Blessed are those that Mourn

Well, good morning once again.

Thank you so much for being here today as we're continuing our series called The Good Life.

My name's Nathan, if we haven't met, one of the pastors here at Church at the Grove.

And we're walking through a series really talking about this idea of how we can achieve happiness.

It's this happiness quest.

And ultimately, we're all on this quest.

I mean, there are all we're all looking, we're all searching for this things that are going to make us happy in life.

I mean, there are things in my personal life that make me happy.

Like I enjoy spending time with my family.

I love family vacations.

I love a hot cup of coffee in the morning.

I love uh the Braves starting their season off in the spring.

Like I love all of these things.

These things are all great and they all bring happiness and joy to my soul.

The only problem is it's always short-lived.

Um, when we go on family vacations, they're great vacations, but ultimately the vacation comes to an end.

The hot cup of coffee becomes cold.

The Braves start their season off strong and they probably go to the playoffs and lose miserably in the playoffs, and we're hoping for a better season the following year.

It's always short-lived happiness.

And it's no wonder that when we're all on this happiness quest, when we're all trying to chase this good life, and we're always kind of coming up empty, and we find moments of satisfaction and we find moments of pleasure, but then we're quickly regretting or we're quickly mourning the loss of something else in our lives.

It's no wonder that we live stressed and anxious and depressed lives.

But what if there was more?

You know, what if there was a way for us to truly live the good life?

C.S.

Lewis says this from his book, Mere Christianity.

He says, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud.

Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.

And so what C.S.

Lewis is saying is ultimately that the things of this world were never meant to satisfy and never meant to bring happiness to our souls.

And so over the course of this series, that's what we're looking at.

We're not looking at the things that ultimately will bring us happiness just here in this world, but we're looking at the next life and ultimately God's kingdom.

What is this kingdom that Jesus is establishing?

What are his ways?

And what are the things that he says will bring happiness and blessing to our lives?

And so last week we looked at this idea that blessed are the poor in spirit, that they were the people that were going to be a part of the kingdom of God, that theirs was the kingdom of God.

And today we're looking at this big idea that happy are the sad, for they shall be comforted.

Russ is going to break down this idea for us a little bit as he digs into Scripture.

But as we look and see the radical nature of Jesus and just how different his ways truly are.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And so last week we specifically looked at verse three, where he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

We talked about this idea that happy are those who are poor in spirit.

But this week it's verse four.

I'm gonna read it out of the message translation where Eugene Peterson translates it this way.

He says, You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you.

Only then can you be embraced by the one most dear to you.

And so this idea of blessed, it's just it's a Greek word it's called akarios, and it means to be happy, but it's not the happy that we think of most often, especially, especially in our American culture, uh where we where Nathan referred to how we can be happy on vacation or happy with with sports or happy with the American dream.

It's this God-given, grace-given, supernatural happiness.

It transcends anything that we could experience in this earthly life, and it's it's only given by God.

And it really comes straight from an encounter with Jesus.

When we think about his life and his death and his resurrection, we believe and put our faith in what Jesus did for us, in the cross, the atonement, uh, the shedding of his blood that provided for the remission of our sins and the empty grave that gives us hope and the conquering of sin and death.

That is the kind of happiness that Jesus is talking about.

And we need something beyond this world.

And I know we could talk 2020 into the ground, but but it was a bit of a dumpster fire.

It was a tough year.

We had a COVID pandemic, and many of us experienced anxiety, and we experienced stress, and many of us experienced loss, and we're even still dealing with that a bit in 2021, and my family, in the very last week of the year, experienced a bit of this loss when I lost an uncle to the COVID.

And so when Jesus says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforting, He's talking about how He will come and He will give us hope even in the midst of loss, even in the midst of uncertainty, even in the midst of mourning.

And so we mourn.

We all understand mourning, but we don't mourn.

Those of us who have followed Jesus and put our faith in Jesus, we don't mourn without hope.

The apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4.13, he says, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

So what he's saying is, those of us who follow Jesus, those of us who've had this encounter with Jesus, we still will experience mourning, but we don't mourn without hope.

Those of us that follow Jesus, we mourn, but we mourn knowing that there are answers that God provides.

As a matter of fact, um He invites us in to His purpose, even in our mourning.

