231103-Should You Not Rather Have Mourned?

In this Bible study group in Africa, Kassan shares his thoughts on the concept of mourning and repentance. He references the Corinthian church's lack of mourning over a sinful act and relates it to the need for believers to mourn over societal issues. He also discusses the importance of the fear of God and the need for people to look to God and repent. He calls for the pouring out of the spirit of grace and supplication to bring about a burden for prayer and intercession. Kassan emphasizes the need for believers to take action and cry out to God. He mentions examples from the Bible to support his points and ends by asking for input on a scripture passage about asking for life. Yeah, another Friday with this Bible study group in Africa. Friday, November the 3rd. And today I've asked Kassan to share what's been on his heart. And I know that God has been speaking to him. And so we'd like to just offer him the opportunity. That's his desire of this study. We're not desiring to know every word in Greek and everything mentally. We want God to change our lives by the Word of God that's spoken. And so today I've invited Kassan because I know that the Lord's been speaking to him. Amen. Okay, Daddy, thank you very much. In the course of the past week, or the past two weeks, one of the questions that was raised in my heart was, okay, 1 Corinthians 5, 1-2. Reading from 1 Corinthians 5, 1-2. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife, and ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you. You should rather have mourned. That was the question. Where there's an expected response to certain circumstances, it's not just about the state of the church, the state of our neighborhood. And instead of believers whom God has called to rather mourn, like the church in Corinthians, we are either unconsigned, unpacked up, and without anybody of any kind. One of the days I was walking through the roads in the city of Abba, where I've lived for many years, and that particular road was so bad, I was mourning as I walked on the road, because of the state of the road. I said, God, no, no, no, no, no. That road was fixed, I think a year or two later. So, it was a rebuke on the Corinthian church, a rebuke concerning their posture in response to what had befallen the church. The brother who had done something that was not even common with those who were unbelievers, he had done something that should necessitate a reaction of repentance in the church, a reaction of saying, Lord, we are sorry about this. We are sorry that such a thing has happened in our midst. But the Bible says, and ye are arrogant. And that arrogance may not be that the people are necessarily proud, but arrogance is always seen when we don't give the proper response that God expects of us as believers, the situation. The Bible talks about, in the book of, that should be 2 Kings, the King Ehab, or 1 Kings, that should be 1 Kings. The Bible says, when the word of God came to the prophet Ehab, he went down on his knees, and God had to tell the prophet, have you seen how Ehab has humbled himself? These things that I speak of will not happen in his days. So, that scripture got me to my knees. There are certain things I had around me, and it brought me to my knees, and I cried. I actually cried. I said, God, no, no, no, no, please. We are sorry. We are sorry. I had to repent on behalf of the environment I was in. It was supposed to be a general repentance. So, I want to ask at this point, have any of us had such an experience where, in response to a prevailing situation, it necessitated some tears, some crying? Like, something that happened in my family makes me cry. And I say, God, no. God, this is not what it should be. I believe we've had such an experience. He said, would you not have rather mourned? That's the question. Should you not have rather mourned? Revised Standard Version, which I'm using, says, ought you not rather to mourn? Ought you not rather to mourn? What is happening in Nigeria, to mourn? What is happening in America? Shouldn't Americans mourn? That's the question the Lord was asking me last week. And I found out that it may be difficult to mourn, except the Lord calls out the spirit of grace and supplication, which He promised in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah. Anybody can get a Zechariah for us? Zechariah chapter 12, reading at verse 10. Zechariah chapter 12, and what verse? Verse 10 through 14. Zechariah 12, verse 10. So, the Bible says that God is going to pour out a spirit of grace and supplication upon the house of David. And the result will be that they're going to look upon the one they have pierced. And that particular prayer has become a burden in my heart. I was praying, I said, Lord, we need to look to you again. And then that's what the world needs. Why people are so blackened in evil is that this spirit has not been poured out. They are looking yet at other things. When this spirit is poured out, people will turn their attention to the Lord. And at that point, they'll recognize their failure, their sins, their iniquity. The Bible says, on that day, the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad Ramon in the plain of Megiddo. That you may have a background story of what happened there. And the Bible likened the mourning that will be there in verse 10, it said, to be as when one cries for an only child, or when one cries for the firstborn. The important thing here is that they will look upon the Lord. Today in our world, many are not looking upon the Lord. They are unconcerned about the Lord. They don't care how the Lord