Happy Are the Sad

Introduction:

Once upon a time in a little town called Decatur, Texas I began to work at a funeral home. Hawkins Funeral Homes had locations in Decatur and in the neighboring towns of Bridgeport and Boyd. I worked at all three locations. Rob Hawkins, the owner of the funeral home, took great pride in the image of his company. He dressed his employees to the nines and always made sure that even though we were based out of three small towns, we would not be a stereotypical small town funeral home. One of the things that Rob Hawkins often told me was that "We will render the highest quality care, respect, and appearance to every family that walks through our doors, whether it be a funeral for the President himself, or for the homeless man that nobody knows."

Because of his attention to detail and strong emphasis on professional appearance and conduct, Hawkins Funeral Homes did handle some high profile funerals in North Texas.

Though Hawkins Funeral Homes was very interested in how its funeral directors and assistants dressed, often purchasing high quality suits and very nice shoes for its employees, Rob Hawkins' pride and joy was the fleet of vehicles purchased in early 2018, shortly before I started working for them.

Each funeral home had a lead car, hearse, limousine (or 2), and SUV, and a flower van (or two). Shortly before I started to work there, the Decatur location had updated its early 2000s Lincoln fleet of vehicles to a brand new Cadillac fleet.

The lead car and the Escalade were top of the line and had all the bells and whistles. They were a joy to drive. I was blessed to have the same van that I have now while I worked there, and that was not what Rob Hawkins wanted me to drive while conducting business for the funeral home, so whenever he sent me anywhere, even making the 15 minute drive between funeral homes, he sent me in either the lead car (Cadillac XTS) or in that fully loaded Escalade.

Those vehicles did things that my poor van can't even dream of! I often made 2-hour round trip drives to the Dallas Medical Examiner or the DFW airport for the funeral home, so after a couple of times driving these vehicles, I became very interested in knowing their full capabilities. There were so many knobs and buttons and selections on the touch screen display that it took me a while to figure it all out. I had never driven a car that would keep itself in its own lane, or that had a heads up display on the windshield. None of my cars had ever had Bluetooth connectivity, much less built in GPS. Even the tires on these vehicles self-inflated, to a certain extent.

There are essentially two ways to get familiar with a vehicles systems. The first one is by simply operating it and playing around with all the buttons and settings to see what they do. This is the fun way, but there are some drawbacks to it: 1) it may take a while to figure everything out, 2) you may miss something.

The second way to learn all the features of a particular vehicle is to read the owner's manual. This book is put out by the manufacturer Unless your a bit of a car geek, this may not be very fun. Those manuals are not meant to be entertaining, simply informative. But in that manual, the manufacturer tells you all you need to know about the features and capabilities of the car he made. And guess what, the manufacturer of the car knows more about his product than anything anyone else could ever tell you about your car.

We have a manufacturer. His name is the Lord God. The very best thing that could possibly do when trying to figure out how to run our lives is to go to the manufacturer! No one knows the human being like God does. He made us!

Psalm 139 tells us of how we are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Lord. Nobody knows the features and capabilities like the manufacturer, and continuing with this analogy, the Manufacturer has give us an owner's manual.

That owner's manual was first put forth about 2,000 years ago in a sermon called the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus Christ, God in human flesh- fully God and fully man.

This Sermon on the Mount is the owner's manual for the Christian life. It is basic Christianity. If this were a college course, it would be an entry level course called Christianity 101. And we have just opened the semester by studying the first verse in this sermon.

Let's see who remembers: though Jesus is being followed by a multitude here in Matthew 5, who is his target audience? The disciples. The people who are following Jesus to learn of him because they believe in him as the Messiah, the Savior. Those that are interested in the Kingdom of Heaven; those that are already citizens of that kingdom; that is the target audience.

Remember that we have already seen that right before Jesus goes up to this mountain to preach, he hand selected 12 men to be his Apostles. Not just disciples, not just followers and learners, but apostles. Those he would send to preach the Gospel that they had been learning from Jesus. And now Jesus is putting them through the Kingdom citizenship course we are calling, The Sermon on the Mount, the Kingdom Manifesto.

