 Today, we're in chapter five. We're going to look at a very powerful subject. A subject I have to be honest with you as I bring it to you today. A subject that many people actually shy away from on a personal level. It's not that they don't want to learn these things, but many of us want to learn the things that we will see in this passage today. We want to learn those things by reading about them and hearing the stories that others have of what others have experienced. So we're going to be looking at what the Lord would have for us today in a passage found here in Matthew chapter five. And so we'll look at verse four. Matthew chapter five verse four. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. If there's anything that binds humanity together, it's that all of us in one form or another have suffered loss. All of us. We all experience it. We can experience loss. We experience disappointment, failure. We've all experienced a tragedy, a tragedy, fear, disappointment, sorrow that we wish that we could escape from. When we go through pain, we wish that it was something that we could actually hide from or just not have. We can go through a time of illness, prolonged illness, serious illness that causes us to cry out to God for help. One of the things that I love about the Psalms is they're very real. They're very authentic. You'll read many of the Psalms that were written by by David or others that basically bring a complaint to the Lord or a cry out to God for help. And one of those Psalms would be Psalm six. And notice what he says in verses two and three. He says, Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my body is in agony. I am sick at heart. How long, oh Lord, until you restore me. I mean, that's a common cry that many of us have had God. I've gone through this prolonged illness. I'm going through a time of heaviness of soul and and the pain is is causing me to go through a spiritual sense of depression. Lord, how long am I going to go through this? When are you going to deliver me? This kind of pain can cause us to go through a time of mourning over what we're experiencing. You see, some kinds of sorrow that we experience are simply the sorrows that are shared by all of humanity. They're things that are common to man. We have a loved one who dies or a friend who becomes ill. The company that we're working for downsizes or we personally go through an illness or one of our children becomes ill. These are the kinds of things that are simply part of living in this fallen world. They're common to all. There are other things that can result in mourning and it may be that the things that we begin to experience are the result really of poor choices that I've made because I can make some very poor choices and and sometimes I will begin to reap the consequences of choices that I've made and it causes me to be grieved to be greatly sorrowful. I can indulge my sinful passion, but I ultimately reap the consequences. I had a young lady years ago now approach me after a service and she said, pastor, can you pray for me? And I said, of course, what can I pray for? And she said, well, I was intimate with a young man. I think I'm pregnant. Can you pray for me? And I asked her, what do you want me to pray for? Are you asked me to pray that God will remove this child from your womb? Because there are those who will do something like that and and they end up saying, Oh, God, remove this from me or take this from me. But in reality, what happens is you reap the consequences of a poor choice. Galatians chapter six, verse seven says, don't be misled. Remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow. And that's true. If you sow to the flesh from the flesh, you reap corruption. And so if you sow through bad choices and bad behaviors to your flesh, you can reap the consequences and it can cause you to have a sense of sorrow and mourning. Well, when the sorrow that we experience is legitimate, that can be a sorrow that actually leads us to depth in our souls. Ecclesiastes chapter seven versus two through four says it like this. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting. For death is the destiny of everyone. The living should take this to heart. Frustration is better than laughter because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. But the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. You learn deeper lessons going to a funeral than to a banquet. That's the point he's making. Because every one of us who have gone to funerals have seen sorrow. We've seen the pain. We've seen the suffering. We've seen the agony. I began very early as a young boy to attend funerals. And I do remember the sorrow that I encountered as a young boy. I had a cousin named Richie. Richie was from Venice. And he was a heroin addict. And he happened to be a very special cousin to me. He was about 17 at the time. And Richie overdosed on heroin. And so I went to his funeral with my mom and dad and brother. And he had overdosed and died in a field, an empty field, and had laid there dead for several days. And so aunts had consumed his face. So he had a closed casket. He was the only son of my aunt, Tilly, and the light of her life. And I remember going to that funeral and being seated in that chapel and hearing the message and then going to the graveside and then seeing my aunt as she jumped on top of the casket before they put it in the ground and how that my dad and one of my uncles had to go and peel my aunt off that casket and then put their arms around her as she was screaming, Richie, Richie, Richie. And we've all seen something like that. We've all been around that. I was in a lot of parties, partied an awful lot. But I learned the deepest lessons going to funerals because sorrow deepens you because it awakens us to the fact that we only have one life to live. And as a Christian, I realized all that I do for Christ is what is going to remain. And so I ought to do those things for him. You learn great