Jacob's Well Church

The Sermon On The Mount is full of wisdom, with the power to heal our fragmented relationships. 

“I hate conflict.” Most people would resonate with this comment. But relational conflicts are inevitable. As followers of Jesus, we have his teaching and example to show us how to do healthy conflict. Jesus not only modeled healthy conflict, but he also actually created relational conflict when needed. In this series, we will discover Jesus’ teaching in the sermon on the mount and consider the wisdom of this life. Follow Jesus as he transforms you into a good person from whom good things naturally flow!

This service is a lament. We will take time to lament personally and corporately.
As we enter into Lent. Let's draw close to Jesus, the suffering servant.

This week we discuss the strong connections between our series in Lamentations and the season of Lent. 

It is easy to feel forgotten. Trauma can cause us to create a narrative that God and everyone else has forsaken us. At those times, we can feel conflicted because we want to hide and be seen simultaneously. A lament allows us to express these feelings and tell ourselves a better story.

*We apologize for intermittent audio quality in this podcast, we experienced technical difficulties at the time of the recording.

Ashes, Salt and Wormwood. This week we discuss the power of these metaphors.

There are three metaphors for Lament: Ashes – Loss, Salt – Tears, and Wormwood (bitter root) – Bitterness. When we Lament, we enter a deep grief that expresses loss, pain, bitterness, and often regret. Grief is acknowledging what has been lost and what we had hoped for that we will not receive. The contrast between where we were and where we had hoped to be contrasted with where we find ourselves needs to be acknowledged before it can be accepted.

Through the bitterness of Lament we have an opportunity to experience deep mercy. 

Many of us don't want to draw near to our pain because we fear we will get trapped in pain and bitterness. Lament opens the door to see and experience the mercy of God. We need to experience and receive God’s mercy, so we do not lose our humanity and become something broken under the terrible weight of bitterness caused by the pain of this world.