Happy Are The Hurting - Part 1

Under non-Christian when someone's life is untouched. What time we were blessed by Jesus is a real blessing is for those who endure because I consult; Dr. David Jeremiah takes a closer look at that special place in their gardens and suffering satisfaction from the series how to be happy. According to Jesus's diver is message happy well today were going to jump into a another beatitude. Another characteristic of happiness.

According to Jesus today.

Our lesson is happy hurting, blessed are those most astounding truths about our generation is the belief that happiness and freedom, especially freedom from pain are our inalienable rights as American citizens. If a man manages his life well I think he has the right to live above pain and to enjoy happiness and down deep inside all of us. We know that only children believe that pain always goes away, and even they learn very early in life that it really not true only one group of people that I know who achieved.

In actuality, the eradication of all pain and they are the insane, and they do it by denying reality instead of finding reality. In contrast to ideas of the pain-free society.

Dr. Joseph Avery, disciple of Victor Frankel one time wrote these words he said central to man's life is the pursuit of meaning and not the pursuit of happiness. We only invite frustration. If we expect life to be primarily pleasurable now. I think all of us in somewhere. Another are acquainted with grief. How many could give a witness to the fact that you express a little grief in the aging process interview done the mirror thing lately and you know what what really kills me about that is we set aside one day a year to celebrate the whole thing I can figure that out.

I mean every one of us read we do and then we we send cards to each other. You will not believe the cards we send to each other is going some friends at a dinner meeting the other night. The meanest card ever got was like this.

It's kind of a process card on the front of it. It says hi on the birthday fairy menu opening and there's a little flap inside it says every year on your birthday. I touch you with my magic wand and you look one year older and open up to the center and it said good night man, I must beat the tar out of you and I grieve over that. I want you to know I grieve over not being able to go out of the basketball court and literally compete with my two sons on me and it got a lot better but got a lot worse and so all of us know a little bit about that surprising to me how in our culture especially is this true, I think among those who are Christian people. We have tried to deny this truth of grief and pain. I even know some people who have developed a theology that excludes it theology that says that has no place in the life of the person who lives by faith. And yet I read the Bible and from cover to cover. I find no attempt on the part of any of the biblical writers to ever ignore the presence of pain and sorrow and hurt Abraham left when Sarah died. Genesis 23 David mourned over the loss of his son Absalom and I can hear his wail often when I think of the story or my son Absalom, my son, my son would God I had died instead of you.

My son Absalom, my son, my son Jeremiah. My namesake preached his message of judgment, but he didn't do it with hard, angry tones.

He wept as he preached.

In fact, in the ninth chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy. He says all that, my head were waters in my eyes. A fountain of tears that I might reap day and night for the slaying of the daughter of my people in the New Testament of father wept as he brought his demon possessed son to Jesus. We asked Jesus to heal his son Jesus said all things are possible. If you believe the Bible says that the man cried out with tears. I do believe, help thou mine unbelief and his son was healed. A woman came to Jesus and the Scripture say she washed Jesus with her tears and she dried them with her own hair. When Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus, his friend the shortest verse in the Bible records what he did. John 1135 says Jesus wept when Jesus saw the lostness of the people in the city of Jerusalem. The Bible says he wept because he loved the people so much. Hebrews tells us that when he anguished in the garden of Gethsemane.

It was with strong crying and tears. Peter denied the Lord. Remember that and when he realized what he had done. Matthew 26 tells us he went out and he wept bitterly after the death of Jesus those who have loved him and walked with him.

We are told to gather together and they mourned in the web. Luke 1610, Mary Magdalene stood outside of Jesus.

Still not knowing about the resurrection. Yet in the Scripture says she wept tears of hurt and disappointment. When Paul was preaching to the Ephesian elders in the book of acts we are told, it night and day for a period of three years. He admonished them with tears and when it was time for him to leave the Ephesian elders would become so close to him. One of my most favorite stories in the New Testament in the 20th chapter of acts we are told that the Ephesian elders when they knew that Paul wasn't going to come to see them anymore. They fell on his neck and they wept bitterly. We survey the verses that are in the Bible we discover there are many kinds of tears there, tears of devotion like the tears that Mary said when she washed the Lord's feet.

There are tears of deep concern, like Paul Chad when he instructed the invasions peters tears were tears of deep regret as he realized that he had failed the Lord the Ephesian elders wept because one would meant so much to them will no longer be with them. Jesus shed tears of anguish as he wrestled with the will of God in the garden is were tears of great love and compassion as he stood before the tomb of Lazarus and is he realized that the people in Jerusalem as he said were like sheep without a shepherd. Then of course there are the tears of sorrow and loss that accompany death. Isn't it interesting that something that is so very clearly presented from cover to cover in the Bible, we have conveniently figured a way around so that we never ever talk about it and we leave ourselves so unprepared for something that is a part of life as we know it is all of the space it at some time or another. The experience of grief. The Bible does not ask us to pretend that we do not hurt.