lessons through mourning. We can become more mature in times of sorrow than when things are going well. There's a poem, a poet by the name of Robert Browning Hamilton. And he said it this way. He said, I walked a mile with pleasure. She chatted all the way, but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow and narrow word said she, but all the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me, you learn deeper lessons when you go through tough times. And so there is a sorrow that the world understands. There's a sorrow that is common to all humanity. There's a sorrow that comes from simply being alive. There's a sorrow that comes from reaping the consequences of poor choices. In this particular passage, Jesus is giving to us another kind of sorrow. He's speaking of something that goes beyond those natural kinds of sorrows that we can experience. He's specifically speaking of what would be called godly sorrow. So this is a sorrow that someone who sincerely wants to follow him or belongs to him. This is that kind of sorrow that they can have. It's the kind of sorrow mentioned in 2nd Corinthians 710 where Paul calls it godly sorrow. He says godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death. And so Jesus is speaking about godly sorrow. Now in the first beatitude, remember how Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those rejoicing how happy, how greatly rejoicing are you when you realize your spiritual poverty. How blessed are you when you realize that you are a beggar crouching in a corner with their hand out asking for mercy from God because that's how you get saved. You see the only way someone can come to Christ is to first recognize that they are spiritually bankrupt. We can't bring anything to Christ other than the sins he forgives us for and we fall upon the ground before him. This is Christy Kennedy by the way. We fall on our faces before him in repentance asking for forgiveness. We are poor in spirit. I can't do it. I can't pay this bill. I need your help. God it's a spiritual a spiritual debt that I owe that I cannot pay. God be merciful to me a sinner. There's an old hymn that simply says nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross I cling. Well the second beatitude says blessed are those who mourn they shall be comforted. Blessed are you who mourn. That word mourn speaks of having great sorrow to grieve. It speaks of a deep inner agony. Now is this just the normal ability to grieve? No of course not. We can grieve over the wrong kinds of things. We can grieve because we missed a chance to sin. Somebody has harmed us and we're upset and there they are and I have perfect opportunity to take vengeance on them and I don't and later on I may regret that or have an opportunity to steal something man it's there out in the open nobody would see if I took it and then later on you can grieve because you didn't take advantage of that opportunity. You know before I got saved this ought to cause some of you to trust me mightily right now. I was a thief. That's what I was stole jackets stole t-shirts I'd sell the t-shirts and I'd buy drugs with them. Some of you did the same kind of thing. I was a thief and I have a friend of mine at names Bill and Bill and I have been friends since we were while we met each other in kindergarten. So we were five years old when I first became acquainted with a young little boy named Bill became my close friend as we grow older. So Bill and I you know we were a little hoodlums together you know as kids you know we stole wine and cars and you know normal kid stuff. He became a police officer 32 years in the police force and I became a pastor. Amazing when you think about it really amazing smoked dope together for the first time got drunk together for the first time I mean he was like a brother more than just a friend to me and we were little hoodlums together for a long time many years. Well he knew me very well. Bill got saved recently and a long story I'll make it short he got saved after he got saved he's been meeting with me he's been meeting with me now once a month for about three years two to three years and what Bill will do is he'll come to my office and he'll sit down and he comes with a friend of mine another friend that I've known since I was 14 names Bobby. So Bill will come and Bobby will come those two old men and me and Bill will take out a sheet of paper he always does the same thing he does this you'll go like this and he'll put it down on the table and it's two pages of questions and he will ask me question after question after question for two to two and a half hours every time he comes well what about this and what does this scripture mean about that so I've been discipling and mentoring and ministering to my dear friend who I've known since we were kids for about two or three years now so the first time he comes and he comes to with his questions I say to him you want to grab some lunch and so he Bobby and I go to a restaurant in the area and as we go to the restaurant we have our meal and we're leaving to come back here to the office as we're walking out of the restaurant we're going through this area where off to my right is a door an open door and straight through the door is the refrigerator and in the refrigerator is a large refrigerator in that refrigerator is all kinds of beer I mean all kinds of beer it's just stocked load of the beer so Bill and I the very first time that I'm meeting with them first time they would get together first time we go out for lunch we're walking out I look at that refrigerator and I look back down and he stops he says I know what you're thinking I go what he says you're thinking how easy it would be to get some of that beer aren't you yeah I said look at it man it's just in the open it's in the open Bill I said I could slide that I could get us some yeah he knew me from when I was 16 17 18 19 20 that's what I would have done he knew it and the first thing he does and we and I'm