Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme. I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How are you today?

Steve: Cold. How are you?

Scott: I'm pretty good. I'm cold as well.

Steve: The family two houses up the street, are having a generator put in this morning. I was thinking it would be nice to have it if there was a power failure because it's so cold. I also told those guys, "You guys are earning your money today." I don't know what it is. It's got to feel like around zero with the wind chill and everything, but they're just out there working away.

Scott: It says it's 15 degrees here, but it feels like 9 or something like that. Steve: Well, I was seeking God this morning, and He very clearly led me to this topic. I have spent about two hours digging and going deeper. I could have gone a lot deeper, and maybe we will for part two, but this is a topic that would probably not be the most requested.

We live in America, and the America definition of being blessed is to have two cars your own house, etc. Not negating that, I'm an American. I feel the same way probably most of the time. However, as our last podcast we discussed and observed that Jesus was humble. He was meek. He was gentle. He was lowly in heart.

We really have to meditate on that because the people that are "successful" in our culture do not have these characteristics. They're go-getters. They're good looking. They're athletic. The whole package. That's who the media portrays as what we should be trying to become. This topic is similar to that, and here's the title, Jesus, the man of sorrows. Let's pray.

Father, thank You for Your word that corrects us as well as transforms us as well as informs us. I pray today that Your word will have free course in our hearts. Circumcise our ears and our hearts to hear what You're saying to us today, and help me even as I'm reading this to take it into my own spirit and to embrace it and to not put it on the shelf, so to speak. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Scott: Amen.

Steve: This is reality. Life is hard, and just about everybody that I get to know and when I mean "get to know," I mean beyond just smiling and shaking their hand and rejoicing in our fakeness, but when you really get to know people, people are carrying burdens. Everybody's got burdens.

If it's not your own burden, it's people that you're caring for that have burdens and people that you're related to and people in your own family. Facebook, we like to put down the pictures of Christmas and holidays and happy faces, and yet I do have friends that post everything. When they're in the hospital, they post it, and they want prayer.

I appreciate that and I do a lot more praying for people that I'm not in contact with because I follow them, and I see what their life is like, but it says in Isaiah 53:2-5,

"He," speaking of Jesus, the Messiah, "grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him."

He wouldn't have fit into the 21st century. Let me keep reading. He wouldn't hav made any money on television either. I can tell you that. "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.

"He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds, we are healed." I read that couple paragraphs pretty regularly because it's a part of my daily prayer times in the lesson on the lamb of God. He was like a sheep, He was a lamb, etc., but I started taking apart these words this morning, man of sorrows. I looked at the word for sorrow.

This word for sorrow, is mak'ob, it means pain, sorrow, or suffering. It's from th root, Ka'av which means to be in pain or to grieve. Psalm 69 talks about this, "I am afflicted and in pain." Another translation says, "I am poor and sorrowful. Let Yo salvation, Oh God, set me on high. I will praise the name of God with the song. "I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This will please Jehovah more than an ox or a bull with horns and hooves. When the humble see it, they will be glad. You who seek God, let your hearts revive, for Jehovah hears the needy and does not despise His own people who are prisoners."

The psalmist wrote, "I am poor and sorrowful." He's acquainted with grief, and that word grief is “choli” which is more physical sickness or disease or affliction. The M of Sorrows is the kind of a man that you would want to have sitting at your bedside in the hospital.

This is the man who's acquainted with grief. He's comfortable in grief. He doesn't put a little bow on it and say, "You should be happy." He knows grief. He's a man of sorrows. I don't know about you, but it takes me some time to get my mind around this. He was gentle, meek, lowly, humble, and He was also a man of sorrows, and He's acquainted with grief.

Naturally speaking, we would hide our faces from such a man. We would not want to hang out with such a man. He was despised. He was rejected of men. This is our savior. I'm trying to not just slough over it because this is Jesus, and we need to let this sink right down. There's some hope in here, so don't turn off the podcas There's hope coming, but we need to let it sink in deeply. This is who Jesus is, and we are becoming transformed into His image. It shouldn't surprise us when we go through difficult times. I'm sure there are people listening who are in times of sorro and grief.

Someone reached out to me yesterday, they had a loss in their family, and they're beside themselves. They're grieving. All I could say was, "I'm sending hugs. I'm hearing you. I'm sitting with you," and I'm bearing their burden the best I can. The second half of this passage, though, says, "Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." First, He defines himself as a man of sorrows acquainted wit grief and then He goes on to say, "I have borne your griefs and carried your sorrows." I looked at those words. The word for to bear our griefs is interesting. It's Nasso. It's pronounced, Nasso, but I thought, I wonder if they picked that because it means to lift, to carry, to bear, to take, to forgive. I think the first time it's used i the Bible is when it talks about the waters lifted up the ark. What a picture of the ark being lifted up, this massive ark being lifted up by the waters?

This is what Jesus does. He bears our griefs. He carries our sorrows. Isaiah 63:9, this has got a bunch of these words all wrapped up in there. "In all their affliction, He w afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and in His pity, redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old." It is painful for me to read the Bible and see how much Jesus, God, The Spirit, the triune God did for the nation of Israel, and yet they continually turned their back. They continually became stiff necked and hardhearted and rejected His incredible lov and His pity.

He redeemed them. He lifted them up, and He carried them. This is our God. He's the one that He sees our sorrows, He sees our grief. He identifies with it, and then H comes alongside of us, and He bears our griefs, and He carries our sorrows. This is powerful stuf

Psalm 22 is a picture of Jesus on the cross. He quotes from this Psalm in the 24th to 26th verses, "He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, no He hidden His face from Him, but when He cried to him for help, He heard. From You comes my praise in the great assembly.

