Can Sorrow Be a Good Thing? | Matthew 5:4

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning into another episode of The Bible Guys. Man. I'm excited about this one. Oh yeah, it's Friday. Oh it's Friday. Friday. Yeah, yeah, I like Fridays. Fridays are great. Although you and I are filming this on. A what's today Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, but Tuesday Friday, it's all good. Yeah, but it's Friday and spirit we are living like we're in the spirit of Friday. Yes, because our listeners are experiencing it right now. That's correct. So, hey, guys, we are in the middle of the series about the beatitudes of Christ found in the Sermon of the mount But before we get into that, this Friday segment is a very familiar one. It's everybody's favorite, is it it is? Don't you think? I don't know, Maybe I think it is. I think out of all the segments we have, maybe. Yes, yes, And it's what made Chris mad this year. Yeah, although she said it was Typo she just met this week. Well, I saw it, it says this year. I know the Bible says, out of the abundance of heart, the mouth speaks. That's really what was in her heart, is what she typed. Well, I will say this is it is the last thing that I could think of in this year. How about that? Okay, because it's still twenty twenty five this podcast. Okay, Actually, when we're filming. Ok and normally I want to say this. This took me by surprise. I didn't look at the show sheet because I was looking up something else. Yes, So I wasn't sure what the segment was. Yes, And normally if there's a what made Chris mad this week moment? Yes, we actually have to pause between the recording of the fourth episode and the courting recording of the fifth episode, and you leave the space and I go to the restaurant, you go take some time, and then you come back and go all right, I got it. Yeah. And you didn't even have to think twice about this. No, I knew immediately. You didn't have to get up and leave nothing. You just I know. Because I am angry every single day about what I'm about to tell you, every day every day for the past year, three weeks. Oh, okay, Okay, So here's what happened. So at the beginning of December, do you remember the Amy Grant concert that I bought tickets for. Yes, I remember that. So it was kind of a big deal. A bunch of you guys went yeah, yeah, yeah Grant, Michael Wis Smith, yeah, yesc Wings. So that was like December whatever, it was fourth or fifth or sixth or something like that. That was the first time it snowed. Yes, it did. Okay, so it snowed that weekend. It was a lighter snow. It was uh, I mean, it was a little slushy, but it was easily shoveled. And I was absolutely convinced that it was going to. Melt away, which it never did. It didn't, And. I said, and so here's what happened. What happened was I just said to my son, and I had the time to do it and Stephen, so I said, I'm not going. To shovel, it'll just melt. The reason why is because it said on the Weather Channel and on my Troy Weather app or my weather app that's built into my iPhone. Both of them said that Tuesday was going to be thirty nine degrees. Thirty nine degrees okay. Yes, So it was like thirty four, thirty three degrees or something that day. So I'm thinking, okay, so it may melt today because you know, anything over above thirty two it's gonna it's gonna get there if there's sun out there and everything else. I'm thinking, but Tuesday, thirty nine. Degrees, it'll all milt, It'll all. Melt as long as their sun. It looked like there were sun. I'm like, did it get to thirty nine degrees? This is what made Chris mad. I'm mad at the weathermen. Oh good, the weather man, it's about time. But the weather women, the weather men, the weather people. The weather people, because it not only did it shift and it wasn't thirty nine degrees, but it was like sixteen degrees. Right, and so I remember seeing the same thing going on. What just happened is you're off by twenty degrees. The discrepancy between the two makes me mad. Now listen, I can forgive weather people, I can forgive a few degrees, but like a twenty degree difference, I am outrageous to man. I am with you, yeah, I am with you on this one. Now Here's why I'm mad every day because you know when the snowplow puts that stuff at the end of your driveway that has now become the ice wall in the Game of Thrones. Oh, because you didn't go clean. My car drives like boo boom, boom boom, and it has done that for three solid weeks because I did not clean it out. So I'm on the way to the concerts, I said, Steve, here, here's what's even worse. Not only did I have the time, I didn't feel like doing it. Then my son said, who's twenty seven? He said, hey, you want me to do that real quick? And I said, nah, just leave it. So you're mad at yourself too. No, the weather madecause you made weathers based on the information you had, Yes, and the information you had was faulty, that's correct, And so now it has become And then of course there was like another one. There was another snow, then another