Happy Are The Sad

Pastor Derek Wheeler

The Beatitudes • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Matthew 5:4

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Intro:

Remember

Blessed means?

Happy

Verse 4 tells us that “Blessed are those who mourn”, which literally means this:

Happy are the sad....which from the outset looks like the biggest oxymoron there is

You guys all wrote down the biggest oxy moron you could think of when you came in

Roof Job - I need an exact estimate

Or you go to a restaurant and you order some jumbo shrimp

Or here’s one: a “churchless Christian”

Or this one: NBA World Champions

Here we have Jesus saying, “Happy are the sad”....so what in the world could he be meaning here?

Give me some thoughts

This idea is so contradictory to all of society right?

No matter if you are rich or poor, educated or uneducated, primitive or quite sophisticated, life seems to be based on the principle that the way to happiness is to have things go your way, right?

And when we are sad, things are typically not going our way, are they?

World Cup example

So what does Jesus mean?

So what’s the truth behind this verse for us?

Mourn

To make sense of this, we need to try to figure out what Jesus means by the word mourn, in order to understand what he is getting at

The definition of mourning is this: “a deep sorrow or regret” “to be sad” “to be grieved”

The truth is, all of mankind is subject to mourning and sorrows

Some are normal and legitimate

Some are not

Two Types of Mourning

Now, there are two types of mourning, incorrect mourning and correct mourning

Improper

Improper mourning is a deep sadness or sorrow b/c of poor, evil decisions

Sadness b/c of misguided affections and the resulting chasing of those things

Example

Mourning because of sinful choices, not because of making them, but because of the sorrow that came with them.

David and Bathsheba

David made a poor decision

He was sorrowful

He had Uriah killed

Proper

Proper mourning is a deep sadness or sorrow over legitimate or “natural” occurences

Death of a loved one

Abraham mourned when Sarah died

He mourned his death even though the death was a result of Absalom’s sins against David.

There is nothing wrong with that

So the question is this, is Jesus referring to either of these types of mourning in regards to this beatitude?

“Happy are those who have made sinful choices and are upset at the sadness they have experienced because of those choices”

“Happy are those who are mourning the death of a loved one”

What do you think?

Godly Mourning

Well, fooled you all! Jesus isn’t referring to either the correct or incorrect mourning, but instead he’s referring to Godly mourning

Godly mourning is this: Sadness that is rooted in the understanding of our spiritual bankruptcy, which we talked about last week.

That poor in spirit attitude leads us to godly sadness, or mourning....

Over the state we find ourselves in.

says this, “ 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

This godly mourning is not so much circumstantial as it is personal

Godly mourning is a sadness rooted in the understanding of our sin before God.

It’s tied quite closely to the first beatitude

We realize we are spiritually bankrupt and bring nothing to the table

And that realization is tied to the understanding that we are that way because of our sinful state

Salvation

Many people today view salvation in Christ like this:

Pray for forgiveness of sins

And then live life however you want from that point onward

It’s not a one and done thing though

We try to view it as we need to be “poor in spirit” for a day, then we’re good

But Jesus isn’t teaching that:

He’s teaching that a continual mourning of our sin is an indicator of a life truly captivated by Christ

Because when we realize our spiritual bankruptcy, we realize our sin, and when we realize our sin, we mourn it because our sin is what nailed Jesus to the cross

So when’s the last time you mourned your sinful state?

When’s the last time you mourned the sinful state of the world?

Me and Pastors

And the closer we grow to Christ, the more we will mourn

Which is totally contrary to the world right?

We’re too focused on the pursuit of happiness

Even in the church today, we’re too focused on happiness.

We can’t really be happy in our sinful state

Godly mourning brings comfort/happiness

So how can we be happy when we mourn?

It seems illogical doesn’t it?

We can be happy because of what God does with our mourning…which is what?

We are comforted

God promises the blessing of comfort to those of us who mourn over our sin

- God of all comfort

How do we find comfort? We find comfort in the belief and the faith that he has forgiven our sins, and will continue to forgive our sins

And so the idea here is as we grow in Christ, we begin to embrace a stronger and stronger distaste for sin.

Sin becomes more and more abhorrent to us

And we mourn our sin even more

But, we take comfort in the fact that He has forgiven us

And that makes us happy, that makes us blessed.

Don’t be content in your sin…if you’ve realized your spiritual bankruptcy, then you must mourn your sin. And when you mourn your sin, you hate it.