We all have an idea of what a Christian should look like. Even the unsaved world has ideas about what Christians are, but it is Christ that is the one who defines Christianity and he does so in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

So if we really want to know what a Christian is and what the Christian life should look like, our best bet would be to consult Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7.

The very first word in the Sermon on the Mount is "blessed." Blessed means happy. It actually means happier. So not just happy, but happier than happy. So we see that Jesus says in these verses, "The people who follow me are a happy people." As the manufacturer, Jesus is acutely aware that each of us hunger for happiness. It is what we want most. Happiness is so important that the founding fathers of this country asserted that the "pursuit of happiness" was a foundational right, right along with life and liberty, given to mankind by our Creator.

So in this section of Scripture commonly referred to as the Beatitudes, Jesus says to us, "If you want to be happy, here is the way." We will read through these and throughout the next few weeks, I would suggest that we pay close attention to these words. There is not a single person in this room that could not use a little more happiness in their life.

So let's begin reading.

Matthew 5:1-12 ​1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set [position of authority while teaching], his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

We saw last week that those that are poor in spirit are happy. Now remember, poor in spirit does not mean poor financially. There are indeed those that are poor financially that live happier lives than those who live off a trust fund. But this is not true for every poor person. There are those that are poor who are miserable and bitter and angry, just as there are rich people who truly do have happiness.

It isn't money or the lack of that brings about this happier than happy happiness, neither is it emotional poverty. This verse does not tell us that to find happiness we must always be down in the dumps, as they say. We are not to go around saying, "Woe is me! Look how I sad my situation is; look at how low my emotions are," in order to gain happiness. But look closely. The verse says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Those that are spiritually poor.

When God created man, He created us with a body [the physical part of you that has five senses that we are given to interact with the world around us], a soul [that is what makes you you - your character, your mind, you intellect, your emotions, your will], and a spirit [the part of you that communes with God]. Happiness begins with being poor in spirit.

It doesn't begin with the circumstances that surround you; it doesn't begin with a full bank account; it doesn't begin with a healthy body; nor does it begin with good mental health or with a good education. It all begins with a spiritual relationship with Jesus. We must come to him acknowledging that we bring nothing to the table, nothing that makes us worthy of salvation. It is for him to fill us with the joy of salvation, but he cannot unless we come to him spiritually bankrupt.

Point of application: We must stop looking to our circumstances for happiness, and look only to Christ.

Matthew 5:4a Blessed are they that mourn...

Happy Are the Sad

Of all the Beatitudes, this one is probably the one that makes the least amount of sense when taken at face value. The world would regard this as utter nonsense.

The one thing that that the world is trying to get rid of is mourning, sadness. The whole reason for the pursuit of entertainment, money, and energy, the effort that is put into entertaining people is all just an expression of wanting to stay away from a mournful spirit.

But the Gospel says, seemingly in contradictory fashion, "Blessed are they that mourn; happy are the sad."

Like we did with the las Beatitude, we need to break this down and look at it, not from our perspective, but from the perspective of Jesus, the one who is giving the sermon.

Remembering that Jesus is teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven and remembering that he has already stated that the Kingdom of Heaven is (now) on the spiritual plane and those that enter in must enter through spiritual re-birth, we can then understand that this Beatitude deals with the spiritual, not primarily the emotional or physical.

Just like the poverty of spirit in verse three was not financial but spiritual, this kind of mourning is spiritual as well, though it does, simply because of the nature of mourning, have emotional effects as well. All the Beatitudes have a reference to a spiritual condition or a spiritual attitude.

So Jesus is saying, in our pursuit of happiness, to gain the happier than happy type of happiness, we must mourn, and it must be done spiritually.

What does this mean? If poverty of spirit didn't mean to be emotionally poor and always sullen-faced, surely this is what this means. Well, I hope that as we go through this today, you will see that this is simply not the fact.

There is a tragedy seen today. Solomon would probably put it this way, "There is a vanity done upon the earth..." as we so often read in our study of Ecclesiastes. There is a tragedy among Christians and churches today. It is a tragedy of polar opposites. To truly understand what it means to mourn and to be happy or blessed because of it, we must explore this tragedy first.