talking about Jesus he says look at that you want you could I don't want to steal that beer be sure would be easy it would be easy you know there are things that you I got saved and it got saved out of but there were times when I was younger that I I saw a truck and it was one of those trucks that carried cases of beer and and I would say to myself man he stacked those beers outside went into the store I could have taken a case and you can regret that even and I don't I don't I don't build us but what I'm saying is it's true you can you can say man I wish I would have taken vengeance man I should have stolen that should have slept with that person there there are a lot of things you could have done and then you say oh man I should have done that there's a possibility to grieve over the wrong kinds of things Jesus is of course not speaking of that he's he's speaking here over sorrowing over sin again the first beatitude you recognize spiritual poverty but now we mourn over our sin again that's a godly sorrow today people say why do you get so worked up over that's no big deal don't worry about it don't take it so seriously it's no big deal sin is sin everybody does it don't worry about it listen if a person has the idea that it's just a little sin and it doesn't matter they don't understand the cost what what Jesus paid when he died on the cross they don't they haven't learned yet to hate the sin to put them on the cross they haven't learned that yet if a person thinks that sin is small it's like kissing the tip of the spear that was plunged into the side of Christ when you don't see that sin put your savior on the cross and it's huge you have yet to understand the cost that Jesus paid to save you we ought to grieve over our sin it killed Jesus if you've been in this church for a while all of you know and if you haven't I'll share this briefly that my daughter Corinne many years ago made some very poor choices became pregnant out of wedlock she gave birth to a little boy who is my heart my Josiah and I love that baby with every beat of my heart I love him but my heart broke when her pregnancy came in the way that it did I came before the church and I shared and someone said more than one but someone said why is David so upset and the answer came from the person they asked because he's a righteous man and he grieves over sin I had people say to me or to us you're gonna love your grandson or granddaughter well guess what that never was in question that was never in question of course I'm gonna love that baby that's my baby I'd never deny that baby that's my baby of course I'm gonna love but please please don't think there's something wrong with me for grieving over the way that happened it broke my heart it ought to break your heart if you raised him to know Christ but when we minimize it it's no big deal 80% of some communities the girls are giving birth to babies out of wedlock what's the big deal the big deal is he first comes love then comes marriage and then comes Corinne with the baby carriage that's how it works very deep scripture right give you some wisdom from Solomon on that one but that's that's how it works do not minimize sin it's kissing the tip of the spear that was plunged into the side of Christ grieve over it it's wrong it's wrong and we ought to have a sorrow that's the step that comes after realizing your spiritual poverty blessed are those who mourn mourn over sin there are some in in pulpits today who preach a message that omits sin and it's having a terrible effect in the church I know of one particular man he's on TV he gives a message that has never uses the word sin it never speaks of holiness it never speaks of eternal judgment and never speaks of any of the cardinal things in scripture that you find when you read your Bible and at the end of every one of his segments he he says just pray this simple prayer with me and you can become a Christian he doesn't even preach repentance and yet people flock to his ministry want to hear there are people who occupy pulpits that omit the word sin repentance holiness and judgment and instead of encouraging people to be forgiven they actually are promising them blessings the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 14 would say they have also healed the herd of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace see the only way that you can have peace is when you mourn when you say God forgive me a sinner God be merciful to me I was raised as a Catholic many of you were too I went to the Latin mass and in a certain portion of the Latin mass we would smite our breast and in Latin we would say mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa how many of you have heard that before mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa my fault my fault my most grievous fault and that into my understanding of mourning over sin it isn't somebody else's blame it's not them it is me it is my fault you mourn over sin God forgive me a sinner King David if I say David and what's the next word that you would use David and Bathsheba right David and Bathsheba why the man wrote most of the Psalms if you open up your Bible read the 150 Psalms over 70 of those Psalms are written by David himself he is called the sweet Psalmist of Israel concerning David God himself said he is a man after my own heart and yet when you speak concerning David he was handsome he was powerful he was mighty he was a man's man but when you speak of King David and I say David and you don't say Goliath some did wrong Bathsheba David and Bathsheba why because that's what he's famous for in a time when kings went out to war David remained behind well his armies were out fighting battles he should have been leading he stayed in the palace and he's up there walking around looking down the hill in his palace and he sees a beautiful woman bathing and the blood begins to boil in this man and he says bring that woman to me and he is told is she not Bathsheba the wife of Uriah Uriah