 Right over there in Ecclesiastes chapter number seven just to start out with verse number two in Ecclesiastes chapter seven some interesting verses here That say some things that are contrary to what a lot of people in the world would probably think to be true Look at verse two of Ecclesiastes chapter number seven there it says it is better to go to the house of mourning Then to go to the house of feasting for that the house of feasting is the end of all men and the living will lay it to heart Verse three sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of Murph so here in this these verses here we see a claim that Say sorrow and sadness and mourning things that we look at is a bad thing are actually better than happiness These things have a they have benefits to them that happiness Cannot give and this is even something that we see here later in Ecclesiastes chapter seven in verse 14 It says in the day of prosperity be joyful whether in the day of adversity consider God also have said one over against the other to the end the man should find nothing after him So God has given us here It's saying that mourning and sadness is better than happiness But God has given us in life good times and he's given us bad times each for a purpose needs so we can learn special things from and it says in the day of adversity consider and the Bible is claiming that there are there are things that can be learned and gained from sorrow That we cannot gain in happiness And so this evening or this afternoon the title of the sermon is the gift of sorrow I'd like to give you five advantages according from the word of God on Experiencing sorrow that happiness cannot give and in fact, you know, we're celebrating Christmas today and tomorrow And this is even something you know God. It's a part of life. So I was a part of life It's it's something that must happen and you don't have to turn there We're gonna go to this verse later and learn something else from it But in Luke chapter 2 we read it this morning, but Luke chapter 2 when Simeon is blessing Baby Jesus he says specifically to Mary it says in Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary So he's specifically speaking to Mary here He says behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel That's a bad thing and for a sign which shall be spoken against and then he says this story says yay A sword shall pierce through that own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed We're gonna look at this later in the sermon, but here just as an overview overview He's telling her you know this this child is is obviously we know Jesus Christ came to pay for the salvation of all mankind And there was enormous good that came out of that, but there was some sorrow that had to happen There was gonna be some persecution there was gonna be people speaking against yes There was gonna be many rising again There's gonna be many people who were saved but like we talked about this morning when you have division There are some people who will also fall and he says to Mary here He says a sword shall pierce through that own soul also speaking to just the personal sorrow that she will face of Seeing her son go through everything. He did and all the suffering that he did So even in the Christmas story there had to be sorrow in order for good to come So turn to Psalm chapter 119 Some chapter 119 So like I said this evening we're talking about the gift of sorrow in five advantages of Experiencing and going through it you know we're going on a new year here and you know if If you didn't experience any sorrow in the past year, maybe you will in in this coming year Hopefully, you know, hopefully not entirely, but it's a part of life. It does happen The first thing this evening or this afternoon. Sorry. I want to look at about sorrow is that we see that sorrow teaches Sorrow teaches you there in someone Psalm 119 look at verse 71 The Bible says this it is good for me that I have been afflicted. Why why is it good? Affliction is bad. It's painful. No one wants to go through it. Why is it good? He says that I might learn my statutes This person here. I believe David wrote Psalm 119, but we don't know that for sure But here this person says he went through sorrow He went through affliction, but he describes it as a good thing because of not the experience of going through it But rather what he learned from it in the end Turn to 2nd Peter 1 5 2nd Peter 1 verse 5 Well, you're turning well radio Romans 5 3 through 4 This is a verse pastor reads often and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that Tribulation work with patients and patients experience and experience hope How are you? How are you going to get experience without tribulation? You're not there are certain things that in order to fully understand and to fully learn You have to go through some bad things to get there There's a sermon from Dr. Jack Hiles I remember listening to last year that I thought was interesting the title the sermon was God's still on the throne and the premise of his sermon was that Many people in bad times come and we'll look at this a little more later But when bad times come Some people will say well if it's not turning out the way I thought God must not be in it If it doesn't seem like God's blessing it God must not be in it if it's difficult God must not be in it And his premise of the sermon just for context was that no even if things are hard even if things are difficult God is still in the throne that doesn't mean that God's not in it Maybe you just have to go through some difficulty To to get there and there's a quote I want to read you from that sermon where he kind of describes his mentality a lot of people have and I think it's it really Really gets across the idea that in order to learn certain attributes that you need as a Christian in order to Understand certain things you have to go through suffering you have to go through sorrow He says this quote you want to crown with no cross You want a victory with no battle you want a resurrection