And we are not to pretend that sorrow and disaster are not real but it does say to us that we sorrow not as others who have no hope. In fact, the Bible says that our tears are so special, but the psalmist in Psalm 56, eight, said that he asked God to keep his tears in a bottle for jewelry vendors. I must confess to you that when I open my Bible to the Beatitudes and the second beatitude goes like this. Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted. It really strips my gears this is a hard saying how can sadness ever be equated with gladness. It sounds like a contradiction in terms. How is hurting and happiness to be viewed together, how in the world do tears relate to laughter. One author has called us beatitude the bliss of the brokenhearted, and I must say to you men and women of all the paradoxes in the Bible. This one is the most violent and the most difficult to comprehend. In fact, some Freudian psychologists have pointed to the Beatitudes as proof that Jesus was unbalanced one of Freudian psychologist wrote in a speech prepared for the Society of medicine in Britain. He said the spirit of self-sacrifice which permeates Christianity and is so highly prized in the Christian religious life is masochism and he pointed to the Beatitudes as a supreme illustration.

Why wasn't exactly sure what masochism was. So I looked it up in the dictionary. This is what it says masochism is deriving pleasure out of being abused while is that what this beatitude is Jesus suggesting that there are some sick kind of pleasure we should receive from being sad for morning from tears. I don't think so and I think if we're willing to for a few moments. Think deeply and honestly. We will begin to understand the power and the purpose of this great truth, I have come to believe that these few statements which Jesus uttered are probably at the very core of life's most important truths. So how to happiness in morning go together. You will find your answer by discounting the pain.

There are nine words in the Greek text for morning and this is the strongest of the nine this word is so intense, it is usually accompanied with weeping it is most often associated with mourning for the dead is a sorrow which pierces the heart a kind of sorrow which you can see in the faces of those who have been in the tears that come down their faces. This is not cheap sorrow or surface pain or having a bad day so you want to sleep in.

Mrs. heard the very core of life. This morning, sorrow. So how do we resolve this paradox which says happy are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

I like to suggest you four ways you can look at this and end at the way I believe it was ultimately and purposely intended by our Lord. First of all, I believe happiness is discovered when we sacrifice the present to the future Bibles turn to Luke chapter 6 Luke is the only other gospel writer who records the Beatitudes, as did Matthew and he writes them just a little bit differently than Matthew did and especially this one for in Luke chapter 6 and verse 21 you will find Luke's account of this particular beatitude. This is how he says it. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh is a little different and it is a little different than the way. Matthew said it. It's like Luke was thinking that if a man accepts the crosses of his life now he will ultimately be able to wear the crown if a man chooses to live as if nothing matters beyond this world and he gets only what this world has to offer.

But if he chooses to live for the world. That is to come. He may meet all kinds of trouble and sorrow. Now, but he knows that there is a joy that awaits for him in the future. Blessed are those who weep now, for they shall laugh. The psalmist put it this way. Weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. You remember the story of Lazarus and IVs in the Gospels story. The Jesus told the rich man cries out to Abraham in pain after his death and Abraham said to them, these words he said son remember thou in thy lifetime receive us thy good things, and Lazarus. Likewise, evil things. But now he is comforted and you are tormented. Blessed are they who mourn now, for they shall laugh that that's exactly what was going on in that story.

We are always presented with two choices in life are we not, we can take the easy road now and sacrifice the joy of the future. Or we can sacrifice and discipline ourselves now and no joy of the future.

If we more. Now we may laugh later. Every student who hears my voice understands this truth. If you work hard, and discipline yourself and do your homework and turn in your assignments and get all your work done and try to review a little bit each day when exam week comes its joy in the morning but if you mess around and you don't do your homework and you you don't do what you're supposed to do and you put it off and you put it off. You have had joy.

Now what you're going to have pain in the future.

Twice the day before the test in the day after the test.

Maybe this is a general truth that we all give lip service to, and we agree with. This is a true statement. Most of the good things in life have been wrapped up in this central principle called postponed pleasure. Well, that's one way you could look at the beatitude, but let me suggest another happiness is discovered. Secondly, when we sympathize with those around us who suffer happiness belongs to those who sorrow for the sin and suffering of the world.

Happiness belongs to the man who feels the sorrow of his fellow man, here's a little story for you.

Here's a man who never mourns never ever he lives all by himself in a big house on the edge of town.