snow, and somehow it just added more, added more, added more, and I can't chip away add it at all. And it is it is. I'm not kidding. It's a mountain. It's a mountain for. Our listeners who who don't live whether it's regular so oh. Yeah, good call. We have people literally listening in the Dominican right now. Yeah. So during the winter, normally in our part of Michigan, if you go an hour north, they'll have snow all winter long. An hour and a half north, yes, they'll have snow all way along. But for where we're at, normally, we'll get a little bit of snow, you know, a couple of inches, and then it'll just it'll warm up just enough, the snow goes away, and then it'll snow a few days later or a few weeks later. And so we're not accustomed to just having non stop snow, and so we do look to see what is going to be the temperature a couple of days from now. Is it just gonna melt or do I need to go shovel it? And then that snow wasn't very deep, and so when you look at it and you go, oh, my snowblower really isn't gonna have that big effect on it, and I don't want to shovel it. It'll melt, And then it didn't. Instead, it was twenty degrees colder than what they said it was going to be, and then it's stayed cold. And then what happens is when we when we drive on that snow, it packs it down really tight. Yeah, and even if we did go out to shovel it, it's really hard to shovel that part, so it gets stuck. So now my driveway it has a slant to it. Right, you drive up a little hill on my driveway and it's ice, so we have to put salt down to melt it. Right, and even then, I've only melted about half my driveway. It's been three weeks. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you this. It is so dangerous if you park in the street, which I often have to because people leave earlier than me. If I come home later, depends on when we all come in the driveway. But like I last night, I came home and I was like, oh, they're parked on either side. I'm gonna leave a little bit later. So I parked in the street and then I had to walk over the mountain. And as I walk over the mountain, I'm talking like it's like four feet wide. Wow, Like I have to I have to walk four. Feet up pure and not only the four feet, but it's but it's like up and downhill. I'm not kidding. Do you do you bottom out when you drive over it. No no, no, no, not with the truck. But what I'm saying is like I literally thought to myself, what if my wife had to park in the street, what if my daughter had to park in the street. Because if they go down and all you do is slip, and then if you land on your back on that, on that little mount of ice, you could hurt yourself. And I thought to myself, I'm gonna hurt my I'm gonna I'm gonna hurt my family all because of the weathermen, not because of me. Because the weathermen. You know, what you need to do is have you seen at home depot those those flamethrowers they've got. From Yeah, flamethrow the whole thing. Isn't that what you need? So that's what I do. I need to out there and just blast out, crack the whole side. Because I've been looking I've been looking at him. Yeah yeah, I've been looking at him thinking I might need a flamethrower. Yeah. Well, I mean it wouldn't be a bad purchase. Yeah, I got to tell you that, okay, because I'm. Tired of it. Well, this is what made you mad. I'm so angry you were misled by the weather man. Yes, and it's cost you three weeks of danger. Not just inconvenience, Jeff, danger, danger, danger in your family. Yep, that's why I'm mad. Well, good well, thank you, Chris. And what a good one to end the year with. Yes, that's a good one. I agree, So I like it. I prove I approve of that message. Why, because I'm in agreement with you. So this week or now, we spent the first couple of days, God blesses those who are poor in spirit realize their need for Him. And then the next beatitude, which is this is the first day of the next beatitude is God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. And that's a that's a strange verse. I don't always feel blessed when i'm morning. Yes, that's right. Well, you know what, Jeff. I actually looked it up because I wanted to read an article about the word mourn, and I think this is an interesting take on it. So this is coming out of a study Bible, and it says this isn't the only mourning, isn't only grieving about a death or personal loss, although it does include that. But in scripture, mourning often means deep sorrow over sin, brokenness and the state of the world, over our own sins, repentance, mourning over the pain or injustice or the brokenness around us, mourning over the separation of God, and longing for things to be made right. This kind of mourning shows a heart that cares and a heart that hasn't grown numb. Now, I thought that was an interesting take. That's a fabulous statement. Yeah, this kind of mourning shows a heart that cares and a heart that hasn't grown numb to mourn over pain and justice, brokenness, separation from God, separation from God because of our sin, and repentance because of