Romans 105
Rejoice with them
that rejoice
Brian Kocourek
ROMANS
These words of the Apostle Paul, are truly some of the most wonderful words of advice that can be given to the Christian in their walk with the Lord and with each other. For what is fellowship but two fellows in the same ship and the words Paul says here are that when one rejoices we should rejoice with them, and when one is weeping we should weep along with them.
Now,
he is not suggesting to us that we be phony in our weeping nor is he telling us
to rejoice when we don’t feel like rejoicing. In fact the Apostle Peter tells
us we must not feign our love for the brethren. We must not be phony in what we
do but in all that we do we should do from the heart. For he had just written a few verses earlier
in ROMANS 12:9 [Let] love be
without dissimulation. And
again he wrote to Timothy in I TIMOTHY 1:5 ¶ Now the end of the
commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and [of] a good conscience, and
[of] faith unfeigned:
And
the Apostle James wrote JAMES 3:17 But the wisdom that
is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, [and] easy to be
intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without
hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in
peace of them that make peace.
And
the Apostle Peter wrote I PETER
Therefore when Paul is telling us to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep he is in no way telling us to do what we do not feel led to do, nor put on a pretentiousness that is fake in any way, shape or manner. He is not telling us to put on the tears as Bill Clinton was so adept at doing. When he attended the funeral of Ron Brown one of his cabinet members who had supposedly died in a plane crash, but later the autopsy report showed a bullet hole in his skull, Bill Clinton was shown on camera laughing and telling jokes as he was walking up the lane toward the funeral proceedings, but when he spotted the camera, he suddenly put on the tears and looked so pitiful, and sorrowful. But his hypocrisy was exposed to the world, or at least to those with an open mind to discern what had just taken place.
No, that is not what the apostle Paul is telling us here to do. But He is telling us that we should be empathetic, Sympathetic, compassionate, and kind hearted. And that is what true fellowship is all about, because if you are truly in the same boat together, you are not sitting at opposite ends of the boat, but you are rowing together, or you are bailing together, or you are sailing together. But you are together whether in fair weather or foul, calm waters or rough. You are together facing the same trials of the sea or the same beauty and calm of the waters.
1 John 1:7 tells us if we walk in the
light as He is in the Light, we have
fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from al
sin. And in the Book of Amos
we read, AMOS
3:3
Can two walk together, except they be agreed? So it is not just that
you are both walking or have your walk in Christ, but the key here is that you are
walking together. For if you are both in Christ, you are together in Christ. John
said, if we walk
in the light as He is in the Light,
we have fellowship one with another. And if we are walking as He (Christ)
walked then we are living for one another, and not just for self.
Now, as brother Branham would say, “if you don’t like being with me now, what are you going to do over there?” Did you know that Brother Branham even got onto Meda for not being open and friendly enough?
From
the message FROM
THAT TIME 60-0331 E-20 he
said, Here
sometime ago, I was with my wife downtown. Some lady said, "Hello there,
Sister Branham." And I said to her, "Didn't--didn't you speak to that
lady?" She said, "I spoke." I said, "I never heard you, and
I'm sure she didn't." "Oh," she said, "I--I smiled." And
I said, "Now, honey, a little old silly grin don't take the place of 'How
do you do' or something." Oh, you know, people are too cold with one
another today. We're just--today--used to be you could go out, and--and
somebody get sick, the neighbors would come in and help them. Had real
fellowship. But today, you don't know your neighbor's dead unless you read it
in the paper. There's something there; the people are getting too far away from
one another. We need fellowship, God be merciful to us.
And what brother Branham was saying to Meda is that you’ve got to express it if you really mean it. That’s not putting on the dog, but it means to exert some energies of your own to let the people know you really care.
Now, listen, I wouldn’t blame Sister Meda one little bit for being that way, because right after I preach I get sort of melancholy and withdrawn, and I could stay that way if not for coming out to greet the people. Always it’s that way with me. And my wife knows it, and she often reminds me I need to get back to greet you all as you are leaving for my sake and for yours.
