God of All Comfort: Blessed are those who mourn...; Build your Life #4, the 2nd Beatitude

Kid’s Minute: Do you ever feel sad? I want to tell you the story of a very good man, who got really sad one time. His name was Elijah, & Elijah was a powerful prophet of God.

‌ One time, Elijah challenged a group of false prophets to prove that our God is the one true God… ‌he built an altar with 12 stones, dug a ditch around it, put the wood & the sacrifice on the altar & told them to pour 4 pots of water on it until it was drenched & the ditch was full… He won a great victory for God that day, but what happened next…

‌ A wicked queen named Jezebel threatened to kill Elijah & he got scared. He felt so alone & afraid that he ran for his life, for a whole day, out into the woods to hide. He was so scared & sadthat he wanted to die. He was so troubled & tired that he fell asleep. God sent an angel to take care of Elijah. The angel made him a loaf of bread & jug of water to drink, then he went back to sleep. Then the angel did it a 2nd time, & Elijah walked 40 days & nights to meet God. God took care of Elijah.

‌I am telling you the story of Elijah because sometimes we all feel let down or depressed. We all feel alone & afraid sometimes. We all get sad & scared sometimes. We all feel troubled & tired sometimes. God is the God of comfort; He will take care of us when we turn to Him.

‌The best thing to do when you feel that way is to PRAY, take a NAP, & eat a SNACK. Our God is the God of comfort, & He will take care of you, when you turn to Him. Snack: I have goldfish & water for you, you can pray but don’t nap in church. Let me pray for you guys.

‌Matt 5:4, Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

1) IT’S NOT BAD TO BE SAD, i.e., mourning is good for us.

‌Jesus says, “blessed are those who mourn,” it is a state of being, an attitude of the heart that many people try to ignore or hide.

‌We live in a world that seems averse to negative feelings or emotions. People don’t like to be sad or feel sorrow, so they often suppress their negative feelings, or self-medicate them, or to satisfythemselves…

But honestly, to receive comfort we need to sit in our sadness & feel it.

‌It’s not realistic for people to be happy all the time.There are many life situations in which feelings of sadness are the appropriate emotional response, e.g., grieving the loss of a loved one.

‌Genesis 23:2, …Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

‌Gen 37:34–35, Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, & mournedfor his son many days… all his sons & all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, & he said, “I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.” thus his father wept for him

It’s a cause for concern when someone doesn’t show signs of sadness or is emotionally numb, Studies show that sadness can 1) boost your memory, 2) motivate you, 3)improve your judgment, 4) teach you how to cope, & 5) be a coping mechanism. Sadness is NOT the opposite of coping… (it) can be a healthy way to cope with life's stressors… Harvard Health notes that crying... has health benefits.‌

Luke 6:21, … Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

‌Jesus says that the truly happy, or fortunate ones are those who mourn- be sad, feel grief or sorrow. ‌Sometimes this word “mourn” refers to feelings of guilt or sorrow because of sin, or its consequences.

‌Ezra 10:6, Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God… and when he came there, he ate no bread and drank no water, for he mourned because of the guiltof those from the captivity.

‌Neh 1:4, So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mournedfor many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Ezra & Nehemiah mourned the sinful & sorrowful state of God’s people. Why was Jesus’ audience in mourning?

Like Nehemiah, their mourning could have been for Israel under Rome, a seeming lack of God’s presence. ‌Like Ezra, they could have been feeling the effects of sin, & sorrowing over it, i.e., a poverty of spirit (Matt 5:3).

‌Mourning for SIN is the emotional complement to being poor in spirit.

‌For Jesus- the state of sadness, grief, especially because of sin, is a blessed state. We often mourn because of death, but death is merely the sting of sin (1 Cor 15:57)‌. Conviction comes as sorrow for sin. Comfort is the spiritual antidote for the stinging sorrow of sin.

- Where does our comfort come from?

2) Christ is the SOURCE of our Comfort.