our sin. I think that that is a great statement. I think sin often numbs us. Yeah, right, that we get used to it. I have a story about that, but first, let's just read Matthew chapter five. He says, God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. And then in along the line of the sin side of this mourning our own sin, Jesus says when he taught us to pray, forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And there is a lot of there's a big gap between people's view of sin. Even within the Church. There are some who want you to think we are only always ever sinners and we are wretched in God's sight and horrible and all those kinds of things, and we are wretched and we are sinners. Certainly. Then there's others who only highlight the fact that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus grace is great. Just do whatever you want to do. We can't keep the rules anyway, so I even try. Just just live your own life, your way, and whenever you sin, it's a mistake. And they don't want to talk about sin. They want to talk about the little mistakes we make, or we tripped up a little bit, and we forget the gravity of our sin. And so this idea of mourning we need to live in between those two ideas a little bit. On one side. Yes, we are are are sinners, and apart from Jesus, it's only always ever sin and at the same time, grace abounds and so we don't have to walk in guilt. But there is this I was thinking about and I just looked it up in Oh I missed it in first Tewod Corinthians. He talks about having a godly sorrow. Right, God's word leads us to a godly sorrow. The Book of James, chapter four talks about He says, let there be sorrow and deep grief over your sin. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Then he says, humble your e before the Lord, and he will lift you up. And I lifts you up. Right. That's great. So these ideas of when it comes to heaven, I can celebrate the fact that grace exists for me. God extends his mercy, he offers me his grace. I don't have to grieve over the fact that I'm such a horrible human I'm never gonna be able to make it to heaven. At the same time, it's not inappropriate for me to grieve over the fact that I've hurt my heavenly Father after all the good he's done for me. And I think that that's that godly sorrow, that repentance that leads you know, that leads to godly sorrow is the God. I'm just sorry that I hurt you, not like, oh my gosh, God, most of us again, because we think of God as our lucky charm. It's going to get us to heaven and make all our wildest dreams come true. We're afraid of offending him because we're afraid of the consequences for ourself not going to heaven. Right, that's done. Grace and mercy have been extended. If you've trusted, that's a resolved issue. That's never an issue for you ever. Again, it's done. You can have joy and rejoice in the fact that He has washed you clean and you are clothed in Jesus righteousness. But now when I sin, it's more of a man. I'm sorry. You deserve better for me. Right, Right that Romans twelve talks about give our bodies as a living sacrifice. It's a reasonable act of worship. And that's where I think that godly sorrow comes in. Is not sorrow like I'm on my way to hell, but rather a godly sorrow of God. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that, and you deserve better from me, and I want to be a better man. What was that old song? It's like I caused all the pain he gave himself the day he wore my cross. Oh yeah, yeah, I or that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And what is it I caused all the pain? Anyway. The point is is that it's the idea that like my sin put him on the cross right right, And it's that sentiment that is always a good sentiment to carry. In fact, we just did communion just a few days ago on Sunday morning, and it took some time during communion, and I explained that the purpose given by Jesus for communion is to reflect reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. And by the way, if people grew up the way that I grew up, a lot of times you don't really think that deep about the purpose of communion. You sort of do it, and you sort of know things about it and what it's supposed to symbolize and things like that, but you don't really understand that Jesus said, no, no. No, no, no no. Like, whenever you do this as often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me, my body that's broken, my blood that was poured out for you. This is why you do it. You do every time you eat this bread or drink of this cup till you proclaim the Lord's death, until he comes you're proclaiming the sacrifice of Christ, which means you're reflecting on the sacrifice that was made for you. And that's part of it. Part of it is sorrow for your sin, and you're owning your responsibility. I think of that statement that said, this kind of mourning shows a heart that cares and a heart that's not very numb. I think of what Hoseah ten when it says it's time to break up the fallow ground of your hearts, right so that the