It’s one thing to preach on the beauty and peace and joy that comes from the Presence of the Lord, and speak on the Hope of the believer, and the promises of God to the believer not only in this life, but in the ages to come. It’s easy to preach those kind of sermons and then go to the back and shake all your hands, but you don’t need the handshake then. You are already lifted up into heavenly places, and are rejoicing in your heart. But when the Word strikes sometimes it comes with an awful sting, to me first and then to you. Moses had to eat what the people ate. Moses suffered what the people suffered. Moses had to wander forty years right along with everyone else. He suffered the hardships of all for all, and Moses had to listen to the rebuke first from God all by himself and then he had the task of bringing that rebuke to the people. And I hope no-one here is simple minded enough to think Moses enjoyed the task.
It isn’t easy to be a messenger from God, because God must first deliver to you the message with all it’s force and severity and then you must relay it in the same way you received it. Because if you don’t you are not a faithful messenger. And did you know Brother Branham said that your pastor is the messenger to the church?
REVELATION BOOK OF
SYMBOLS 56-0617 57 Your pastor, when
he stands here on the platform, ministering the Word of God, he is God's angel
to the church, messenger to the church. Therefore, a pastor should never leave
that Word, but stay straight with the Word, …
And you know that Moses suffered every bit as much as the people suffered. You think Moses enjoyed forty years in the wilderness of sin? Do you think he enjoyed the grumblings and fussing of the people those forty years. Would any of you have enjoyed that? I don’t think the is a man living that would put up with that. You’d all get tired of it and he was no different. I’m sure he grew to hate his job. Not his walk with the Lord but with the attitudes of the people who did not understand what was happening. The Bible tells us the Moses understood the way of God but the people only saw the actions of God.
PSALMS 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the
children of
You
know that reminds me of what I heard the other day about President Bush. He was
over in
Sometimes we expect things from each other that the other is not in the right atmosphere to produce, and it is our job to help get them there. Jesus came forth from the grave and went right to where the brethren were huddling together in fear, and He brought such a positive message to these people by overcoming Spirit and filled with joy and full of promise. His own trials and His crucifixion, and sufferings that His very presence gave them hope and joy, and peace and strength, and energized them and gave them life, and they left that upper room filled with His
And so this is what we are looking at this morning. How do we face our own trials and tribulations and yet overcome the atmosphere that those trials have created, to enter into an atmosphere that is positive and joyful not only to ourselves but to our fellow man as well.
King
Solomon wrote in the book of ECCLESIASTES 3:1 ¶ To every [thing there is] a season, and a
time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up [that which is] planted; 3 A time to
kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to
embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 A time to rend, and a
time to sew; a time to keep silence, and
a time to speak; 8 A time to love,
and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. 9 What profit hath
he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to
be exercised in it. 11 ¶ He hath made
every [thing] beautiful in his time:
also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work
that God maketh from the beginning to the end. 12 I know that [there is] no
good in them, but for [a man] to
rejoice, and to do good in his life. 13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all
his labour, it [is] the gift of God. 14
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be
put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth [it], that [men] should
fear before him. 15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath
already been; and God requireth that which is past.
Now, notice the Solomon in all his wisdom is telling us that there are times when only weeping will do, and laughter will not, and yet there are times for laughter and not for weeping, and so when the Apostle Paul tells us Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep he is letting us know that there are times when it is appropriate to weep and there are times when it is appropriate to laugh.
Therefore, the atmosphere and timing of our rejoicing and weeping is a crucial element in creating a positive atmosphere. And so the question must come to our minds, “How do we know when to rejoice and when to weep”? If a group of people are saddened to the point of weeping because of some tragic event that has taken place, you don’t help the situation by laughing, because your laughter would not be received very well, and would be taken as an insult to those people and their feelings.
Just the same if everyone is happy and joyful, you won’t get anywhere with them if you come around with a sullen look and sad disposition. So then what is the key that Paul is speaking here to us? It can’t be found in this verse alone, but if we will read the next verse we will find our answer.
