In his sermon titled 'Rejoice and Weep', Steve Hopkins expounds on Romans 12:15, urging Christians to embody sincere love by rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep. He underscores the transformative power of love that reflects Christ's example and the unity within the body of Christ. The sermon highlights the challenges of overcoming natural tendencies of envy and self-interest, advocating for a self-forgetting love that celebrates others' joys as if they were one's own. Hopkins also emphasizes the role of compassion, citing the church's 2017 hurricane relief efforts as an example of how Christian compassion can open doors for the gospel. He concludes by reminding believers of their eternal hope in Christ and the importance of rejoicing in this truth, regardless of earthly circumstances.

Good afternoon everyone. If you would turn with me in your bibles to Romans the 12th chapter and let's stand together and read verse 15. The word of the Lord. Romans chapter 12 verse 15. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Let's pray. Father, great are you, O God, and greatly to be praised. Your greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another and declare your mighty acts. And we praise you this day, for you have done mighty things unto us in giving us your son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to redeem us from all iniquity and to reconcile us to heaven We praise and thank you Father that love has come down.

Love incarnate. Jesus Christ full of grace and truth. The ground of all our hope and the spring of all our joy. Now Lord, as we continue to drink in the wonders and the delights of your Holy Word, help us to understand more of what the apostle is speaking to us by the Spirit when he admonishes us to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Let's be seated. The greatest cause for rejoicing anyone has ever known is the knowledge that one's sins have been forgiven. My mother used to sing, He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day, oh happy day, oh happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. In this church house, today, we are gathered together, rejoicing for the salvation we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. We who have been given the precious gift of faith in Jesus have been redeemed by His blood, our sins washed away.

That our sins have been forgiven is the greatest cause for rejoicing any could ever know. The title of the message today is, Rejoice and Weep. Rejoice and Weep. The Christian life is a life of both rejoicing and weeping. It is a life of many mountains and many valleys, of high peaks and of low depths of ups and downs of joys and of sorrows.

But not only joys and sorrows as they touch our own lives, but also as they touch the lives of others. And so it should be, the Apostle admonishes us in the text before us this afternoon, to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. There's a sense in which this admonition applies to all those we come in contact with in the world, right? Sincere love has been the context since chapter 12, verse 9. And in verse 14, last week, we saw that this love is even to be extended to those who persecute us even so we are to rejoice with our neighbors in the good providences of God and weep with them in their sorrows when an unbelieving neighbor for instance has a child we rejoice with them And when one of their family members dies or they experience some other grief or loss, we weep with them.

That's what love looks like. That's what love looks like. And when we rejoice with them and weep with them, we manifest a love toward them that is many times foreign to their understanding. And we introduce them to the love of Christ and the beauty and transforming power of God's love. Of course, we are never to rejoice in iniquity.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, we're not to rejoice in iniquity, but always to rejoice in the truth. We're to rejoice in truth and those things that promote truth and goodness and mercy and virtue. But there is a special sense, a very special sense, and a far more intimate relational reality in which we who are the members of the body of Christ are to rejoice and weep with those of the household of faith. As members of Christ's body, of His flesh, and of His bones, we are so connected to, so so knit together in heart and soul with those who are members of Christ's body that whatever affects them affects us profoundly. The apostle writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 26, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Calvin writes, quote, the faithful regarding each other with mutual affection are to consider the condition of others as their own. As members of Christ's body we are to consider the joys and sorrows of our brothers and sisters in Christ as though they were our joys and sorrows. That's the way it is with our own bodies, right? If someone steps on your foot, your whole body feels it.

If you hit your finger With a hammer, your whole body feels the pain. And when one part of your body is refreshed or comforted, your whole body feels it. When one member suffers, we all suffer with them. We feel their pain as though it were our pain. And when one member prospers, or is elevated, or honored in some way, same thing.

Their joy is our joy. We enter into their joy with them. At least that's how it's supposed to be. At least That's how it's supposed to be, right? That's what Paul is saying.

We should rejoice with those who are rejoicing and we should weep with those who are weeping. But of course this isn't something that human beings do by nature. The nature we inherited from our fallen parents doesn't naturally enter into the joys of those who are prospering or receiving some honor and rejoice with them. Fallen humanity tends to stand at a distance from the pain of others because it doesn't feel the pain of others as though it were their own. And it doesn't naturally rejoice and the prosperity or honors of others, though it may pay some lip service to them.

