Good Mourning
lanny smith
Reboot / Repentance; Grief; Comfort / Matthew 5:4
• David’s story of failure.
• Considered Israel’s greatest king - promised a line of succession eternally.
• Sort of our George Washington-Abraham Lincoln-John Wayne-(young) Brad Pitt with a dash of Harry Connick Jr.
• 2 Samuel 11 tells the story of David’s greatest failure: His affair with Bathsheba.
• David sees her, wants her, gets her.
• Kills her husband when he finds out she’s pregnant.
• Marries her.
• In chapter 12, Nathan, God’s prophet, confronts David who is doing everything he can to hide the situation. Finally David confesses:
2 Samuel 12:13 NLT
13 Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin.
• David went a step further in acknowledging his sin: He proclaimed to all Israel:
Psalm 51:1–4 NLT
1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. 3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
• A few verses later, he begs God for forgiveness:
Psalm 51:8–12 NLT
8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. 9 Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
• David is exhibiting what we used to call “godly sorrow.”
• He started off like most of us do:
• Try your hardest to hide the wrongdoing. (let’s call it what it is: sin.)
• We’re really sorry when we get caught, right?
• Most of us are capable of recognizing that there are consequences to wrongdoing.
• Have you ever caught a child red-handed doing something wrong?
• There’s that shock and surprise of getting caught.
• Then the realization that this isn’t going to go well.
• Then wailing and tears - not because they violated the rules but because they got caught.
• Reboot recap:
• 20022 - it’s time to “reboot” our thinking. If we’re waiting on our circumstances to auto-magically get better, we’re gonna wait an long time.
• What we CAN change is our minds:
Romans 12:1–2 NLT
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
• We can, by God’s grace, restore our minds to “optimum.”
• This, in turn, changes our values, morals, beliefs, (our hearts).
• Ultimately, resulting in different actions, behaviors.
• The “reboot” settings are found in Jesus’ beatitudes in Matt. 5.
• This week, we look at:
Matthew 5:4 NLT
4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
• In these “blessed are” statements, Jesus changes our thinking, feeling and actions to align with Him.
• Last week, we considered what it means to recognize our overwhelming need to rely on God. That we are, indeed, poor in spirit.
• This week, in order to find God’s approval (be blessed), we are instructed to mourn.
Good Mourning
Matthew 5:4 NLT
4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
• We usually use “mourn” in the context of sorrow over loss. We mourn the loss of a loved one. We mourn when we have a significant material loss.
• It is, in fact, true that God is there for us when we grieve over death. We have comfort when our circumstances are tragic.
• But here, Jesus is prodding us to look inside for that “reboot.”
• Mourn, here, is godly sorrow like David’s sorrow over his sin with Bathsheba.
• Godly sorrow over what? Brokenness that leads to sin, rebellion.
• Essentially,
God approves of us when we are broken-hearted over brokenness.
• We must mourn over our own brokenness.
Psalm 51:17 NLT
17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
James 4:9 NLT
9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.
• We mourn over the brokenness we see in people.
2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT
10 For 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. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
Psalm 119:136 NLT
136 Rivers of tears gush from my eyes because people disobey your instructions.
Coming Alongside In Comfort
Matthew 5:4 NLT
4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
• Jesus promises us that the blessing of godly sorrow is to have God come along side of us, to encourage and strengthen us.
• That’s what comfort means.
• It’s the same root word in Gk. that forms paraclete - Jesus’ description of the Holy Spirit in John’s gospel.
John 14:16 ESV
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
• It means “to encourage, to hold up.”
• It’s the immediate and continuous presence of God in our lives when we choose to be broken-hearted over sin and rebellion.
Isaiah 40:1 NLT
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT
4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
Psalm 126:5 NLT
5 Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.
The Reboot
• Pray - Your will be done.
Matthew 6:10 NLT
10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
• Connection
Romans 12:15 NLT
15 Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.
• Hope
1 Thessalonians 4:13 NLT
13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.