Those of us who follow Jesus, um, if we want to understand happiness, you and I will become happy when what breaks God's heart breaks your heart.

That's the kind of mourning that we're talking about.

Micah 6.8 says, He has told you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?

And so the kind of happiness we're talking about is rooted in God's grand redemptive plan.

And we have hope.

So what are we to mourn over?

Specifically, we're to mourn over our sin, we're to mourn over our injustice in the world that we see, and we're to mourn over suffering.

What does he mean by sin?

It's this idea of missing the mark.

Sin in the original language was an archery term, and it described missing the mark.

And it's those of it's this reality and us agreeing with God that we have all missed the mark and following God's statutes and his principles and what his word describes for us.

We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And so we need to recognize that uh individually, and we also need to recognize that corporately.

I mean, as a as a body, as a people, as a church.

And we need to respond appropriately.

Sin puts me at war with God's grand purpose, and I need to repent and I need to realign myself with his plan.

And so, what do we mean by injustice?

Um, obviously, we've experienced this past year, we it we people talk about racial injustice, but injustice goes far beyond just racial injustice.

It's all types of social injustice, it's economic injustice.

It's basically when we see people hurting and they're being wronged, and we we're willing to see it and not just see it and observe it, but we're willing to step in with God and be a part of the solution.

And then and also suffering.

We acknowledge that people suffer.

People suffer all over the world, people suffer emotionally, people suffer physically, people suffer, mentally, people suffer in all types of ways.

And we join with Jesus and we mourn.

Jesus mourned.

Jesus, John 11, 35, it's the shortest verse in all of Scripture, and it's a short verse.

It says Jesus wept, but it's not short on significance and it's not short on meaning, but it shows us that Jesus cares.

He cared about his friend Lazarus, and he cares about death.

He cares about the loss of innocence, and he cares about the fact that humanity was lost its relationship with God at creation.

Jesus mourned.

And so we're called to mourn, and to mourn and to lament means to cry, it means to wail.

It means that we have this godly, righteous anger about what's been wrong, and we want to join God in making things right.

And so I want you to listen to a story from a couple in our church, Alan and Michelle, Alan and Michelle, and they um they share about a difficult experience they had this past year that broke their heart, where they mourned, but they also share about the encouragement and the hope that they have in this relationship and and the hope that we have in Jesus.

Hello, I'm I'm Alan Stringer, if you don't know me.

Um this is my wife, Michelle.

And I'm not I'm not a very talkative person, so this is kind of strange for me.

But anyway, I just wanted to share just a bit of what's been going on in my life or our life in the past year approximately.

My dad was a very special person to me, of course.

Um he was born in 1925, May of 1925, and he was one of eight eight children.

So he's raised on a farm, you know, grew up in the Great Depression.

He was um a World War a World War II veteran, drafted in, I think, 1943, I believe it was, soon when he turned 18 years old, and fought fought on the beaches of Normandy.

And I was very proud of that.

He's a purple heart, purple heart veteran, um, shot by German machine gun as he was, as he told it, jump jump in a hedgerow, you know, as they were firing, firing on them trying to escape or whatever it was.

But but I'm I'm blessed to have a dad like him.

Not everybody you know has a dad that close.

Um he was a very, very hard worker, a very um great, great father.

Uh I remember him working at times three jobs to just when the economy was bad, probably back in the 70s, um working three jobs just to make ends meet.

Um getting into getting into what's been going on in the past year.

Um it all started probably back in September, it was around my birthday, that's how I can remember so easy.

My dad had had a fall, had a few falls um in the months leading up to it, and so he had to go to the hospital, and from the hospital they recommended that he would go to rehab.

You know, he was then about 90, 90, 90, he was 94 years old at the time, and went into rehab, and that lasted from September to approximately December.

And they informed us that they didn't think he would be able to go home and be on his own.

It was Wednesday, April 1st, because the nurse at home called me and early that morning and said he's not doing well and we need to take him to transport him to the hospital.

And but you can't go because of COVID, you can't go.

So the doctor will call you once they've assessed him.

So a couple of hours went by and the doctor called me and said, We know for sure he's got bilateral pneumonia and an acute UTI, and we're pretty sure, judging from the side, that he has COVID, so we've gotten to test him for COVID, but it will be at least 48 hours before we have an answer back for that.