But within the body of Christ, it's different. It's different with us, isn't it? It's different with us. There is a spiritual connection. We are indwelt by the same spirit.

When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, we all feel it and share in what they are going through. And when one member prospers or is honored in some way, we enter into their rejoicing with them. Again, at least that's how it's supposed to be, right? We are to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. And remember the context of the passage since verse 9 has been love, genuine love, sincere love, Paul is saying this is what love looks like, this is what true love does, it shares in the joys and the sorrows of others, It feels such gladness and happiness at the blessings and honors and good of others and such compassion and sympathy for the sorrows of others that it's though we were experiencing those things ourselves, But we aren't always there, are we?

If we're honest with ourselves, we have to admit that many times we just aren't where we need to be. And as I was preparing this message, I was meditating on this passage, I was thinking, why rejoicing before weeping here? Why does Paul put down, put the command to rejoice with those who rejoice first here. Certainly I was thinking both rejoicing and weeping as well as weeping with those who weep are equally important. Rejoicing with those who rejoice as well as weeping with those who weep are equally important, right?

So why put rejoicing first? Why? I think it may be because rejoicing with those who rejoice is sometimes more difficult for us than weeping with those who weep because of the flesh. The regenerate still have to battle of the flesh. And so though we tend to run to share in the sorrows of others, many times we tend to walk when it comes to sharing in their joys.

We tend to move more slowly to share in their joys. Sometimes we're like the toddler at the birthday party who wishes he was the one blowing out the candles and opening the presents. Paul says we are to rejoice with those who rejoice as though we ourselves were experiencing the blessings that they're experiencing to enter into the joys of our brothers and sisters in Christ and really sincerely rejoice with them. But how consistent are we with this? How consistent are we in this?

We teach our children, as I just said, we teach our children this when they're very young, when they when they go to that that birthday party. And they're really happy to go to the party. But when the time comes for the birthday cake, maybe one of the little ones is like, I want to blow out the candles too. I want to blow out the candles. Or when the birthday boy or girl starts getting, starts opening up packages, one of the younger children starts crying.

I didn't get a present. Where's my present? And most of the time it's just because they don't understand, right? They're young. They just don't understand.

But we understand, right? We understand. But still we aren't always there. We aren't always where we should be in this thing of rejoicing with those who rejoice are we I? Mean has your heart ever not really been in it at least initially When another person got something maybe your heart was set on, maybe that contract, that there were that promotion at work, you were hoping to get that promotion for your employee, but you never got it.

Someone got that great job. Your job isn't all that great. Someone got that raise, that new house, that new truck or car and maybe at least initially you don't feel all that much like rejoicing with that person. And there's maybe at least a twinge of envy or jealousy that prevents you from sharing in their joy with them as you should. She got married.

He met that girl of his of his dreams and is now engaged. They're going on vacation. We're just struggling to keep our heads above water. She got an inheritance. He had a big windfall in the stock market.

I don't even own any stocks. Outwardly, maybe you're smiling, but inwardly, there's this little spark of envy. And it prevents you from really rejoicing with that brother or sister in Christ and entering into their joy with them. Sometimes I have to ask myself, am I as happy for that person who is enjoying that blessing on his or her life as I would be if the blessing he or she is enjoying was mine. Am I happy when they're the ones blowing out the candles on the cake and opening all the gifts?

Or am I feeling maybe a twinge of envy? I know that Paul told the Corinthians love doesn't do that. First Corinthians 13, 4 he said love is patient, love is kind, love doesn't seek its own, love does not envy. So I have to be reminded, as the apostle Paul reminds us in our passage here this afternoon, that Christ-like love rejoices with those who rejoice. In a word, Christian love almost forgets itself.

It celebrates the joys and prosperity and blessings God has bestowed on others in the body as though they were their own, almost forgetting itself. It says from the heart, I'm so honored that you are being honored. I'm so happy for the blessing you're experiencing. Christian love is a self-forgetting love. Christian love is a self-forgetting love.

It almost forgets itself. And so it says from the heart, thank you God for blessing my brother, my sister. I'm so happy for them. Love rejoices with others from the heart as though the blessing another is experiencing with their own. So sometimes we have to pray for more grace, right?

Because our hearts really aren't where they need to be. Sometimes we have to pray, Lord forgive me. Lord forgive me, give me a right heart. Take away this spirit of envy that wants to be the one blowing out the candles and opening the presents. And help me to rejoice from the heart with those who are rejoicing.