with no death you want to cure with no illness You want a rainbow with no storm you want deliverance with no bondage you want an empty tomb with no Calvary You want to quenching with no thirsting you want the promised land with no wilderness You want your waves calm with no storm you want revelation with no Patmos You want to sunrise with no darkness you want a solution with no problems you want perseverance with no hardships You want an upper room with no Gethsemane All these things here. He's just listing in the Bible just rattling off that hey, these were good things These are necessary things down to salvation, but there had to be suffering There had to be sorrow to get there and so is in life They're in 2nd Peter 1 look at verse 5 2nd Peter 1 verse 5 and beside this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue And to virtue knowledge and to knowledge Temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness And do godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity for if these things be in you and abound They make you that you shall never be buried nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord Jesus christ So he's sort of explaining here the steps of a christian life of a christian maturing And and the end he said the end goal is that hey if you can master these things if you can get these things down You won't be unfruitful in the knowledge of jesus christ. You'll be a You'll be a valuable christian who does great things for god But they involve things he says you want temperance. Do you want patience? What you can't get either of those things without being tried In order to get patience you have to have that patience tested in order to get temperance You have to have that tested by some things that maybe aren't fun to go through but are necessary Here's a similar example in matthew 23 23 you don't have to turn there Jesus says to the Pharisees here he describes what what's known as the weighty matters of the law where You have the Pharisees and they had all the little things down and they had all the all the specifics of the law down Which jesus describes those things weren't wrong to keep But they were doing those things and missing the more important things out of god's law He says woe unto you ascribes and Pharisees hypocrites For you pay tie the mint and anise and cumin and they have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgments mercy And faith These all you have to done so you say all the other things you're doing you ought to have done those things There's nothing wrong with that, but you ought to have done those things and not to leave the other undone And here he says these three things judgment mercy and faith the weightier matters of the law And none of these things you can't have any of these attributes Without going through sorrow of some kind You can't learn proper judgment until you deal with bad people You're not going to learn mercy until you have people do you wrong and you decide to forgive them And you can't have faith in god until you're in a situation where You've lost complete control and have no other choice So all these things here there are things we need as a christian There are things that we we will use But we have to go through sorrow to get them sorrow teaches Teaches us very valuable things You say well, I don't want sorrow right no one does no one wants sorrow and no one wants difficulty But the idea here is that you will need it because it will teach you attributes That you will need in the christian life Especially as the world gets worse and people get worse and persecution Arises these are things that you must have So it's better to go through the sorrow now and get them so that you are prepared When you actually need to use those attributes and rely on them in your christian life So first this afternoon we see that sorrow. What's the the sorrow is a gift It's a gift that god gives us that that we can learn things from What are the what are the benefits of sorrow? What are the attributes we can get from it? Well one we saw that sorrow teaches Turn to loop chapter two Loop chapter two the second thing we see this afternoon is that sorrow reveals Sorrow reveals here's this verse. I read earlier, but we'll just we'll we'll go through it one more time Sorrow reveals look verse 24 and simian blessed them and said unto Mary his mother behold this child Is said don't miss this for the fall and arising again of many in israel And for a sign which shall be spoken against Yes, sword shall pierce through thine own soul also Then look at this phrase. He says at the end. Why see I mean, why are all these things going to happen? Why are people going to fall? Why are some going to rise again? Why? Why is there things that will be spoken against? Why? Why is this why are we going to see all this happen? He says that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed See jesus came to earth and like pastor mentioned this morning He came to divide he came to Separate essentially the clean from the unclean to separate those who believe the truth from those who would not those who were against it and So there's a lot of sorrow here. There's a lot of sorrow even in jesus's life. There's a lot. He went through There's there's a lot. His disciples would go through. There's a lot that christians would go through for centuries After he he went back into heaven But you say what's it all for what did it do it it revealed where people were at It revealed who who is faithful to god and who was not The idea being that sorrow will reveal who people really are including yourself Uh including you know us in our lives if we really want to see Sometimes it's easy to do a lot of people will pass judgment on other people But then what they will they will save themselves from that where they won't look at themselves in the mirror And see where they're at spiritually we all tend to do this And so hey if you go through sorrowful time Just with yourself personally that can reveal who you are to yourself and