness or when we are extremely sad, this does not mean there will never be happy times again. There are deaths and there are births. There are funerals and there are weddings. We are so privileged to be able to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. Our emotions and sharing those emotions are a gift from God.

We cannot serve without emotion. We can pray and thank God that out of our sincere love that He provides, we can, “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” This is what we are called to in a A SEASON FOR SERVING. We can be with each other in laughter and in tears!

“Here I am wholly available.
As for me I will serve You LORD.”