He left his childhood home at a very early age. He does not know whether his parents are alive or dead. He has lost touch with his own family and is never married. He has no friends. He visits no one, and no one visits him. That man will never mourn his life is perfectly insulated against sorrow. Would you call them happy. Now are sorrow you see is a product of our love and as our love grows it draws into its circle. Those who need our love. The very fact that a person mourns is the testimony to the deep love in his life. You cannot mourn someone you do not love the blessing of this beatitude is for those who, for Christ's sake refused to shield their hearts from the Greeks and the pains of others who feel the whip that is laid on the shoulders of another man who might be sheltered, but who choose to face the storm so they can help is like Moses, who refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter so that he could share the lot of his oppressed people. He was a mourner in that sense it is in the very heart of the missionary motive mourn is to sympathize. Happiness is discovered when we sympathize with those around us who suffer the third one is a hard one. And yet it's a very important one. Happiness is discovered when we sorrow for our own sin.

Blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed is the man who is moved to bitter sorrow at the realization of his own sin. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in second Corinthians chapter 7 godly sorrow works repentance to salvation and David in Psalm 3818 said, I will declare my iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin. Joel says it this way turn. He even to me with all your heart, with weeping, and with morning I asked myself why there is so little sorrow among God's people for sin to know when we were first starting out in the church and some of you who have habits greater than mine will remember this in some of the old-time churches and I've seen pictures of it in the early churches that used to hand out the front. What they call the mourners bench. Do you remember that and that was there specifically so that people could come in the service and sometimes after the service there there at that place called the mourners bench they could weep for their sin and what we do today.

We deflected we bury it we try to replace it with activity a few years ago a secular psychologist by name, manager who doesn't really have our background in terms of the truth of the word of God wrote a book called whatever happened to sin and the book was all about the terrible things that have happened in our culture because man has refused to face things around in his own life. When we do we have become a nation of victims would blame everybody in the world for the problems that are ours nice to think how wonderful it would be if we stand to our feet once in a while and in true honesty seeing the old spiritually goes like this, it's me, it's me or Lord, standing in the need of prayer is not my brother, sister, it's me oh Lord I love this one, not the deacon nor the pastor it's me oh Lord.

One of the interesting things about the Christian life is that the closer we get to the Lord more sensitive we become to the things in our life that are not the way they should be.

You show me a person who is arrogant about his walk with God who wants to tell you how great things are with him in the Lord who wants to stand up and tell you you know how close he is a person who gets close to the Lord is never to be like that because you see the closer you get to the standard, the more you realize how far you fall short of that standard.

Let me give you an illustration.

If you read the life of Paul. If you read the letters that he wrote you will discover on amazing thing. Paul wrote a bunch of letters in the New Testament. 13 and all in the first one he wrote was the book of Galatians when Paul sat down with pen in hand to write the book of Galatians, he began the book like this.

Paul and apostle seven years later he wrote the book of first Corinthians, and in the 15th chapter of first Corinthians, Paul wrote I am the least of the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle. Eight years later he wrote the book of Ephesians and in that book he wrote unto me, who am less than the least of the Saints's grace given.

Now he's even taken himself out of the apostolic category is gone down to the Seder category and says he is the least of the Saints in the last book that Paul wrote before he died. First Timothy this is what he said.

Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief grow as a Christian took him from being an apostle to being the chief of sinners. You know the Bible turns everything upside down doesn't look Paul illustrates is what we said as we talked this that the closer you get to the standard you walk with the Lord.

The closer you fellowship with him.

The more you realize how much room there is between him and us.

That's true humility and that's what happens along the way. Somebody put it this way, the more you know the more you know you don't know and that's what were learning well enough take a break for the weekend. I will come back on Monday and complete our discussion of happier the hurting and I hope you'll join us.

Then, in the meantime I don't want to tell you to go to church if you can't, because many of you can't here in California we keep struggling with that will have an outdoor church like we never had it before, but do the best you can to be with God's people as you're allowed to do it. Don't forget to watch us on television. Don't forget to watch our online service that you can get on Sunday.

You can find all about that at the church website, which is shadow Mountain.org and will be back on Monday to continue our teaching of Matthew chapter 5. Meantime see you on the Lord's day on television and we'll see you back here on Monday for the next edition message you just came from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Jeremiah senior cost is God touching your life through is about Turning Point PO Box 3838, San Diego, CA 9216 sided Jeremiah.org/right field copy of David's new Bible study John infinity of Christ as part of the Jeremiah Bible study series and was a gift of any amount you can also purchase the Jeremiah study Bible and the new English standard and new international missions, standard or lodgment in the new King James choice of several attractive visit Jeremiah.org/radio on Gary join us Monday as we continue to be happy. According to Jesus here on 70 point Jeremiah for taking time to listen to the frenzies in question