feels. They are not concerned about his word. And with regards to that, the Lord also dealt with me from Genesis chapter 1, verse 42, where Jacob was giving a testimony about his sojourn in the house of Laban. And he said, if the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side, surely none, you would have sent me away empty handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night. It was the fear of God that forced Laban to do to Jacob. Today... Can you repeat that reference again? Okay. Genesis 31, verse 42. Genesis 31, verse 42. Oh, 31. Okay. Thank you. Oh, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac. So one of the key words the Lord pointed out to me because of last two weeks again, was the fear of Isaac. Because in the experience of the fathers of Jacob, beginning with Abraham, there was a sudden encounter, a king who had taken one of their wives hard. The Bible said, God himself stopped that man from touching another man's wife. And I began to look at it and I said to myself, God, if you're able to make a hidden man to be that fearful of you, you can do the same with me. You can do the same in me. So it was the fear of Isaac, God as the fear of Isaac, that intervened in the matter with Laban. If not that Laban saw the mighty hand of God, he thought to do Jacob evil. But God had to intervene in such a thing as the terror of God. So it is in the light of that, the Lord was speaking to me that we need to come again to the point. The world needs to come back to the point where we look upon the one we have pierced and we cry out and we say, Lord, no, no, no, no, no. This is not what it ought to be. So it was a strong burden for me. It's time for America to cry out to God again. It's time for Nigeria to look to God again. It's time for the church to face God again and say, Lord, we are sorry. We have been so puffed up, so careless, so carried away, perturbed by our condition. And so that was a burden for me. And I began to pray and say, Lord, pour out the spirit of grace and supplication again. It will bring us to our knees again. It is that spirit that causes men to intercede. It is that spirit that causes people to feel sorry. It is that spirit that releases a burden because I found out that people cannot pray without a burden. If I'm not burdened, I wouldn't be able to sustain a consistent prayer life. And so that was what a church in Corinthian needed. The Lord Jackson, would you not have values? I was expecting you to cry. I was expecting you to take action. I say, this brother, get out for a while, for a while. Let the church heal, not as God intended for the man to be totally lost. And 1 John chapter 5, verse 16 gives us an example of that. The epistle of John chapter 5, verse 16, it says, if anyone sees his brother committing what is not a murder sin, he will ask and God will give him life for those whose sin is no murder. So that's a template for God. It's a wake up call for us to come back again. There are things that should not amuse us. It should make us grieve. It is in the light of that, that men like Phinehas, in the days when the children of Israel had gone a-whoring with the daughters of Moab, Phinehas raised the javelin and pierced it through a son of the house of Simeon who had taken a Midianite woman in the midst of the congregation when they were already suffering a plague. So God is calling for us once again to raise a cry to heaven, to look upon the one that we have pierced, to feel sorry when he begins to raise questions, to repent on her behalf as something to begin with. And I believe we also have had such points in our life when something caused us to grieve and we told ourselves, no, this should not be the state of the church. This should not be the state of God's house. This should not be the state of my nation. This should not be the experience of the children of God. And the question for me was, should you not have rather more? Should you not have rather more? Ehab cried and God decided that he would not experience the suffering of his people while he was yet alive. So that was a burden in my heart at first. So I had some other things I had written out. So I think I need contribution at this point before I move over to what I had written out. That's beautiful. Then 1 John chapter 5, verse 16 encourages us on what response and what posture to take when we see a brother commit a sin that is not a mortal sin. Or as King James puts it, a sin that does not lead to death. He said we should ask for life. What do you think it means, Cassandra, that we would ask for life? I think it's significant somehow, and I'm not quite catching the significance of it. I would like to ask maybe you, our favor, have input on that one. Ask for life. Okay. That is my understanding of that scripture. Sin is always a doorway to death. The Bible in Corinthians talking about sin, he said, but the sting of death is sin. So every time someone commits sin, he's exposed or made vulnerable to death. And 1 John was encouraging us that at every time somebody sins, we should pray for life instead. He said, pray that you may give him life. Now, why it is true that we should pray that God will give one who sins life? There is that sin that leads to death for which we are not to pray about. And I can say, for example, that was the sin of Judas Iscariot. The Bible concluded that Judas was doomed. There was no prayer to be made for Judas. His sin was a mortal sin. It's an example of a sin that leads to death. But at every other time any man commits sin, he's made vulnerable to death. The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death. So whenever anybody