was one of David's mighty men he had a select crew of men Uriah would have been equivalent to a naval seal he was a mighty man is not Uriah one of your men that's his wife David says bring it to me she comes she even warns him that she's fertile and can become pregnant he didn't care and he consummates his desire on her he could have had any woman who was unmarried in his kingdom he was the king he wanted another man's wife David discovers he is told she's with child what am I going to do bring Uriah in off the field I want to talk to him Uriah comes in David's trying to cover his sin well Uriah why don't you go on home be with your wife but Uriah was a very noble man shall I have pleasure while my men are out in the field no Uriah chooses not to go and be with Bathsheba David brings them in a second time even gives them a little wine this time get some little drunk you go home most drunk man want to be with their wives you go home he doesn't go it's told him David you didn't go what am I gonna do well he comes up with a plan he says put a foot Uriah in the and the most dangerous part of the battle in the heat of the battle the hottest part withdraw your troops and that's exactly what happens Uriah is there he's fighting loyalty for his king the troops leave him isolated and he's killed not only was Uriah killed but when word came to David word came and said not only was Uriah but several of your men died alongside of him died in the same battle David's sin not only was responsible for a pregnancy in an adulterous relationship but also in the death of the husband and innocent life so what did David do he waited until he felt it was an appropriate time and he marries Bathsheba he thinks that he can cover his sin by just marrying this woman took about a year for the spirit of God to finally break through the hardened heart of David and David writes concerning that he wrote two Psalms Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 both of them speaking concerning of this one sin with Bathsheba and in Psalm 51 verses 1 through 3 he said in this Psalm have mercy on me oh God because of your unfailing love because of your great compassion blot out the stain of my sins wash me clean from my guilt purify me from my sin for I recognize my shameful deeds they haunt me day and night I can't get away from it the sin the memory of it it is haunting me it's there with me whether I'm asleep or whether I'm awake I am constantly thinking of this one thing have mercy on me you see until sin is confessed and forsaken joy is locked outside Jesus is simply saying to us mourning over sin brings happiness because it leads to confession of sin and David would agree Psalm 32 verses 3 through 5 when I refused to confess my sin I was weak and miserable I groaned all day long day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me my strength evaporated like water in the summer heat finally I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them I said to myself I will confess my rebellion to the Lord you forgave me all my guilt is gone you see some are living in a sinful way they know what and they're surprised that the joy is no longer there and that's because sin and happiness are mutually exclusive and it doesn't return until sin is confessed repented of and forsaken and at that time you can actually have joy Psalm 32 1 and 2 David said oh what joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven whose sin is put out of sight yes what joy for those who record the Lord whose record the Lord has cleared of sin whose lives are lived in complete honesty and so when God forgives us of our sin it results in a life that that can have a depth a sobriety of character even now listen when I talk about being sober minded and and all that doesn't mean that you can't laugh and have a good sense of humor I think that the church went through a period at one time and sometimes there's still places like this where laughing in in church was considered sinful and the holier you were the the sadder you looked it's a terrible time in the church I've got a terrible sense of humor I do I got it from my dad and I got it from my mom my mom was real witty she was real quick with one liners my dad was a practical joker so I got both of their senses of humor in me let me give you an example I was about eight years old or so my dad used to go now some of you are young let me give you history lesson you see Sears all over the place now but I grew up in the 50s there was only one big Sears it was an LA they had little outlets in Norwalk and stuff but you had one big Sears store it was in Los Angeles my dad worked in LA and so my dad would stop at Sears sometimes on the way home to buy a tool or something for his to work at home and he would stop by the candy there was a little candy place there and he would buy these peanuts that were candy coated and I loved those peanuts my brother and I loved them and we would just hope that dad had gone to Sears that day and we would go into his truck when he rolled up and we would open the glove box and we would look for those peanuts and one day I still remember my brother Frank and I went out there opened up the glove box bingo there are some of these candies and we open them up and we started eating them by the handful ate about half of the bag of candy that my dad had rolled it back up put it back in the glove box close the glove box went into the house when we walked in my dad said you boys weren't in my truck were you no oh I thought maybe you'd have gone in the truck you didn't go in the truck no you didn't climb in the truck and open up the glove box did you no oh so if you had climbed in my truck opened up the glove box you'd have seen a bag in there but you didn't see any bag in there did you no because if you'd have opened up that bag and it would look in it looks like candy you didn't look in there right no because if you to eat in that candy it's not candy it's spider poison spider poison oh yeah