Lord may come and reign righteousness upon you. Or Psalm fifty one where it says the sacrifices that God really wants are broken and contrite heart. That's what David said, right, Or it says in Ezekiel, He'll replace your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, you know. And so there's a lot of different scriptures that talk about not having a callous heart, that we should have a tender heart, a heart toward God. And I think a lot of that is having mourning, mourning being a part of being broken over, you know, our part of responsibility for sin. But then also I think it also extends to the brokenness of the world. The injustices of the world. That's where our compassion comes in, right. Yeah, And the blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. So that verse I was trying to think of. In second conaty, in seven verse ten, he says, for the kind of sorrow God wants, so blessed are those who mourn. Okay, what kind of morning does he want? Is for us to experience the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. That's interesting. No regret the times that I realize what I've done is wrong, I regret the action, but I don't regret the sorrow. Isn't it an interesting Yeah? And he says, but worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance results in spiritual death, isn't it. Isn't that an interesting statement? So sorrow with that hope, so godly sorrow leads me to say God, I'm sorry. And then that's the right way. So I think of King David. Remember when his son Absolom David got into sin. His world kind of fell apart. His family started falling apart, and then Absolom goes out and does a terrible thing, and David banishes him from the family for like three years, and during that time, he's trying to pull you know, Absolom is very winsome, he's very handsome, he's very very articulate. He's a little bit of a peacock. But people admire him because he's so strong and so sharp. And he starts kind of drawing people to himself. And the Bible says that he finally goes back, he wants to go to his dad, and his dad says won't allow him at all. Yeah, he was a terrible father in this phase of his. Hey, yes, he won't allow him to come back, right, he won't allow any connection with him, which is interesting. The Bible says he never never disciplined his kids. Remember that. It mentions that a couple of times he. Avoid Yeah, he avoided the conversation altogether. And so then Absolom gets bitter and he leaves and he's like, that's it. And now he starts bringing in the generals. He starts bringing all the people. He starts going around and kind of pointing out his dad's failures and saying, how you know if I was the king, this is what I would do. And he pulls off a full blown coup over the fact that David never allowed Absolom to repent. He never allowed this sorrow of being separated to ever come to a point where hey, we're gonna go ahead and confront this tough thing and we're gonna make it right. There was never an opportunity to make it right, and so it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And so it's the same with godly sorrow. It leads us to go to God in first John one nine, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and he's just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So godly sorrow leads us to repentance. And when we go to repent, everything is better. He makes it new right right. But this he says, godless sorrow or on god worldly sorrow lacks repentance, is what the verse says, which results in spiritual death. And this spiritual death, I really think it's shame, yeah, right, and that shame causes us to spiral and spiral. And you know, I've had people in my life that I knew that carried a certain amount of shame, and then when they fell off the wagon, they went the whole way more and more, just piled more and more shame on, like I don't deserve forgiveness, I don't reserve a relationship with God, and just keep spiraling there. And that's what sorrow without repentance brings, is this death, this shame, this whereas God forgives us and gives us life. And that's the contrast between, you know, the kind of comfort. He says, blessed to those who mourn, they shall be comforted. Right, And because of the word comfort there, we have a tendency to associate the word mourning with like somebody dying, or like a grief for a loss. Right, because there's comfort there, but it goes beyond that. The comfort is divine comfort, not just emotional relief. Right. So it says here there's forgiveness of sin comfort, there's the presence of God in suffering comfort, and then there's hope of restoration comfort. And this comfort is both present because God meets us now through his Holy Spirit and future complete healing in God's coming kingdom, which I thought was interesting. And then also this other note says one more thing. It says why are they called blessed? And it's blessed means happy, but not in the shallow sense, because it comes from the Greek word makarios, which means to be deeply satisfied, or to be approved