ROMANS
In other words, if you are of the same mind toward one another then your relationship to them will not be one-sided. Your presence will be as precious as their presence to you. The words you speak will be in one accord and of one mind. And so they will be happy to be with you because you have the same mindset as they have. That is why John could say in 1 John 2:19, they went out from us because they were not of us , for if they had been of us they would no doubt continued with us, but they went out, that it might be made manifest that they were not of us. And that is not a mean spirited thing for John to say, nor is it a mean spirited thing for anyone to say. Because simply put he is telling us if they had the same mind as we do, towards the word and towards each other, they would not have gone out, but the fact that they have gone out shows that they were not of us to begin with.
They didn’t have the same mind toward us or toward the Word that we have. And that is why they left. They were not comfortable believing like we believe, and being around a people who believe a like precious faith.
Now, look that works two ways. I left the Catholic church when I came to the Message. And they had every right to say, he went out from us because he was not of us, for had he been of us he would no doubt have remained with us, but he went out that it might become manifested that he was not of us. And then after being in a So Called Message church for several years I left that one because I did not feel I belonged to that group and I did not hold to their beliefs. So they then said, and if they were to say that I went out because I was not of them, I would have to agree. I wm not of the same mind as they and thus my departure from their church just saved us all the grief that comes with disagreement over the word of God.
So the issue then is having the same mind, and there is only one mind worth having and that is the mind of Christ. There is an old expression, “Birds of a feather flock together” and so every seed will bring forth after its own nature.
I CORINTHIANS
13 Which things also
we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth; (You see its not my the things I say or you say that
counts but its what God has said about it.) comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually
discerned. (Now if the natural man cannot receive them then there is
but one thing for him to do and that is to reject them, and that is why they go
out from the presence of the Lord, and those who are walking in His Presence,
and who do understand and know the mind of God. That is what Cain did. He
walked out from the presence of God, and killed the man of God who God had told
him to be like.)
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But
we have the mind of Christ.
Paul
also said, in PHILIPPIANS
2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus:
Now, if having the mind of Christ is the key to fellowship and harmony and rejoicing together and weeping one with another, then let us put on the mind of Christ. Then in order for that to happen you have to be willing to let your own thinking go. And that is what repentance is all about. The word repent means to change your thinking.
ROMANS
I CORINTHIANS 1:9 God [is] faithful,
by whom ye were called unto the
fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (Now if God has
called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, then there is a way that
we are to enter into that fellowship. And Paul gives us the answer in the next
verse.) 10 ¶ Now
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and [that]
there be no divisions among you; but [that]
ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
And
even the Apostle Peter spoke on this wise in I PETER 4:1 ¶
Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind:
for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
And so having the same mind is how we can rejoice with one another and weep with one another. Its then not a matter of know how, nor is it a matter of timing nor is it a matter of educating yourself with the customs and nuances of each other, but simply of identification with the same revelation. Anointed with the same Spirit of the living God and walking in the light as He is in the Light, and that is what brings us into fellowship and gives us ability to rejoice when others rejoice and weep when they weep. Because we have the same mind and are in one accord with the Author and finisher of our faith.
Let
us bow our heads in prayer. Dear Gracious Father we are so thankful that you
have made it possible for a people to have the same mind. For you have said to
us, if we be any otherwise minded you would reveal to us what we have need of
and we are grateful for those words of promise to us. Now, Father ii is my
desire that you would anoint this people here and those who would hear ht
esound of my voice or read these words on paper or throughout the world thorugh the medium of
the internet, that you would bring us to that one Mind which si the Mind you
placed in your Son, and may we have no will but your will, and speak no words
but Your Words, and do no actions but whay You would have us to do, for we ask
this in the precious name of Jesus Christ our Older brother, who was the
example set before us of how we should conduct ourselves as your sons and
daughters, for we ask it father for thy Glory. Amen.