" I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him. The afflicted will eat and satisfied. Those who seek Him will praise Jehovah. Let your heart live forever." H does not despise our affliction. He doesn't say, "You don't have enough faith." doesn't say "You need to believe more."

He simply comes alongside of us, and He bears our burdens. He carries our afflictions, and He listens when we cry to Him for help. John 11, I'm sure I told th story before. I'll tell it again. "When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled and He said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Lord, come and see,' And Jesus wept."

This is a picture of the savior. He was deeply moved in His spirit. He was greatly troubled. In all their afflictions, He was afflicted. I've thought of this friend wh trying to comfort from a distance, and I know that not only are they weeping, Jesus is weeping. This is our savior. When we weep, He weeps.

Psalm 56: 8, "You keep track of all my sorrows. You've collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book."

Psalm 145:14, "Jehovah upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down."

Psalm 55: 22, "Cast your burden on Jehovah, and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved."

Psalm 68:19, "Blessed be the Lord Who daily bears our burden, the God Who is our salvation."

I mentioned I was going to tell you a story about John 11. I was speaking at a homeschool graduation, and each of the parents were asked to share their graduate's favorite scripture. One mom stood up and she said, "I didn't know my daughter's favorite scripture. I asked her, 'What is your favorite passage?' She said, 'Jesus wept.'" The mom's first thought was her teenager messing with her. She said, "Come on Seriously, what is your favorite scripture?" The girl looked at her mother, and she said, "Mom, the creator of the universe wept." I'm tearing up just telling you this. That teenager had something. She saw how incongruous it is to have the lord of the universe weep, and this is our savior.

Psalm 55: 22 and Psalm 68:19 came to me in one of my lowest times. I have a special needs son. I was in survival mode for a good year and a half. Didn't even know it. Finally, one day, the Holy Spirit quickened these passage because I was reading the Psalms over and over.

As I read Psalm 55:22 I realized that I had never cast my burden on God. I hadn't let Him sustain me. I was trying to take care of myself. I was afraid if I really let people know how I was feeling, I would fall apart, and I would have a nervous breakdown. I was doing everything I could to hold myself together. It says, "Cast your burden on the Lord. He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous be moved." To me, that came across as a promise. He will not let me fall apart. I knelt down by my bed, and I poured out my heart to God, and He took my burden. Nothing changed on the outside, but now God was carrying my burden.

Psalm 68:19, makes us know that He was bearing my burden. As we read earlier, He was lifting me up. He was carrying me, and it made all the difference, and I began t heal. That was a turning point that morning on my knees because of that. Matthew 14:14, "When He went ashore, He saw a great crowd. He had compassion on them, and He healed their sick."

Psalm 103:13, "As a father shows compassion to his children, so Jehovah shows compassion to those who fear Him."

James 5:11, "The Lord is compassionate and merciful."

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. He's near to the brokenhearted." This is where He lives because He's acquainted with grief. He's a man of sorrows. He's near to the brokenhearted, and He is a very present help in trouble. I often pray for people, "Father, be a very present help. Bear their burdens. Come alongside of them. Help them to sense Your compassion." This is our God. This is our

savior. This is a picture of Him that I don't often hear about, and yet comes from Scripture.

Scott: This feels like one of those things that you just don't think about it much until you're touched by grief. It's one of those passages that...all these passages are just the convenient ones we don't have to think much about until it hits you. It's also one of those ones that I think can be such a path to people who don't know Christ yet to be able to share in their grief and help them to come alongside them. If you can help them see that Jesus is acquainted with grief, He did suffer. It wasn't thi fake smiling little idol of a God. He knows what you're going through. Steve: Amen.

Scott: That's why, as it says in 1 Thessalonians 4, "We do not grieve like those who have no hope."

Steve: Amen. I know I've said it probably too many times, but I feel like if Job's friends had just not said anything, they would have won the day because I'm sure it meant the world to Job to have his friends sitting with him. Sometimes that's the best thing that we can do is just to sit with people and be there and be present and to hold their hand and not try to fix the

Psalm 34:18, "Jehovah is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." Psalm 147:3, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Like you say, these are passages that are go to when we're in a difficult time, but they're probab not on our refrigerator.

Scott: Right.

Steve: It's not something we aspire to, but we're all full thankful when we're going through the fire that we have somebody who goes through the fire with us. Th three were these...

Steve: and Daniel found that. He didn't save them from the fire, but He was with the in the fire. That's our dad and He's awesom

Scott: I'm not big on bumper sticker theology, but I wonder if that one would be a good bumper sticker.

Steve: Which one?

Scott: He is with the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Scott: I'm curious what that would do if that would be like the what would Jesus do bracelets that took over the world for a little while. Would that bumper sticker become a big thing and people be like, "Yes," quoting that to each other all over the place? I don't know. Anyway, my weird mind.

Steve: You are an unsocialized homeschooler. :-)

Scott: Exactly.

Steve: Father, thank You that you are near to us when we need You the most. You're the most real when we're the most needy, and You're comfortable. Not that You like it, but that You are, this is not the first time. This is not something that's new to You

You are a man of sorrows at Your very core. You're acquainted with grief. When we are afflicted, You are afflicted. You weep when we

Father, take these words and just emblazon them on our hearts, on our minds, on our spirits, especially, I pray that You'll come really close to those that are hurting today. Give them fresh hope. Give them fresh courage. Help them to sense Your presence and bear our burdens, and don't let us be moved. In Jesus' name, amen. Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. If you have a question for me, you can reach me at scott@unsocializedmedia.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.