sins, what the believer should start doing is to pray for life. God, please let this sin not lead to eventual spiritual death. Then that's what the Bible is talking about there. We should not allow anything to proceed much further to the point where the sinner reaps death. Every time anybody sins is not vulnerable to death. That is the only way death can take possession. That's the only way death can begin to run its course, to forestall death. So when I see my brother sin, I should begin to raise a cry to heaven and say, God, please. The Bible says, the wages of sin is death for sin has a wage which is death. Everything. The only difference the Apostle John made there was that they sinned and lead us to death. And he was saying we should not pray about that. For good news, we call it a mortal sin. But at every other time, sin always has death at its wages. We must not allow that to be the case. Then that was the more reason why Jesus was prepared for Peter. He said, I have prayed for you that your fate may not fail. So if it's a spiritual death, Cassander, it would mean every sin brings a separation from the life-giving relationship with God because he cannot dwell or tolerate sin. And although we're covered under the blood of Jesus, if we haven't repented of that sin, and if we haven't mourned and sorrowed over our own failings, we call them weakness, we call them mistakes, God calls them sin. If we haven't mourned over our own and cried out to the Advocate that we have with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, we have no cleansing because until we've mourned, until we've confessed, we have no Advocate because we're still acting as if we haven't sinned. We have never come to the correct response of sin, which is sorrow, mourning, confession, repentance, and being restored. I think that what you're sharing is so significant, Cassander, and I appreciate it because I do believe that, yeah, we've seen that same thing even in our own churches, a lack of mourning of sins and a lack of taking grace lightly. So not a lack of it, but such an increase of taking grace lightly and using grace as an excuse to feel better about our sins without truly mourning over them. And even I'm thinking about the verse that says that we crucify Him again when we, the second time, when we don't come under the blood of Jesus through repentance and through that sorrow which leads to repentance. What is that 2 Corinthians 7? There's a sorrow that leads to repentance. There's mourning that leads to repentance, not the kind of mourning that just only breaks our emotions, but something that truly breaks our heart to the place where we're serious to the Lord, unless you change me. Like Jacob said, unless you bless me, I'm not leaving here to wrestle with the Lord. You know, we've talked about that a couple of times, Cassander, and it's been so meaningful each time wrestling the Lord over mourning over our sins that we could be changed. I think we just lose hope that there's any change for us in that. I'm thinking also of the verse, sorry to interrupt, I'm thinking also the verse, it says, because they have no fear, there are no changes. And without that fear of the Lord, it doesn't lead to changes in our lives. So we take things lightly and it's good. It's time to weep and mourn. Go ahead, Cassander. Yes, this is very important in our day. Part of why there's blunt and abuse and decay is because of the lack of this. There is almost a general lack of the fear of God and general absence of this posture. There's also a general lack of reverence for God. I think it was A. W. Toza in his book that said, do we still bow in his temple? Why it is true that the physical building is no God's temple, but our attitude within that building, we have lost something. There is no reverence for God. People come to church, operating their cell phones, replying messages. There's no, there's no, it's almost lost. And there are many explanations given to explain it. So for bad behavior, repentance, justifications for a distressful the kind of we have done should have brought about repentance. We should have cried. And even if we were not the ones who did that, because it was done in our church by our brethren. God can do something for a person who takes the right posture. God acknowledges everyone who is of a contrite heart and a broken heart. That is what God is expecting. And that is why in Zechariah, he had to move in that direction and said, I'm going to pour out the spirit that will enforce this, that will bring about that which I've been seeking as a response. People are going to be crying. And when we read Zechariah all the way from verse 10 through 14, we find out that each family cried apart, the house of David with their wives apart, the house of Shimei with his wives apart. It is on that basis that when we come back again to raising a cry, to mourning when we should have more, Revival is going to come. Because by the time we get to chapter 13, verse 1, the Bible says, in that day, I'll open a fountain to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. It's for cleansing. Yeah, that's true. The heart of the Lord is in that. Go ahead. I'm going to get to Zechariah and read it. I loved it so much. At first, I didn't see the connection because I had always stopped at chapter 12. But it says, on that day, referring to the same time, Kairos season, where the Lord has poured out the spirit of grace and sanctification, it says, on that day, there shall be a fountain open for the house of Jerusalem. And the Bible says, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. So, the result of a proper response is