(Back to helps home page)     (Sermon, January 6, 2002)
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Open It

1. What emotions do you experience when you sin?
2. What do you feel, or how do you feel, when you look at the condition of our world?

Explore It

4. What does Jesus mean when he says, "Blessed are those who mourn."
5. What areas of life, relationships create mourning?
6. Consider the following that have an impact on our experience and our feelings.

1. The mourning of bereavement.
2. The mourning of sympathy.
3. The mourning of pain.
4. The mourning of a full heart.
5. The mourning penitence.
6. The mourning because of sin.
7. How are we to be comforted? (Read the following passages from the Bible)
1. Bereavement - 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18; John 14.1-3
2. Sympathy - Luke 15.20-24; Mark 6.33-34
3. Pain - Matthew 20.29-34; John 16.33
4. A full heart - John 20.11-18 (Luke 22.55-62 and John 21.15-19)
5. Penitence - 1 John 1.9; Hebrews 12.1-3
6. Because of Sin - Luke 13.34; Luke 21.7-19

Get It

8. For what different reasons are people interested in Jesus Christ in our times?
9. What effect do you think Jesus' words had on the crowd?
10. If you had been a rich and famous person in Jesus' day, how would you have reacted to His sermon?
11. In what specific areas of life do Jesus' promised blessings touch you?
12. In what way are these words of Jesus comforting?
13. In what way are these words of Jesus challenging?

Apply It

14. In what way can you nurture the qualities that Jesus described as blessed?
15. Whom can you encourage with Jesus' words this week?

(Back to helps home page)     (Sermon, January 6 2002)
(Back to sermons home page)    (Back to Shultz home page)