Give me grace, Lord, because I'm not where I need to be. Help me to be more and more others oriented and less and less me oriented. Brothers and sisters, Our lives are not our own. We are the Lord's. We were bought with the price, the blood of our Lord Jesus.

Calvin comments on this passage, we're the only thing required of us to seek not our own. Nature would not have the least power to comply. She so inclines us to love ourselves only that she will not easily allow us carelessly to pass by ourselves and our interests that we may watch over the interests of others. We are not our own. Therefore we should not seek what is expedient to the flesh.

We are not our own. Therefore, let us forget ourselves as much as possible, as far as possible." You know this thing of forgetting ourselves, true self-forgetfulness, and the capacity to share in the joys of others ultimately comes from finding our enjoyment and fullness and contentment in Christ rather than circumstances or circumstances. Christ is our portion both now and forever. And there's nothing, there's nothing we can imagine, there's nothing we can desire, there's nothing that we can enjoy beyond Him. We found the pearl of greatest price.

Our hearts must sing for joy. Brothers and sisters, let us rejoice in our salvation no matter our circumstances and without making comparison to others. And let us always rejoice with those who rejoice. In the passage before us, Paul says, rejoice and weep. Rejoice with those who are rejoicing and weep with those who weep.

There's so many suffering around us in so many ways. The call of the apostle is a call for compassion. It is a call to share in the sorrows of others, to enter into their sorrows with them, and to weep with them when they're weeping. In John chapter 11 of verse 35, we read that shortest verse in all of the Bible, Jesus wept. Jesus wept.

Jesus wept with Martha and Mary and all those who were weeping at the gravesite of Lazarus. He knew he was going to raise Lazarus and turn their sorrows to joy, but still Jesus weeps with those who weep. Our great high priest sympathizes with us in our sorrows. In Luke chapter 7, Jesus sees a funeral procession going through the city of Nain. A widow is following in the procession, greeting for the death of her son, her only son.

She's alone. Her husband is gone, and now her son is gone. And we read in verse 13, quote, when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her. Jesus' people are a compassionate people. We feel the pain of others, and we enter into their sorrows with them.

In this account of course Jesus raises the young man to life and presents him to her mother. We can't raise the dead but we can have compassion on the grieving and weep with those who weep and seek how we may best relieve them. And in doing so, as I said last week in the message on blessing those who persecute us, we can reflect the image of our Father in heaven as children of the highest. Because this is what love looks like. This is what love looks like.

Rejoices with those who rejoice and it weeps with those who weep. Luke chapter 6 after telling his disciples to love their enemies and do good to them, Jesus said, Be merciful. Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. The glory of God in Christ is manifested to the world through the compassion Christians show to those in the world who are sorrowing. The people of the world again tend to stand in distance from those who are sorrowing, but it's not so with the Christian.

Entering into the sorrows of others and weeping with those who weep is one of the ways we love our neighbors as ourselves. And it's one of the ways that we introduce them to agape love, a kind of love that they have never known. I remember when the members of this church were rushing down south in 2017 to help with the night of the hurricane before National Guard could get in to the area down there. And several of the men in this church and young men and from sister church in Cedar Park and in Houston and just just rushed in to try to help. We set up camp in the most crime-ridden area areas of Port Arthur and Beaumont and neighborhoods that where the police told us don't go out after dark.

Don't go out on the streets after sundown. But because the men of the church and men from these other churches went in that night and drove through the night and were there in the morning when the sun came up with boats going out to rescue grandpas and grandmas. One man was 90 years old that Chris and Levi and some of the other Joseph had put in the boat and rescued these whole families from the flood waters. One of the things that God did through that was that he made the heart of the people of those communities open to us. He opened their hearts to us.

These are the guys, I mean, they were even gang members, gang leader guys who were saying, these are the guys that saved our grandparents. Leave them alone. Listen to them. We pulled up the boats, the rescue boats and used them for platforms to preach the gospel from. And then all of these ministries started helping us and we were bringing in food.

And night after night, you know, for 28 nights, we fed people and they sat and listened to the gospel being preached and 3300 Bibles were given away and 10, 000 gospel tracts and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people hurt. Why? Because God used just a simple act of obedience to go in and weep with those who weep. 103 people died. As Christ is, so are we in the world.

Christian compassion matters. God used it to open a door for the gospel back in 2017 for this church. In Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10, by the way, to God be all the glory. To God be all the glory. Some of the guys should have died the first night.