cleansing. God is going to bring about cleansing in our churches. God is going to bring about cleansing in our nation when this response will be seen. You know, as a younger Christian, I had this gift. That was in 2019. So, I had this gift. It was a compendium of the life of the man called Bill Bright. You know the man? I think I've heard the name. Bill Bright. He started something in fellowship. He had won the Templeton prize for religion when he was alive. This prize, they tried to make a prize, an equivalent of the Nobel prize. So, they said, since religion has no mention, there's no category for that in the Nobel prize. So, they had this Templeton award. Bill Bright won that award. So, I had this picture at the back of the book, which always said something to me. It was a picture of men in the American church praying. They were all seated in seats. And most times, when I remember that picture, it inspires me to go again in prayer. So, we need to go back to that. When we God's nation again, that people will really have time and say, no, we have done wrong to God. We have been proud as a people. We have been lukewarm as a church. We have boasted about our wealth. We have not seen our nakedness. We have not acknowledged our nakedness, our blindness, our short sightedness. We have not rebuked the sin in our midst. We have pampered it. We have accommodated evil. God is expecting that to happen. It should begin with us, who know the Lord. I wrote somewhere that the Bible says, when Jesus came to Jerusalem, he cried over the city. Jesus could have come to Jerusalem and laughed at them because he had preached to them. He could have said, well, I know what is going to happen to you. Since people didn't listen to me on that day, I will laugh. But the Bible says, when he came to the city, he wept. And Jesus is a perfect example about the response to this. Because he foresaw that by AD 70, Jerusalem will be destroyed. And he wept over the city and said, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how long have I desired to gather your children? And even while he walked to the cross, and those women, the daughters of Jerusalem followed him, he said, weep not for me, daughters of Jerusalem, but for your children, our generation to rise up again with the right posture and the right response. We need men again that will not be so given to entertainment. That even things that should cause men to mourn, they laugh over it. They create a joke about it. It's time for the church to mourn again. It's time for us to face the wall and cry to the Lord and say, Lord, we have sinned. Lord, we have been arrogant. So that was the burden of the Lord to me. And I discovered that if I often have that posture, I will not become too arrogant. Neither will I be too far gone in anything. So that was a strong burden for me in the course of the week. I thought about it many times. It was a strong question in my mind. Should you not have rather mourned? Should you not have rather mourned? Some translations say, should you not have been in grief, should the church in Nigeria not have rather mourned? Right. There was a time here, because what I'm sharing is something that I don't know how it happened, but it happens with me. There was a time here in Nigeria, a pastor was accused of having raped somebody in the past. I don't know how many years back, but it didn't happen at least when we came up. So the social media went wide with all kinds of posts. Of course, you know how those kind of things, the kind of posts they generate. And I had some work to do. I went to the cyber cafe to, you know, do some work. But did you know that when I opened my social media to check out one or two things, and I saw various posts with regards to that, I cried. I had to close and go home, because I couldn't stand the reproach that came to the name of the Lord. I'm telling you this, I had to. I was crying there already where I was working, so I knew that to be, to create a scene, so I had to go. So God is calling us back to that. Yes. What has happened to so many of us is that we have grown so lethargic. Yes. Familiar. In the past, our heart used to cry. In the past, our heart used to burn. In the past, some of us could not stand when God begins to speak either through his word. We used to be on our knees. We used to shake before the Lord. But now everything is so common, and the Lord is asking, would you not have rather more? Shouldn't you be crying? Shouldn't you be in grief over this one? Shouldn't this matter trouble you? Jerusalem troubled a lot. Even though he had done his part, he said, if the works that I did in you were done in Tyre and Sidon or Capernaum or Jerusalem, if it had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented you this day, and he raised the Christ. He said, you won't see me again until I say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So that is the posture the Lord will have us take. God is looking for men again who mourn over their cities, who mourn over the house of the Lord, who mourn over the tabernacle of David that has fallen, who say, Lord, we have abandoned true worship. Lord, we have abandoned the ministry of the world. In the course of the holy day before I reached in school, I began to remember that the personal devotional time I had with the Lord used to be very rich. And suddenly, I don't know what happened to me. I was not taking it serious again. It becomes familiar doesn't it? Yes, I became familiar. So one of the days, I had to sit down and reflect, and I told God, I'm so sorry. And these were my words. I told God, the quality of my quiet time with you used to be