And I definitely didn't realize that on March the 10th, that that would be the last time that I would ever see him or talk to him again.

So um getting that call that he had passed away and just the feeling that came over me, and you know, and I beat myself up for a while, just he died alone, and that was that was the hard part.

Because he was a World War II vet, we were gonna do the honors and the flag, and because of COVID, no military honors, because he was diagnosed with COVID, something had to be done within 24 hours.

It had to be buried within 24 hours, and they were there were at that time there was no embalming because the unknown of the COVID, no you know, nobody knew, and had had to be buried within 24 hours, and so all we really had at the graveside service was we probably had about seven probably seven of us together and his coffin with a flag folded laying on top of the coffin.

I guess on into about September.

We were able to have a memorial service um finally at his church, um Luxomine Baptist Church in Lilburn.

With the military honors, finally they had reinstated that so they could come out and do the honors.

Played the taps on the bugle and and then presented the flag.

So that was that was a big a big um I guess a big relief to be able to do that and a big comfort, you know, just knowing that he was remembered and not just forgotten, you know, like so many of our, you know, military heroes have, you know, are forgotten sometimes.

And of course, uh when I say hero, uh it brings back a memory of just him and me talking one time.

I don't remember what was brought up, and it's something about, you know, a hero, a war hero, and and I and I can remember him telling me that, you know, I I'm no hero.

He said, The people, the men that fought and died, you know, they're the heroes.

He said, I'm no hero.

But yeah, that I mean, like I said, that was that was just when we talk about the the Bible verse, you know, blessed are those who are that mourn for they shall be comforted, that was the comforting time for us, you know.

When we knew he was there, even though the whole it was so strange and new you know, going through that experience, but you could definitely tell, you know, that our friends and family and everybody was praying.

Of course, we got tons of cards.

It was different.

I mean, you know, during COVID, you don't take meals to people, you don't, you know, hug, you don't do this, that, and the other, but the prayers were definitely felt during that time.

Another way that, you know, I took comfort also knowing that when he did breathe his last breath, you know, he's in heaven.

He's not suffering anymore.

And I know that because I don't know if any of you are Georgia Bulldog fans, but you're gonna say, where is he going with this?

But Daddy, say, uh, like I said, he was born in 1925, so I don't know, probably sometime in the 30s before he went off to war in 1943, he was at uh what he called an old-fashioned tent revival between the hedges at the University of Georgia.

That was just another way to take comfort in knowing that he had been saved.

And he liked to tell that story.

I was saved at Sanford Stadium between the hedges.

I mean, it is you know, it it was so good to finally have that service and have the family and friends there and give him the recognition that you know we felt like he deserved as a you know a dad and a grandfather and a husband and a a war hero.

And a lot of us pray, and I know I do myself sometimes, you know, you pray for that peace that surpasses all understanding, and that peace has definitely been there.

So you see, we we we do mourn, but we don't mourn without hope.

And God always brings hope even in the midst of difficulty, even in the midst of death and uncertainty.

And and so we see in this testimony, in this story from Alan and Michelle, that that that God can redeem even the worst circumstances, and that's why Jesus came.

I I love how in Luke.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Chapter 4, Jesus quotes an Old Testament passage from the book of Isaiah.

And Isaiah is prophesying about what theologians refer to as the messianic mandate.

And he's referring to this day when the Lord will come and the Spirit of God will bring redemption.

And Jesus said, he quotes it, and it's out of Luke 4, verses 17 through 19.

Luke 4:17–19

It says, That in the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

And that year of the Lord's favor is specifically referring to the year of Jubilee, the every 50 years plan that God had established with his people, where all debt would be forgiven every 50 years, all prisoners would be released from prison.

Everything would be reset because God did not want his people to live in perpetual suffering, perpetual mourning, perpetual poorness.

I mean he wanted he wanted redemption and he knew that there was a plan.

And so Jesus quotes this and he says, I am the answer to this.

He says, I am the man.

I am the one who has come to fulfill that.

Jesus is our Jubilee.

He is our redemption.

So the question is, is have you had an encounter with Jesus and has that encounter changed the trajectory of your life?

Isaiah prophesies earlier in his book, chapter 6 of Isaiah.