I saw, I still have the videos where they're driving in the truck and the water is so high, you know, they can't see the lines on the road and the water is coming up over the, splashing up over the hood, four-wheel drive pickup truck. Somehow they made it in, they made it in. In Galatians 6 10, the apostle Paul says, as we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men. But especially to those who are of the household of faith. Especially those who are of the household of faith.

The household of faith is where weeping with those who weep finds its most intimate expression. Because we again are members one of another. And Christ is the head of the body, the church, of which we are members. And if one member suffers, as we read earlier, all the members suffer with it. And brothers and sisters, the place where sharing in the griefs and the sorrows and tragedies of others in the body of Christ comes closest to home, strikes closest to home, is in the local church.

Is where you're sitting right now. The local expression of the universal body. In the community of believers that we are engaged with on a daily basis. In every church, the members of that church have the opportunity to really weep with those who are weeping, to get outside of ourselves and actually share in the sorrows with them. Weep with those who are weeping.

We feel the pain of every believer we hear of who is suffering outside of our community and in all the world. And whenever we hear of any believer walking through a dark valley suffering in any way, our heart goes out to them And listen, we weep for them. But in the local church and in our own community, we can actually weep with them. With them. This body that we are intimately connected to, in this local expression of the universal body to which we are united and so close a bond, we can enter into the sorrows of our fellow members with them and weep with them.

And not only weep with them, but also provide leave and comfort as much as we are able. In such times, and we've already experienced many of them together, thinking of loved ones who have died, who have suffered great losses among us, many times words have been wanting, and that's okay. That's okay. Sometimes the best thing we can do for a brokenhearted member is just be there for them. At their side in their grief and pain.

Someone once said silence is golden. I don't know. But sometimes it's in silence and just maybe the simple laying of a sympathizing hand on the shoulder of someone who's sorrowing and weeping with that member that proves to be the most appropriate and the most consoling thing that we can do. In one of Spurgeon's sermons, as we draw to a close here, one of his sermons on this passage, he talks about the fellowship of suffering in the body of Christ. And he mentions the apostles, James and John, who were called the sons of thunder.

And he mentions the apostle Barnabas, whose name is interpreted son of consolation. And Spurgeon talks about how sons of thunder can be made anywhere, but sons of consolation or comfort are made only in the chamber of affliction. And he's saying, many times the greatest comfort and consolation to the brokenhearted in our churches comes from those who have walked through a similar valley themselves. Here the love and comfort of a brother or sister flows intensely from a heart that can identify with the pain he or she is experiencing. Spurgeon, quote, those who have been in the chamber of affliction know how to comfort those who are there.

God may make his sons of thunder anywhere, but his sons of consolation he must make in the fire and there alone. Who shall speak to those whose hearts are broken, who shall bind up their wounds, but those whose hearts have been broken also, and whose wounds have long run with the sore of grief." Close quote. You know what that brother or sister is going through. God help us to be a special comfort to those in this body who are sorrowing. God help us to weep with those who are weeping.

But let us always remember to communicate the infallible hope that is ours, no matter what comes in this life. First Thessalonians 4 17 through 18 Paul says, comfort one another with these words. These are the words to comfort others with. There may not be a time for words, just the hand on the shoulder. There may be a time for silence.

When there's time for words, comfort one another with these words. Christ is coming back. And when he does, the dead in Christ are gonna rise first. And then we who are alive and remain are gonna be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall we always be with the Lord.

Paul says, comfort one another with these words. No matter how dark the valley, How intense the pain, how hopeless a situation may appear. Believers in Christ have hope, and we have hope together. We have hope together. Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.

We must always rejoice together in the eternal, no matter what is taking place in the temporal. In Luke chapter 10, Jesus' disciples were rejoicing because the demons had been made subject to them. Remember how Jesus responded? Jesus said, don't rejoice, don't rejoice in that. Rather, rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven.

That your names are written in heaven. Whether we are rejoicing with those who rejoice or weeping with those who weep, Christians can always rejoice together in this, that our names are written in heaven. We are a people who have great cause to rejoice. We gather every Sunday to offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to heaven, rejoicing in God our Savior, rejoicing with Christians all over the earth and myriads of angels and saints in glory. Rejoice in the Lord always brothers and sisters and again I say rejoice let's pray father thank you for the grace and mercy shown us and your son and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ father let us never stand at a distance when others are rejoicing or weeping, but help us to enter into their joys and sorrows with them And let the love of Christ flow through us to all, and especially to those of the household of faith, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.