show where you need to improve in your christian life turn to matthew 13 Because really when when sorrow happens in someone's life when difficulty happens There's really two ways people respond Either they it's sort of a fork in the road and I believe god does this intentionally where he Sort of puts people in front of this fork on the road where they it's they choose one path of the other But when sorrow comes people tend to either run to god And use that to get more spiritual and grow more and pray more Or they can run away from god they can backslide they can give up they can quit the christian life Um, it seems it seems to sort of be like a fork in the road that god puts there for people And so let's look at a good example of this and let's look at a bad example of this As sorrow reveals who people are what are the two ways people typically respond? Well, let's look at a bad example first do there in matthew 13 look at verse 18 Jesus says here are you there for the parable of the sower When anyone here at the word of the kingdom and understand at the knot Then come with the wicked one and catch of the way that which was sewn in his heart This is he which received seed by the wayside when he that received the seed into stony places The same as he that here at the word and end on with joy receive of it Yet he hath not root in himself don't miss this but doreth for a while For when tribulation or persecution, this is the sorrow Arise it because of the word By and by he is offended Verse 22 he also that received seed among the thorns as he here at the word in the care of this world And the deceitfulness of riches choked the word and it and he become unfruitful So verse 22 we see someone who was riches and it was It was kind of the sort of the lure of this world that made him leave the christian life But verse 21 is something someone who left the christian life just because of the sorrow that came from it When tribulation came when the hard times came this is the person who went to took the wrong path This is the person who ran away from god who stopped who quit the christian life You know and usually good times are Even throughout the bible good times are typically cited as a cause for backsliding and this is true But so can sorrow sorrow can have the same effect if we don't make sure that we respond in the correct way You don't have to turn there, but i'll give you a good example in lamentations 3 39 through 41 The bible says wherefore doth a living man complain you think why why does a man why do men complain Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the lord Let us lift up our heart with our hands Unto god in the heavens now sorrow can come as a chastisement of god in our lives But can also just come as is god trying us in either way this verse is saying when these things come Instead of complaining Let's let's search let's try our ways and let's turn again to the lord I think personally i think if anything bad happens in our life We should take that time we should look at ourselves and in reflect on our lives and see is this something Is this because of something i've done is this is this a chastisement of god or is this just a trial but either way that is an opportunity for us to To search and try our ways to look at ourselves and either way to turn towards the lord in that time It doesn't have to be the judgment of god necessarily But either way respond the right way Turn to first king's 27 So sorrow teaches but sorrow reveals it will reveal who you really are Inside as the in the same way is the word of god in more in general divides People and it reveals who people are like in hebra as it says The word of god is quick and sharper than any two edges sword and you know It reveals the thoughts and the intents of the heart. That's what the word of god does But when you take that you use that to reflect on yourself What will it find what will you find in your life if you use those sorrowful times to learn and to grow? So sorrow teaches sorrow reveals Third this evening. I want to look at this sorrow humbles sorrow humbles You're there in first king's 21. So just for context here Ahab of course has been Living a very wicked life the bible says that up to this point in israel there were kings that were worse than ahab But up to this point. He was the worst one. He was the worst one They had had yet he had done all sorts of evil things together with his wife Jezebel and here the bible is doing sort of some poetic justice here where Currently if you remember the story of Naboth where he had him and Jezebel Ahab wanted this vineyard. He wanted this property that was near to his palace And the man wouldn't give it to him because he was following the law the you know the customs of the of the law in israel And so ahab and his wife end up murdering the man They end up falsely accusing him and and you know it was more jezebel in the sense that she's the one who carried it out But ahab ahab authorized it so to speak he let it happen He knew it was going to happen and he He essentially was a part of this this assisted murder here of this man And here ahab is currently in Naboth's vineyard. This is where he is right now. He's gone to take possession of it He's in the vineyard. He's sort of I imagine he thinks he got away with it I feel like god does this with us sometimes right when we think we got away with something or we think we're in the clear This is when uh, this is when god comes to rebuke us because here ahab's in the vineyard He's taking possession of it. He's thinking finally i got away with it And then elijah comes to him to rebuke him And elijah comes to him and he gives him this prophecy of your wife's gonna die and your whole family's going to be wiped Out this this curse upon him look at verse 27 and you know ahab some people think he was Unsaved some people think he was a reprobate that really is irrelevant here But just look at verse 27 and it came to pass when they have heard these words That he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly First one again the word of the lord came to elijah the tishbite saying see is thou don't miss this how ahab Humble it himself before me Because he humbled it himself before me and again maybe he was unsaved maybe he was more maybe he had rejected god He is a reprobate but either way this sorrow that was put against him Humbled him to the point where god says because of this Because of the fact that he finally humbled himself before me I will not bring evil in his days When in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house god still ended up killing ahab for his sins Ahab ended up dying just a little while later But this certain curse of his whole family being wiped out He says because of the fact that he humbled himself here i'll at least make it so he does not have to see that That can happen in his son's days So this is another beauty of sorrow in general It will humble you in times of sorrow it will it will it will bring us off our high horse and it will um It will as we reflect on our lives. It will humble us turn to isaia 57 Isaiah chapter 57 Sorrow will show a prideful person That they're not as great and powerful as they thought they were this can be with us this can be with anyone Because few things will end up humbling somebody More than sorrow there's a lot of things that can cause someone to be humbled Maybe they uh, they're rebuked by someone or they hear they hear the word of god in some way But few things will do it more than actual sorrow happening in their their actual personal life And you say okay. Well, it'll make me humble. What's the benefit of being humble? Why why is that a good thing? Well, there's a couple things we're going to see in this verse here But the benefit to being humble is god will revive you So you've gone through sorrow now you're humble Well, ironically that humility the bible says will revive you and it will help end the very sorrow that gave it Look at there at isaia 57 verse 15 Isaia 57 15 For thus say it the high lofty one that that inhabit eternity whose name is holy Here's god speaking i dwell in the high and holy place With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit Notice this to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones god says This is the person i dwell with this is the person i am with the most is someone who's humble They're contrite and they are the ones. They're the ones whose spirit i am going to revive Verse 16 for i will not contend forever Neither will i always be wroth for the spirit should fail before me in the souls which i have made This verse reminds me of uh, i'm afraid in the exact reference, but there's a verse in psalms where David mentions you know god god when he's when he's uh Testing us or punishing us he he takes it easy on us because he remembers He knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust god realizes that if his If his wrath or his his trials that he let happen in our life if he let those go on forever We wouldn't make it. We wouldn't get through it. Um And here god is saying that he's saying i won't contend forever I won't always be angry. I won't always be wroth for the spirit should fail before me in the souls Which i have made It's why ironically when sorrow happens in our life if we use that Among these other things to humble ourselves that humility Can get his extra mercy from god and that that can i that can actually end up ending the sorrow That caused our humility in the first place You don't have to turn there, but psalm 51 17 says this the sacrifices of god saying here's what god really wants Are a broken spirit A broken and a contrite heart of god that will not despise I can guarantee you this i don't know What you may go through in your life or why But i can guarantee you that if you get to the point where you have a broken spirit I love that phrase a broken spirit in your life where you are at the bottom of the barrel you are you are humble You are brought low And you have a broken and a contrite heart Here it says god god will not despise that god God will help you in that in that situation Humility will do a great job of bringing you closer to god in times of sorrow And something else i thought was interesting here I have a quote here from a Scientific study just i just thought this was an interesting study that they did it's from a scientific magazine But not only will humility help your relationship with god, but it'll also help your relationship with other people as well This is a study that they did i just got this from a scientific magazine and says uh this quote In one study participants who first viewed happy or sad films Were unexpectedly asked to go and request a file from a person In a neighboring office and quote so basically they they did this study where they took Apparently in an office setting where they took some people and they had them watch a happy film And some people watch a sad film and then they had them go Just do a routine task of of getting something from someone or asking Getting a file from from somebody else It goes on to say quote their requests Were surrepetitiously recorded by a concealed tape recorder And analysis showed that the sad mood because you have some people in the sad mood because they watch the sad film And some people who are in a better mood a happy mood It says analysis showed that the sad mood produced more polite elaborate and hedging requests Whereas those in a happy mood used more direct and less polite strategies So not just just in addition to your relationship with God being improved If you are in a time of sorrow and you can use that to to uh to get humble and to exercise humility With that humility you just might find yourself treating other people better and be more polite to be more kind Which I thought was was sort of interesting So we were looking at How does sorrow help us? How does sorrow Benefit in our lives well the first way is it teaches it'll it'll teach us Attributes that we will need in the christian life that we will use um, but in addition to