it's very dangerous I went to Sears today and I bought spider poison because of all the spiders in the backyard and you wouldn't want to eat that why daddy oh because it can kill you you could die good thing you didn't eat any of it yeah and he says if you ate it you know what you'd have to do so you don't die what you'd have to lay down and take a nap my brother goes you know I'm really sleepy I I'm gonna take a nap and I said you know so am I and my brother and I went and lay down in our bedroom on our bed waiting to die for about an hour that was my dad my dad used to do things like that he was terrible he was terrible so I'm sitting in my car years ago and my son Dave's about six Marie's in the store and she's grocery getting some groceries and I stayed with Dave in the car and and I'm looking out the window but I can see his reflection off the glass and I see him open up my glove box and I had candy in it and I see him very quietly reaching in eating it and I just gave him a chance to eat a few and then I made a movement and and I saw him close it up and I turned in I looked at him I said oh by the way I forgot I should tell you son you you wouldn't go in that in that glove box would you know I said that's good because there's a bag in there and it looks like it has candy but it's spider poison and he goes really I said oh yeah it's very dangerous but it's a good thing you didn't eat it now I didn't eat it daddy that's a good thing that you didn't eat it because if you did it could kill you it could yes but there is a way to keep from dying what is that daddy well you have to cross your eyes stick your tongue out and you have to put your hands over your chest and stick your feet straight out and that'll keep you from dying it will yeah so I look out the window then I see him moving I turn around he's got his tongue sticking out his arms his feet crossing his eyes and he goes I like doing this daddy my father still lives my father see so there's nothing wrong with being silly okay and having a silly sense of humor as a matter of fact laughter is like medicine of course you should laugh but a lot of people think oh you know we're mourning constantly walking around with the sad face now we have joy because our sins are forgiven but the way for our sins to be forgiven is by mourning it deepens you it strengthens you and so when we're truly mourning it's not even about us anyway we're not focusing on ourselves we're not even focusing just on our sin when we mourn we're actually get this we're actually focusing on God and how that has affected our relationship and what it's done concerning his majesty and we're repenting from the sin that has separated us from him again like David said in Psalm 51 for against you you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are proved right when you speak justified when you judge the evidence of a maturing Christian isn't sinlessness it's actually a growing awareness of your sinfulness it's a sense of the need for God that God may hold you up and God may sustain you it's an awareness that it's God who carries you so instead of having a kind of shallow attitude of life you have a sobriety and what happens when you have that well Jesus said it you shall be comforted God's comfort comes when we mourn and we deepen in our walks with him when you mourn God makes himself more present and we experience his comfort it's like what it says in Psalm 3418 the Lord is close to the brokenhearted he rescues those who are crushed in spirit when my children were young and small and they would they would be hurt and they would be crying as evil as I am and I'm an evil father you can ask them they'll tell you as evil as I am when I saw my babies hurting and they were crying I would sit next to them I would pull them near me I would take the tears that sometimes stream down their face and I would with my thumb in my hand I would wipe the tears from their eyes not only that but I would draw them close to me and I would kiss them and the little where they were crying their little cheeks and I would kiss them and I would say and I would rock them and oh by the way I didn't stop when they were little I've done that when they've been old when they've been old I've held my children and I've rocked them and I've kissed them and I've loved them because they're my babies and I do that with my grandchildren if one of them's crying I just recently I just doing this just wipe the little tears from their eyes draw them to myself and I tell them how deeply I love them and how they're gonna be okay and God's gonna take care of them that's what I do and I'm an evil father but my God he comforts me when I mourn he in a way in a way puts his arms around and rocks you my mama used to do that when I was little my mom would kiss my tears away when I cried and I learned that love is expressed with compassion and my God your God loves you he is close to you when you mourn he's close to the broken hearted he wipes away the tears from your eyes and after you've been ministered to in that way that's taught you to minister to others in the same way blessed be God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercy the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God mourning over our sin results in depth and gives us the ability to comfort others someone once said until I learned to trust I never learned to pray and I did not learn to fully trust till sorrows came my way until I felt my weakness his strength I never knew nor dreamed till I was stricken that he could see me through who deepest drinks of sorrow drinks deepest to of grace he sends the storm so he himself can be our hiding place his heart that seeks our highest good knows well when things annoy we could not long for heaven if earth held only joy the Lord brings comfort to those who mourn God desires to bless us it begins with us recognizing spiritual poverty that leads to mourning but weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning