Journey to Healing - The Path to Peace: Healing our Minds in His Presence Copy

May 13th, 2025
by South Bay Community Church

Copyright: South Bay Community Church
Speaker: Pastor Tammy Long
Scripture Text: John 11:30-39
Praise Song
Big Idea: Jesus enters our sorrows and griefs and weeps with us.

Sermon Summary:

Pastor Tammy noted that Mother’s Day brings a mix of emotions, joy and gratitude for some, but heartache and longing for others. She acknowledged that this day can stir celebration and sorrow, especially for those who have experienced loss, disappointment, or caregiving burdens. She reminded us that wherever we find ourselves, Jesus is present, seeing and caring for our unique joys and pains. Pastor Tammy noted that authentic restoration begins in Jesus’ presence, where He offers comfort for physical wounds and the deep heartaches and traumas that linger beneath the surface.

Drawing from John 11:30-39, Pastor Tammy reflects on the story of Jesus at Lazarus’s tomb, highlighting how Jesus was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” as He witnessed Mary’s grief and the mourning crowd. Jesus’s emotional response, His groaning and weeping, demonstrated a profound empathy and a holy anger against the pain and brokenness brought by death and sin—a dissonance between what is and what God intended. Rather than offering explanations or quick fixes, Jesus fully entered the sorrow, sharing in the grief and showing that God is not distant or indifferent but present and compassionate. His tears reveal a love so engaged with human suffering that it cannot help but be moved, reminding us that He weeps with us and walks with us through our pain.

Pastor Tammy drew a parallel between the tenderness of a mother’s love and the perfect, unfailing love of Jesus, inviting us to experience being deeply loved and never abandoned. Pastor Tammy shared these six images and asked us to consider as we prepared to meet Jesus: Which one spoke to us, and which one shows what our heart may need today?

The path to healing, Pastor Tammy concludes, starts not with the removal of pain but with inviting Jesus into our wounded places. Healing begins when we allow ourselves to be honest about our hurts and let Jesus sit with us in them, trusting that His presence is enough. Through practices like imaginative prayer and tangible reminders such as anointing oil, we are encouraged to experience the nearness of Christ, who collects every tear and binds up the brokenhearted. Even if circumstances do not change immediately, the assurance that we are deeply loved and never alone is itself a profound beginning to healing.

Discussion Questions
Head

What stands out about Jesus’ response to Mary and the mourners in John 11?
How does the passage challenge or deepen your understanding of God’s emotions and compassion?
What does it mean that Jesus is “deeply moved” and even angry at the effects of death and grief?
How might recognizing Jesus’ presence in our pain change how we view suffering or unanswered prayers?

Heart

Where do you most resonate with Mary or the mourners in this story?
Is there a place in your heart that aches, a wound, loss, or longing that you need to bring to Jesus today?
How does it feel to imagine Jesus weeping with you in your pain, not rushing to fix it but staying present?
What emotions surface when you consider that Jesus is not indifferent, but deeply moved by your suffering?

Hands

What is one step you can take this week to invite Jesus into a hurting place in your life?
How might you create space, through prayer, stillness, or community, to experience Jesus’ healing presence?
Is there someone you know who needs compassion and presence more than advice or solutions? How can you “weep with those who weep”?
Mothers, how could you use the anointing oil to invite God’s healing into your daily life or the life of someone you love?
How will you heed the call to become an agent of healing and comfort for others, embodying the wholeness Jesus brings to every part of our lives?