The tragedy is this, that there is little to no attractiveness to the church. Few people on the outside of these walls, few people who are not Christians have a desire to be Christian, much less to join a church. The reason for this tragedy is that many Christians individually and many churches organizationally have adopted one of two philosophies that are at the extreme ends of truths taught in the Bible.

False piety. Piety is defined as the quality of being religious or reverent. True, unassumed, authentic piety is a good thing, and I want to be very clear about that. Reverence toward the things of God, an honest fear of the Lord is a good thing. But what has enveloped a portion of Christianity is this false piety.

It gives the impression that being religious is a miserable thing. Think about how the Pharisees are often described - miserable, contentious, bitter, and angry. Anybody here ever met a bitter Christian?

There is a school of thought that says, "If you are going to be a follower of Jesus, then there is no more fun. Life is not about fun, it is about Jesus. So be serious. Don't relax; don't cut up; don't laugh; and if you smile, don't do it for too long. Christianity is a serious business, and that ought to reflect itself in our face."

Be serious when you come to church; be serious how you hold you Bible; be dignified in how you carry yourself; be serious in the way you greet others ("Well hello, Brother ________. May the Lord bless and keep you. May he make His face shine continually upon you. Be blessed, my most esteemed saint and beloved brother in Christ. How was your week?"

To which this "most esteemed saint and beloved brother in Christ would answer something to this effect. "The week past has brought with it certain trials and tribulations. I had to get on to little Jedediah thrice yesterday for his incessant laughing and carrying on. I know he is only 5 years old, but that boy needs to understand that all this laughter is vanity in this life. And this morning, my dear wife smiled for a whole ten seconds, and would have continued to do so had I not quickly reprimanded her and reminded her to be grave and serious, for such is the desire of our Lord. 'Surely, there is something that you could be mournful for,' I said to her.")

So yeah, that's not it. There are those Christians who live in a constant state of judgment on others that they feel they have not been used rightly of the Lord unless they have called out 5 different people for their sins in a day. There is no deep conviction of personal sin, and any that might arise is masked with judgement for others or this facade of seriousness and gravity.

And this is tragedy number one. Though we see this today in some churches and individuals, I think it was more prominent a view of the generation or two before mine. What has happened with Christians is that that there has been a violent reaction against this type of false piety that only can lend itself to a bitter and downtrodden countenance, that there has been a swing to the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

False Joy. That is, the idea that we must always put on a happy face. We must always be happy, always have the appearance of brightness and joy about us. The danger with this is that people start trying to force joy or force happiness instead of it being something that rises from within. This is what we know as "putting on a show" or a "facade." The smiles become superficial because the "joy" is only so deep. It becomes hypocritical.

Everything is alright, everything is ok, nobody is sad, because if you're sad then you don't have the joy of the Lord. Shove aside any feeling of frustration, sadness, anger, or discontentment and put on a happy face. This, of course, is unsustainable and quickly spotted, even by the world.

The world is not attracted to any of these things. Who wants to be a part of an organization that looks like the sucked on lemons all night and then ate pickles for breakfast? And who wants to be a part of an organization that pretends everything is fine and never faces the reality of situations.

Why is it that churches and individuals fall into these diches on opposite sides of the road we are supposed to be walking? because there is no real, deep conviction of sin, and there is only a superficial understanding of joy and happiness.

What do the beatitudes deal with? Being happy. Being happier than happy. So many people will spend their lives chasing this kind of joy. Like Solomon's record in Ecclesiastes, they chase after things that promise to fulfill that void, but it always turns out empty.

Even Christians, in their pursuit of happiness often chase down the doing of the 'right things" and fail to find that joy. Why is that?

Well, as we discussed a little last week, there must be an emptying of self before we can be filled up. There must be a negative before the positive.

In the context of this verse, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted, their must be mourning before comfort. Deep sadness before joy.

SO WHAT IS THIS MOURNING?

It is a spiritual conviction of sin. Building off of what we saw last week, we are poor in spirit because we bring nothing to the table that makes us worthy of salvation. In fact, Isaiah says that even the good things that we do, our works of righteousness, are as filthy rags.