better. It's far better than the present ministry I have. That's what I told God. I was not so occupied with so many things. My Bible study, zero. Prayer life, almost gone. Often in a haste to go. In the past, I will sit. In the past, I will abide. As the Greek would put it, I know. In short, there's a Nigerian singer that sang, Where did my hunger go? What happened to my thirst? His name is Theophilus Sunday. I cannot really sing so well, but he says, Where did my hunger go? What happened to my thirst? Though I speak in tongues and minister before men, yet my secret place is weary and dry. If you still hear me cry, hear me right now. So in the words of the singer, he was still doing a show of ministry. He was still doing ministry. He still spoke in tongues. He knew that the hunger was gone. He knew that his thirst was gone. He knew that the secret place was also gone. And that was the song he raised. Ahab went on his knees when the word of prophecy came, in judgment, I guess. And the Lord spared him and gave him the privilege of not seeing it with his eyes. He didn't witness a slaughter of his 70 sons who were killed in Samaria because he went down on his knees. Who knows, if he had had maybe a greater repentance, God would have done much more. God is looking for men who will humble themselves. As the Psalmist said, Come, let us bow down to the rock of America. I remember you have preached from that Psalm before recently, taught us from there. He said, He's our God and we belong to him. We are his people, a flock under his care. So God is looking for who knew that, who cried out to him. And I can see that come again in America. I tell you, that picture inspires me when I see it. The men were seated, the various seats, praying, interceding for the church, praying for... I don't know if that's Campus Crusade for Christ. I think that was the ministry of the Abright. So whenever I see that picture, it seems it affected me because my frequent prayer posture is sitting on a seat. I get a seat, I sit down, I begin to pray and talk to God. Maybe it started from my looking at that picture. So I would love to see it happen again, where the whole body of Christ will gather and face the Lord and seek the Lord. Each person on his own. It may be corporate, but personal in a sense, because such environment will have very far-reaching impacts. To be corporate, yet personal. And that's what I'm trusting the Lord to do. That his fear will return, that people will turn against him. That's very powerful. I think about Paul when he was crying out in 2 Corinthians 7 and he says, I'm not happy that I made you sorry, but I know that godly sorrow works towards repentance, which brings salvation, never to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world brings death, but it holds. What did it do in you? It brought such clearing of yourself, such indignation, such clearing of yourself, such fear. And it says, and vehement desire, and zeal, yea, what even revenge? God help us, because when's the last time that our sorrow has led us to indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, and revenge? Lord Jesus. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 9 through 11, especially 11th verse. Okay, I'm using the Revised Standard Version. It says, for godly grief produces repentance, that leads to salvation, and brings no regret. But worldly grief produces, okay, you say I should read from verse 7? 9 to 11. Chapter 7, verse 9 to 11. 9 to 11 reads, as it is, I rejoice not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you fed a godless grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces repentance, that leads to salvation, and brings no regret. But worldly grief produces death. Perceive what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to play yourself, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. At every point you have proved yourself goodness in this matter. That's so beautiful. Thank you so much. That's the results of that godly fear that you're speaking about. That's very powerful, that verse. Yeah. Yes, very powerful. Like I see in 11, some of the characteristics of what you're talking about, it says, you talked about eagerness to clear oneself, talked about indignation, that indignation should be against the thing, against the condition, the moral decay. Talks about what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. Then that's what God is seeking in our lives. Amen. Thank you, Angelo. Thank you for sharing the Word of the Lord with us today. There's a lot to meditate on there. It's very convicting. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I believe that I will share it with others. By God's grace, I'll have a chance to edit out everything and make it flow the best I can. But this is something that is very much in the heart of God, and we'll do our best to get it shared by the very powerful. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you, Father. We lift up your Word that you're revealing to Cassandra, and you're speaking to him about what is so needed. Lord, that we would be alive if we would not be dead. We would be in sorrow. We'd have zeal in the house of the Lord. Oh, like the verse that says, the zeal of the Lord has eaten me up, has consumed me. Lord Jesus, that you would have zeal within us and hatred of sin and fear of the Lord. God, that you said, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Oh, God, we ask you, Lord, that you would just continue to stir your precious Holy Spirit within us. Your Spirit that is holy and hates sin. God help us. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Bless you, my brother.