by God, or to be spiritually whole. Isn't that interesting? So when you say, oh, blessed are they? Or or happy? Are they? What you're really meaning by happy? Isn't just like AWE makes me happy? It's like, no, you're deeply satisfied, which is richer. You're approved by God, you're spiritually whole. And those don't. Those who feel the weight of brokenness instead of ignoring it, are actually in the best position to mourn. I just think that that's Those are great notes. Yeah, yeah, So, godly sorrow this this morning doesn't make you feel worse about your sin unless you don't feel bad about your sin at all. Right, God's God's goal is not to not to put to heap shame on you. God's goal is for it to for this, this godly sorrow, to move you away from your sin and towards Him. Right, And if that's the result of it, then you thank God. For it. That means you're not numb to God. Right. The Bible says that it's possible for us to grieve the Holy Spirit. I think a lot of that is to decide to ignore him, no longer be aware of him, be kind of dead to God's move in our life. And not only does our personal sin draw us, just like you said, closer to God, but the sin of others. If we mourn over that, it could draw us toward the things of God or the things God wants to do in our lives. Right, So we could be moved over an injustice in the world, and that because we're moved and because we mourn over it, that could push us toward being a part of that which God wants for our lives. Right, So, all the great things that God wants to accomplish in this world, he can move us toward those things because we have we're mourning over the brokenness of the world, not just our own sins. Which when we get our sin in the right place in our life, that's when it becomes possible. When Jesus says, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. When I realize how God treated me and my sin. How many times did Jesus give stories or parables about guys who refused to who went and asked for forgiveness from the king and then refuse to forgive, you know, fellow servants or whatever. There's so many times that Jesus would tell those things. It's possible. It's far easier for me to forgive somebody when I realize I've been forgiven. Paul tells us that right forgive as you've been forgiven. Jesus says, forgives you as you've been forgiven. It's way easier. How people say, Jeff, I can never forgive that person, And then I'll say, well, then you haven't yet realized how much you needed to be forgiven. Well I didn't do that, No, you didn't. But your sins put Jesus on the cross too. And we want to focus, and we want to magnify the sin that that person did against us, and we want to minimize our sin, and we have not yet gotten to the point where we realize how devastatingly bad our own sin is. When we get to that point, it makes it far easier for us to forgive others because we've been forgiven I can joyfully choose to say God forgave me, and if He forgave me, I can humbly choose to forgive you. You know, it brings new light to that word tenderhearted in two four thirty two. If he's in four thirty two says be kind one to another, tender hearted forgiving one another, even as in those two words, even as mean in the same manner. Yeah, right, in the same way that all Christ also forgave me through that God, through Christ, has forgiven you. And so it's it's an amazing thought that number one, that we're supposed to forgive in the same way we've been forgiven. But then also the tender hearted piece is the antithesis of having a hardened heart. Well tenderhearted in this is just going I get it right, right, It doesn't surprise me that you're a sinner. I'm a sinner to these sinners, sin against other sinners and against God. And yeah, if I can get my heart right with God and understand what it took for Him to forgive me, then I can I can be tender hearted towards the others. Hey, I know that's our time, but it also reminds me of one time I was angry at somebody, some guy had done something wrong, and I said, can you believe he acted this way? And what a jerk? And I was just going on and on, and I was saying it to my counselor, and I was going to use to a counselor for a long while. And my counselor said, man, he goes, I bet that he has some really a lot of unprocessed wounds. That's what it sounds like to me, that poor guy has a lot of unprocessed wounds and it's coming out in this way, probably because of these reasons in his life. And all of a sudden, it had me think of this person in an entirely different light. And I'm like, oh, he's acting this way out of his brokenness, right, And it was, and it's the tenderhearted piece, but it's also, to be honest with you, mourning over his sin, in his brokenness that he's experienced in his life. So it led me to forgiveness, right, So it's an interesting it's an interesting take on all that. Right, it all comes together, doesn't it. So all right, welly, that's definitely our time. So hey, thanks for tuning in. And hopefully we'll see you on Monday on the Bible Guys To stand ins