When we come to God like that, empty and broken, the very next thing that happens is that we become convicted of sin. This conviction of sin is essential for conversion to happen.

But what about for those that are already Christian, are already converted? This Beatitude is not in the past tense, it is in the present tense. Blessed are they that mourn (present tense), not that mourned (past tense). I want to use the Apostle Paul as an example.

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

You would think, that Paul, one of the best examples of a Christ-led person, a man who wrote around half of the New Testament, a man that we would consider to have had a very, very close walk with the Lord, is now exclaiming, "O Wretched man that I am"?

This is a mournful statement. What could have cause such a grief laden sentiment to come from the lips of this servant of God and follower of Christ?

Romans 7:18-23 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Can you feel the frustration emanating from Paul?

Romans 7:18-23 (CSB-ish)

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) lives no good thing: I want to, but I am not sure how to do the good things that I want to do. 19 The good that I want to do, I do not: but the evil which I don't want to do, that I do. 20 Now if I do the things I don't want to do, it is no more I that do them, but sin that dwells in me.

21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in me, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in me.

That's rough! Paul, the great Apostle! frustrated by sin. Then he makes the statement, "O wretched man that I am!"

See, Paul, though close to the Lord as anybody, I would guess, was not immune to sin. He still fought a sin nature, the same sin nature we fight daily. And because he was imperfect, he failed sometimes. That sin in his life caused him to mourn.

Sin in our lives should cause us to mourn. The struggle we have with sin should cause us to mourn.

2 Corinthians 5:2,4 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

To mourn is something that will follow being poor in spirit. It is inevitable. And if I am to be poor in spirit constantly as a Christian, then I am seeing that I am empty, I am seeing God in His holiness, that then magnifies the fact that there are shortcomings and sin in my life which then causes me to mourn.

This is what we call self-examination, and Paul exercised it and through the Holy Spirit commanded us to regularly do it as well. In fact, all of whom we would call the "great preachers" recommended and practiced self-examination themselves.

If we were to practice this self-examination at the end of every day, we would all be conscious of having help thoughts and ideas that are unworthy and having committed sins. transgressions of God's law that are a direct affront to Him.

The Christian that chooses to do this will be afflicted with a sense of sorrow, of grief. This then makes him mourn.

Every time we examine ourselves, we ought to be going through the frustration that Paul expressed in Romans 7. We should be frustrated when the good things we set out to do were not done. We should feel frustrated and sorrowful when the evil which we promised we would abandon was practiced yet again. This should cause us to mourn in our spirit.

But it should do more than that. We must ask ourselves the questions: Why am I not in control of my anger? Why should I be irritable? What makes me behave like that? When we do, we will discover this war within ourselves, and come to hate the fact that there is a war between good and evil within us.

We should mourn mourn, not only our own sin, but we should mourn the state of society and the world. As we see the headlines and hear the news being delivered of murders, riots, kidnappings, wars, and corruption, it should cause a sense of disgust within us. We should mourn the sin of others. We should be saddened over it, not sit in judgement, but sit in sorrow.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, was described as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Toward the end of Matthew, in chapter 23, Jesus pronounces woes upon various cities and regions. He looks out over Jerusalem and sees the spirit of the city, rejecting him and bringing condemnation upon themselves, and he grieves and says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you. How often would I have gathered you up like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

We ought to mourn for those that are living in sin.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE HAPPY?!

Yes, when we mourn to the Lord in this way, a believer, a citizen of the Kingdom is made happy. That happiness comes only from the Spirit of God, and it comes as we are comforted.

What is the comfort that the Spirit provides, what is this happiness that He produces in us?

Well, the person who truly mourns about his sin is the person that is going to repent.

2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

The man, then, that mourns over his sin, repents; and the man that repents as a result of the Holy Spirit working godly sorrow in him is a man that will be led by Jesus.

He has seen that he brings nothing of worth to the table, he has seen that he does not hold the keys to his own happiness, he has seen his utter sinfulness, and that leads him to sook to the Savior alone.

This is the man that cries out like Paul, "O wretched man that I am!"