‌2 Corinthians 1:3–4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4who 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.

‌Comfort- used 10 times in vss. 3-7, same word as in Matt 5:4, comfort is the encouragement or consolation given in suffering or mourning.

‌God’s comfort comes as He forgives people of sin & restores them.

How do we receive forgiveness for sin? Only through Jesus.

‌God’s comfort abounds through Christ, God the Son.

2 Corinthians 1:5, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolationalso abounds through Christ.” ‌Consolation- the source of comfort one feels when consoled in times of disappointment.

‌Isaiah 61:1–3, The Spirit of the Lord Godis upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

‌What’s very interesting is that when Jesus begins His ministry, He quotes from Isaiah 61:1-3 but stops before the end of verse 2. He says it is fulfilled in Him- the anointing of the Lord, preaching to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, releasing of the bound, & the acceptable year of the Lord; BUT He stops short of God’s day of vengeance, comforting those who mourn, consoling those who mourn in Zion, joy for mourning, praise for the spirit of heaviness, He put this off for later, because it won’t happen until He returns.

‌God’s comfort will come when Christ comes again. The 2nd half of Matt 5:4 uses a future tense verb to describe a future-oriented promise.

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This truth is a major difference between Christianity & other religions, or Christians & other people- we process grief through hope. Death is not the end; it is only the beginning of what is to come. ‌‌1 Thessalonians 4, Paul corrects a mistaken belief about what happens if believers die before the 2nd Coming- would they miss out on His return & glorious future? He does not want them to “sorrow as others who have no hope.”

Paul reassures them that deceased believers would not only be raised to enjoy Christ’s appearing, but they would also receive priority resurrection. 1 Thess 4:16-18- Christ will return, the dead in Christ will rise first, then those who are alive & remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. We shall always be with the Lord. “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

‌The Resurrection, Return, & Reign of Christ is the SOURCE of the believer’s comfort & hope. Titus 2:13, look “for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ...” Why? When we look around, we will continue to find ourselves in sadness, sorrow, & sin, but when we look up to Christ, we look to the SOURCE of our salvation, & find shares of comfort within Him (2 of them):

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3) We share in Christ’s comfort by His SPIRIT & CHURCH.

‌The Holy Spirit is the presence of Christ with us. John 14:16-17, And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

‌Helper = paraclete, the embodiment, or essence, of God’s comfort, comes in the form of God the Son, the source of our comfort, who gives us a share of His comfort through the Holy Spirit within.

Romans 8:23, … we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

‌Not only has Christ given us the internal share of His Spirit to comfort us, but He has also given us the external share of His Body, the church.

‌Philippians 2:1–4, Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. ‌Consolation- source of our comfort is Christ.

‌Comfort of love- feeling of consolation in times of disappointment; How do you get that? Fellowship with the Spirit & with the church- love, harmony, unity. ILL: Will Franklin & Will Fox- This is who you got!

In the church, this is who you’ve got. 2 Cor 1:4, 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.

Only God can truly comfort you, & when He does, you are to pay it forward to others- for their comfort.

1 Thess 5:9–11, For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

We underestimate the importance of having a church family for our comfort, encouragement, & growth as a Christian.

Are you sad today? It’s OK to be sad, we’ve all been there.

You may be hurting; in pain, in mourning, in grief, it could be the loss of a loved one, it could be your poor state in life, it could be the realization of your sin… You could be in sorrow over your sorry spiritual state, that you are bankrupt before God, there is nothing you can do, be, or buy that will satisfy you like Jesus. There is comfort for you in Christ alone.

Do you need comfort today? Christ is the source of our comfort, & He shares it with us by His Spirit & in His church. This is one of the reasons church membership is so very important- we need each other.

Do you need to be saved, be baptized, join the church? Now is the time.

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There will be counselors down front to talk with you and pray with you, if the Lord is leading you to do something today, maybe to be commit your life to Jesus, maybe to be baptized, maybe to join the church, you come during this invitation.