It says that he has this incredible experience where he's caught up into this vision where he encounters the presence of God.

And it's incredible.

I mean, he describes this worship taking place between angels where they're singing back and forth, holy, holy, holy is the Lord our God.

And Isaiah recognizes his his where he is in perspective to the holiness of God.

And in verse 5, he says, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

And one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Then I said, Here am I, send me.

And here's the reality.

Those of us that learn this lesson and we're happy in Jesus and we mourn over what breaks the heart of God, we always end up responding and joining God in his mission.

Jesus came to redeem.

Jesus came to proclaim Jubilee.

He is our Jubilee.

And for those of us who've experienced the presence of Jesus, we've experienced supernatural happiness.

We can't keep it to ourselves.

And we say, we say with Isaiah, here am I, Lord, send me.

So I love what Russ is sharing there.

I love this idea that blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

I love what he's saying in Isaiah chapter 6 and just the radical transformation that took place in Isaiah's life as he was confronted with his own sin, as he was confronted with the things that broke God's heart.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And that ultimately shows us that when we lament, when we mourn, then we represent God and we're ultimately sent.

So when we lament, we repent and then we are sent.

That's ultimately the mission and the followership of following Jesus.

It's all about us mourning our sin and our brokenness and then being sent out to help other people.

Over this past summer, I read the story of Brian Stevenson, who was an incredible man that is still doing incredible ministry, working with some of the most vulnerable people on the planet in our culture and our communities today, serving people that are on death row.

And as he was confronted with his own sin, when he was confronted with the atrocities that were happening all around him, he knew that he had to do something about it.

And that's ultimately what we need to do as well.

Comforted mourners become comforters to those that are mourning.

That we bring hope to those that are mourning around us.

We bring hope and joy, and we bring ultimately Jesus to the people that are around us.

And so we want to challenge you today to be able to be those comforters, to be the ones that have mourned over your own sin and now are being sent out to comfort those that are mourning as well.

And so there's an acrostic that we've come across that uses the word blessed.

Blessed, the B stands for begin with prayer.

That we begin by praying for the people around us.

We've got a great tool that we would love for you to sign up for called Bless Every Home.

And it's an opportunity for you to get an email reminder every single day that will help you to remind you to pray for your neighbors and the people that live near you, that they would understand and know who Jesus is and their lives would be revolutionized because of that.

So we begin with prayer.

And the L stands for we list, we learn to listen.

We listen to other peoples.

We don't try to put ourselves on others, but instead we listen to their stories and we listen to what is going on in their lives.

We then eat a meal with them, we have fellowship with them.

We really begin to form a relationship.

Those that are following Jesus, it's not about just presenting a message, but it's about being the message to others.

Then we serve them.

We become Jesus in our own body, in our own skin, and we we actually serve them in whatever ways, in whatever ways they might need help.

And then finally, we share our own personal story.

We share how Jesus has changed our lives.

And so blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

But those that mourn also are sent out to comfort others around them.

And so who is it that God is sending you to?

We would encourage you, like I said, to sign up for that Bless Every Home program.

You can do that through our app or through our website at church at the Grove.com forward slash bless, and all the information will be there.

But we are called to be God's representatives here on earth, where we mourn our own sin, and then as a result, when we understand what breaks God's heart, we are sent out to be his representatives and to comfort those that are around us.

Let me pray for us.

Lord Jesus, I thank you so much, Lord, for who you are.

And Lord, I thank you, Lord, that you are a God that comforts those that mourn.

And Lord, I pray that just for every single one of us that are watching this today, Lord, that we would be people where our hearts and our minds are broken for the things that break your heart.

Lord, that we would truly mourn over our sin.

We would truly mourn over the injustice that we find in this world.

We would truly mourn over the suffering that we see all around us.

But we would not just mourn, but we would also be people that would be willing to be sent out to be a comfort to others.

That we would be willing to bring your presence to the people that we live around, the people that are hurting, the people that are broken, Lord, that we would be your representatives to bring that message of hope and truth to them.

And Lord, as we do that, Lord, I pray that you would use us in large ways.

And Lord, that your kingdom would break forth in new and in fresh ways, and that lives would be transformed.

Lord, we love you and we thank you again for the opportunity we have to be a blessing to others.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.