that we saw it refined or i'm sorry it um It teaches us it Uh shows us a lot of different things, but it also refines sorrow refines So I want to look at the concept of the purging and refining of a christian because sorrow and it isn't everything else in addition to the humility and in addition to Um showing us who we are as ourselves and as a self-reflection tool It's a powerful tool that God can use to burn the sin and fill the thought of our lives You don't have to turn there, but um actually turn to Deuteronomy 28 but Job chapter 21 and verse 17 says this How often does the candle the wicked put out and how often come at their destruction upon them? God distributed sorrows in his anger So god can also use sorrow if he's angry with us or we have because the bible mentions god god When the chastisement of god god doesn't want to punish us But he does it because he wants to use us for a greater purpose He wants a clean vessel to use for his work And so if we have sin or error or problems in our life that are standing between us and goals god has for our lives God's gonna god can potentially use sorrow to and even in anger To correct us and to get us closer to the christian. He wants us to be You're there in Deuteronomy 28 look at verse 63 Deuteronomy 28 63 And it shall come to pass the bible says that as the lord rejoiced over you to do you good And to multiply you so the lord will to rejoice over you to destroy you And to bring you to naught and he shall be plucked off from the land whether thou go as to possess it And the lord shall scatter thee among all people. There's a lot of sorrow here We're reading about from the one end of heaven even earth even unto the other And there thou shalt serve other god as you neither thou nor thy fathers have known Even wood and stone and among these nations shalt thou find no ease Neither shall the soul of thy foot have rest But the lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and a failing of eyes and don't miss this a sorrow of mind In thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shall have none assurance of thy life In the morning thou shalt say would god it were even and that even thou shalt say would god it were morning For the fear of thine heart were with thou shalt fear in the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see You say why would god give them sorrow just to hurt them for for no reason? Well turn to Deuteronomy 4 Deuteronomy chapter number four God can in addition to everything else we looked at god can give us sorrow in our life because he wants us to attain a higher level of spirituality He has we have things in our life because no one's perfect We have things in our life that that god wants out of the way. He wants a cleaner vessel He wants to purge us And god knows that sorrow with us is a very effective tool of doing that You don't have to turn there. You should be in Deuteronomy 4, but Psalm 1967 says this before I was afflicted I went astray But now have I kept thy word So you're the author is saying, you know I before I was afflicted I'd been afflicted But before then before the affliction before the sorrow I went astray I had issues in my life I wasn't following god But now that I was afflicted now that I had to deal with some sorrow Now all that I kept god's word If they're in Deuteronomy 4 look at verse 30 I'm going to show you that this idea of sorrow refining is actually an enormous blessing in our life if we use it properly Deuteronomy 4 30 When thou art in tribulation so Just just highlight this in your bible write it down this when you say are you in tribulation? Well, here's a manual for what to do. Here's direct instructions on what to do when you are in tribulation When thou art in tribulation and all these things that come upon thee even in the latter days If thou turn to the lord thy god and shall be obedient unto his voice so here again Just as a side note here we see this is assuming you've taken the right path of the fork in the road This is assuming that when you get to that sorrow in your life And there's the option of quitting on god and getting backslidden or getting closer to god and following him harder This is assuming that you've chosen to follow god This is assuming you've chosen to keep his commandments even in the sorrow Verse 31 for the lord thy god is a merciful god He will not forsake thee neither destroy thee nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he swear unto them For ask now of the day that are passed which were before thee Since the day the man create god created man on the earth and asked from the one side of heaven Under the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing or hath been heard like it What great thing verse 33 did ever people hear the voice of god? Don't miss this phrase speaking in the midst of the fire As thou hast heard and lived verse 35 The phrase repeats Under thee it was showed that thou might know that the lord he is god for there is none else beside him Your god saying, you know, maybe you just need to get to know me a little better Verse 36 out of the heaven He made that he hear his voice that he might instruct thee there's that there's that teaches again And upon earth he showed thee here's the same phrase his great fire And thou hurtest his words out of the midst of the fire You see at this this whole this this group of verses here It's all centered around this idea of hey when you're in these hard times when you're in tribulation Realize what a blessing it is and how unbelievable It is how rare it is that you get to hear the voice of god out of the fire And obviously in this sense they literally heard the voice of god out of the fire There was a pillar it was a cloud by day and it was a pillar of fire by night They literally heard god speaking to them out of a fire Think about how amazing it is But i would profess that what we have is even greater than that Because although they had a literal fire they had god speaking to them out of a real physical pillar of fire We figure to live figuratively have the same thing Because there are few places you'll hear the voice of god more clearly Then out of the storms and the fires and the sorrow of life There are fewer times when you'll be paying more attention It will be listening more closely and following more closely what god wants you to do Then out of the when everything around he was burning in this on fire What an amazing opportunity as a christian Turn to job 23 Job 23 Job 23 look at verse 8 I think joe put it well here Job 23 verse 8 he says Behold I go forward, but he is not there speaking about god And backward and I cannot perceive him On the left hand where he does work. I cannot behold him He hid it himself on the right hand that I cannot see him But so job saying you know, I don't know why god's doing this I don't know what he's doing or why he's doing but he says here's what I do know though But but he know what the way that I take and when he tried me say I don't know what's going on But I know that when it's all over and god's done trying me He says I shall come forth as gold My foot hath held the steps See here's how here's how we ought to respond when even if we don't know why god's doing what he's doing Even if we don't understand everything we need to trust that he knows the way that we're taking And here's how we should respond my foot hath held his steps his way if I kept and not declined Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips notice this He says I have esteemed the words of his mouth More than my necessary food He's saying you know even in the midst of this sorrow and this difficulty I esteem god's word I esteemed his commandments more than the food I need to physically survive So there's a lot of faith here because it does require faith because In times of sorrow you're most likely not going to know what's going on You're not going to there's going to be probably a lot of uncertainty there in your life You're not going to maybe you won't understand why god's doing it But you can have the assurance at least that when you're when you regardless of why you're going through it When you're done going through it if you respond correctly You'll come forth as gold You'll come forth a better christian than you were before Turn to lamentations three Lamentations chapter three So just as a recap We see that sorrow the sorrow is a gift that is the claim I'd like to make this afternoon sorrow is a great And here's what out here's the points I'd like to convince you of that with sorrow it teaches we saw that it reveals It'll teach you things you need to know It will reveal where you need to change and reveal who you are and reveal who you should become It'll humble you which will give you mercy from god and it'll help end the sorrow Sorrow refines and that it will make you better. It will it will bring you closer to god It will it will clean your life up. It will it will do you good in that sense But last last this afternoon Sorrow ends Sorrow ends lamentations three look at verse 31 The bible says this for the lord will not cast off forever But though he caused grief God will god may cause grief in your life He may cause things to happen whether it's castisement because we've made a mistake or we've turned against god in some way Or whether it's just god testing us and trying us because he wants us to be better Though he caused grief. It's not it's not beating around the bush there Though he caused grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies verse 33 For he does not afflict willingly Or agree the children of men I think this is important to understand that if you are going through difficulty Even if we're being punished for for something we've done or chastised god doesn't want to do that God doesn't want to chastise us or punish us god rather is just get right and not have to not have to go through the chastisement Even ironically this is why the bible says god is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Ironically even the reprobate that is rejected god and goes to hell because of his crimes against a holy and just god Even that reprobate god at one point just wanted to believe and get saved That was his plan god's plan wasn't that someone would reject Plan wasn't someone would choose not to believe and although they didn't reject him and they weren't reprobate If they end up going to hell to pay for their sins themselves, that wasn't god's plan God died god literally died for them I remember i was talking years ago i was talking with someone to work about this and they said are you telling me that That uh that a muslim or a buddhist who who they're really they're they're really good uh He said you know many muslims have met they're really good people and i said i agree i run into muslims and they seem very nice He says are you telling me that even that muslim or that that buddhist they How was that fairy said if they die and they go to hell because they did not believe in jesus Would god really do that how was that fairy said? It's fair because even that muslim Who dies without christ and goes to hell with that buddhist or whoever it is God loved that muslim enough to die for him on the cross That muslim there's a there's so to speak if you want to think of a physical example They went to hell and there was sort of a a get out of hell free card that they just left on the table God paid for that god god purchased that ticket for them He paid for their sins and it was all thrown away for nothing because they didn't use it That's not god's fault God loved that person enough even the jeffrey dalmers and the serial killer that that will burn in hell for all eternity Even the hitlers and the stallings god paid for their sins so they wouldn't have to go there, but they rejected him anyway That's not god's fault So compared to us we're saved we're obviously never going to go to hell But if we come across chastisement or trials in our life, we got to realize god doesn't do it willingly He's doing it because we are going to improve out of it if we respond correctly It's a tool that we can use to become Better christians and come and draw ourselves closer to god Turn to isaac 51 Psalm 30 verse 5 you don't have to turn there says this for his anger endured but for a moment In his favor his life we being may endure for a night But joy cometh in the morning But again if if in order for this to apply to us We have to respond to sorrow correctly There's no guarantee that that everything will turn out great And we're gonna come forth as gold and we're gonna reap all these benefits if we just sorrow came And we just turned our back on god. That's not how that works You're there in isaea I apologize turn to zia 54 not 51 zia 54 look at verse 10 Isaiah 54 10 the bible said for the mountain shall depart in the hills be removed My kindness shall not depart from thee Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed save the lord that have mercy on thee Look the mountains will depart The hills will be removed Sorrow is just a part of life it will come But if handled properly it can be a massive blessing look at verse 11 Oh, thou afflicted Tossed with tempest and not comforted Behold I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires Skip down to verse 14 In righteousness shall thou be established thou shall be far from oppression This is someone who was once afflicted who was once tormented and not comforted In righteousness thou shall be established And shall thou shall be far from oppression for thou shall not fear and from terror for it shall not come near thee Behold they shall surely gather together But not by me. Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake He's saying look there's going to be persecution people are going to gather themselves together against you Behold I've created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work And I've created the waster to destroy Verse 17 no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper for every tongue that shall rise against the judgment Thou shall condemn But notice this this this here. This is the heritage of not just anyone This is the heritage of the servants of the lord and their righteousnesses of me and say of the lord God's speaking is someone here who is afflicted. They're going through sorrow and he says hey all these blessings are going to happen to you You know, I'll get you through tribulation. I'll get you the persecution But this is the heritage of people who are servants of God who are serving him in these times Sorrow will come but if we can reap the benefits when it does Great blessings are in store last place. I'll have you turn to this afternoon Turn to john 16 John 16 While you're turning there, I'll read you Psalm 34 verse 17 Through 19 the bible says the righteous cry In the lord heareth Who does the lord hear the righteous? And deliver them out of all of their troubles. It's not saying they're not going to have troubles But it's saying if they're righteous in the god, god will hear The lord is nying to them that are of a broken heart. There's that humility again And save us such as be of a contrite spirit Many are the afflictions of the righteous. No one wants that part. No one wants all the afflictions No one wants the verse that says hey, you know, are you living a righteous life? Well, congratulations You won a prize. You're going to go through a lot of affliction. No one wants that But it says the lord deliver him out of them all Either in john 16 As we're celebrating christmas I thought this was an interesting example of this kind of similar with that passage we read in lute 2 Look at john 6 uh john 16 verse 20 so the the context is that This is uh, he's talking to his disciples, but this is right before the garden of Gethsemane And they're sorrowful because they don't understand. They don't know what's going on. They're confused They know he's leaving somewhere and they know that it's a bad thing that's happening But they don't know what they don't get it. He keeps jesus talking In terms that they won't understand until later And they're sorrowful and look what he says to them. He's here speaking about The the pain he is about to go through We celebrate christmas because god had been prophesying for thousands of years That one day someone would come to pay for the sins of mankind this great promise That god had to do himself because man could not do it that one day He would come for the purpose of what jesus is speaking about right here To be born to live a perfect life and to suffer terribly That mankind would have a chance to be saved. Look at verse 20 Verily verily that means truly truly. I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament It's gonna be a lot of sorrow you're gonna go through. He says but the world shall rejoice And ye shall be sorrowful You will go through pain. This is gonna be hard This is gonna be very sad and sorrowful for you, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy Similar to that quote from jack kiles, you know, you want a you want resurrection You want a great great things to happen in your life? You're gonna have to go through some sorrow It's part of life. It's gonna happen. You know in this new year I I can't tell you the balance but there's probably gonna be some amount of sorrow that you go through So when it comes, you know, it's gonna happen at some point. You know it it's going to happen Take that and use it as an opportunity to where Yeah, you may you may be sorrowful for a moment But that's sorrow if you respond right and you utilize that for for the to become a better christian That sorrow shall be turned into joy in the same way Is that all even around the the story of christmas? There was a lot of joy and happiness To the point where we had the joy of of the entire world having salvation That they did not deserve in the same way is that required a lot of sorrow Just remember that sorrow will come in your life, but if you can use that To a great advantage it won't last forever and it can be a great blessing in your life Let's bow our heads and have a word