When we look to the savior, we find comfort because we find forgiveness of sin and relief of guilt.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We are made clean and don't have to live anymore with the burden of guilt.

The man that mourns for the war that between good and evil also receives comfort. Comfort is brought by knowing that we are here only for a little while, but one day we will be with the Lord. When shall be be free from this body of death! Paul did say, "O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death; this body of corruption; this sin-infested flesh!" But the very next verse he tells us who!

Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

There is comfort knowing that soon, our bodies are going to be perfect. We won't have this sinful corrupted flesh anymore; we will have a new and perfect body, untainted by sin. When we get to the presence of the Lord, we won't have that frustration of wanting to do the right thing and fighting not to do the wrong things.

It is our blessed hope, as Paul puts it.

Yes, when the Christian looks at this world, and even when we look at ourselves, it makes us unhappy. We groan in our spirit and even mourn.

But IMMEDIATELY we are comforted knowing there is coming glory, coming freedom. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. There will, one day, be a Kingdom of Heaven that is physically set up encompassing heaven and earth.

And when we mourn for the sin of others, we are comforted then as well. How? you might ask. Well, in the fact that God is still saving souls. People are still being drawn to Him and being transformed. Sinners are still being saved, and that means hope for the lost that we know.

In the last year and a half now, now, because of the ministry of this church, we have had at least 5 people saved, 9 have been baptized and we will be having another baptism soon, and 10 people join the church. We are seeing God working in our lives. Some of y'all are working on the spiritual markers exercise from Wednesday night, and you are seeing all that God had done in your own life over the years. We are seeing people grow, families grow together, spouses serve together, our own community is being impacted with the Gospel, and ALL OF THAT BRINGS HOPE AND COMFORT to the mourning spirit.

Blessed are they that mourn.

Happy are the sad, for they shall be comforted.

Pray.

Invitation:

I would like to close referencing 2 Corinthians 7:10 that says that Godly sorrow brings about repentance for Salvation, but the sorrow of this world brings about death.

There is a difference between being repentant and feeling guilty. Being repentant means that you turn from your sin. You stop looking for happiness and fulfilment in other things. You stop living life the way you want to, and instead you follow Jesus.

Feeling guilty just means you feel bad about the sin you have committed. Just feeling bad about it doesn't do anything for you. I will liken that feeling to the drunk who wakes up in the morning covered in his own vomit swearing he will never touch a drop of alcohol again, but that same evening is five drinks in as he has forgotten already the bad and guilty feeling he had earlier.

No, Godly sorrow is brought about by seeing God in His holiness and realizing we are wretched. The prophet Isaiah wrote this: In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah had a sense of his own sinfulness when he finally say the Lord for who he was, high, lifted up, and holy. He decried, "Woe am I, for I am a man of unclean lips. I am a sinner, and I just saw God! I am going to die."

When he mourned his unworthiness, when he mourned his sinfulness, then God cleansed him and took away his sin, making Isaiah, because of God's forgiveness, worthy to stand before the throne of God and have a conversation with Him.

Christian, Satan brings guilt for our sin, and it does nothing but stop us in our tracks. When we truly mourn to the Lord about our sin, the Holy Spirit brings about repentance and a cleanness after we confess our sin to the Lord, which brings about true happiness.

Is there sin in your life?

When was the last time you self-examined?

Life Groups

How does Matthew 5:4 challenge conventional thoughts about happiness?

To what lengths do people go to not have to be sad?

What is your understanding of the difference between feeling guilty and having godly sorrow?

What are the facts pertaining to our sin-guilt according to the following verses: Acts 13:39, Romans 3:24, 1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9 - "unrighteousness" = g0093. ἀδικία adikia; from 94; (legal) injustice (properly, the quality, by implication, the act); morally, wrongfulness (of character, life or act): — iniquity, unjust, unrighteousness, wrong. This word means "guilt". We are cleansed, freed from the guilty feeling when we confess our sins.

How does the concept of mourning over sin apply to our relationships with others?

What practical steps can Christians take to engage in self-examination and experience genuine mourning over sin?

Explain how true joy comes from mourning over our sin.

28JAN2024@GNBC