February 6, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
When someone's life is untouched by pain or grief, we
call them blessed. But Jesus said the real blessing is
for those who endure heartache and sorrow. Today, on Turning Point,
doctor David Jeremiah takes a closer look at that special
blessing and how God can turn suffering into satisfaction. From
(00:25):
the series How to Be Happy According to Jesus, here's
David to introduce his message, happy are the Hurting?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, today we're going to talk about a subject that
kind of cuts us all open, and we know what
it's like to hurt every one of us. It's not
possible to not have experienced that. But what about that
when we're Christians? People ask me that question over the years,
how come you're going through such terrible times when you're
a Christian? When I had cancer twenty five years ago,
(00:55):
and people say, how'd you get cancer? Aren't you a Christian? Well,
you don't get a pass when you become a you
don't get a pass through all the difficulties. In fact,
sometimes it seems like the fires turned up. And what
we learned during these difficult times, according to Jesus, is
that when you go through these times, it leads you
(01:15):
to a sense of joy and happiness that you could
never know outside of it. I'm not promising you I
can explain that completely, but I'm going to do my
best in these next two days to help us understand
that happy are the Hurting. As we face the weekend,
I'm going to remind you that you should take some
of the extra time you have this weekend to order
(01:37):
the book for this series. This book will really be
an encouragement to you because it's Twelve Habits of Truly
Happy Christians. It's really meant to be a primer and
a follow up on this series. It was written just
for this particular series that we're going through here in
(01:57):
the Book of Matthew. You can have your copy of
Twelve Habits of Truly Happy Christians by simply requesting it
when you send your gift to Turning Point during the
month of February. Don't wait till the end of the
month to do it now during this month, which is
often a difficult month for us financially, you could be
real blessing to us with your financial investment. Here is
(02:18):
part one of Happy or the Hurting.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
One of the 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, we think he has the right
to live above pain and to enjoy happiness. And yet,
(02:48):
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 it's really not true.
There are only one group of people that I know
who achieve in actuality, the eradication of all pain, and
(03:09):
they are the insane, and they do it by denying
reality instead of finding reality. In contrast to our ideas
of a pain free society. Doctor Joseph Fabery, a disciple
of Victor Frankel.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
One time wrote these words.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
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 some way or another, are
(03:47):
acquainted with the grief. How many can give a witness
to the fact that you experience a little grief in
the aging process. I mean of you done the mirror
thing lately, and you know what really kills me about
that is we set aside one day you're celebrate the
whole thing.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
I can't figure that out.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I mean, every one of us we do, and then
we send cards to each other. You would not believe
the cards we send to each other. I was telling
some friends at a dinner meeting. The meanest card I
ever got was like this. It's kind of a processed card.
On the front of it, it says, Hi, I'm the
birthday Ferry. And then you open it and there's a
little flap inside it says, every year on your birthday,
(04:30):
I touch you with my magic wand and you look
one year older. And I opened it up to the
center and it said, good night man. I must have
beat the tar out of you. And I grieve over that.
I want you to know I do. I agrieve over
(04:51):
not being able to go out in the basketball court
and literally compete with my two sons. I mean, they've
gotten a lot better, but I've gotten a lot worse.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
That's the worst part of it. And all of us
know a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
But it's surprising to me how in our culture and
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, a theology that says
that it has no place in the life of a
person who lives by faith. And yet I read the Bible,
(05:28):
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
wept when Sarah died Genesis twenty three.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
David mourned over.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
The loss of his son Absolom, and I can hear
his wail often when I think of this story, Oh,
my son, Absalom, my son, my son, would God I
had died instead of you on Absalom, my son, my son. Jeremiah,
my namesake, preached his message of judgment, but.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
He didn't do it with hard, angry tones. He wept
as he preached.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
In fact, in the ninth chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy, he says, Oh,
that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain
of tears, that I might weep day and night for
the slain of the daughter of my people. In the
New Testament, a father wept as he brought his demon
possessed son to Jesus, and when he asked Jesus to
(06:39):
heal his son, Jesus said, all things are possible if
you believe. And the Bible says that the man cried
out with tears. I do believe helped all mine unbelief,
and his son was healed. A woman came to Jesus,
and the scriptures say she washed Jesus' feet with her tears,
(07:00):
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 eleven
thirty five says Jesus wept when Jesus saw the lostness
of the people in the city of Jerusalem. The Bible
(07:21):
says he wept because he loved the people so much.
Hebrews tells us that when he anguished in the garden
of Gsemone, it was with strong crying and tears. Peter
denied the Lord. Remember that, and when he realized what
he had done. Matthew twenty six tells us he went
(07:42):
out and he wept bitterly. After the death of Jesus,
those who had loved him and had walked with him.
We are told they gathered together and they mourned, and
they wept. Luke sixteen ten, Mary Magdalene stood outside of Jesus' tomb,
not knowing about the resurrection yet, and the scripture says
she wept tears of hurt and disappointment. When Paul was
(08:08):
preaching to the Ephesian elders in the Book of Acts,
we were told that night and day for a period
of three years, he had monished them with tears, and
when it was time for him to leave, the Ephesian
elders who had become so close to him. One of
my most favorite stories in the New Testament. In the
twentieth chapter of Acts, we were told that the Ephesian elders,
(08:28):
when they knew that Paul wasn't going to come to
see them anymore, they fell on his neck and they
wept bitterly. When we surveyed the verses that are in
the Bible, we discovered there are many kinds of tears.
There are tears of devotion, like the tears that Mary
shed when she washed the Lord's feet. There are tears
(08:49):
of deep concern, like Paul shed when he instructed the Ephesians.
Peter's tears were tears of deep regret as he realized
that he had failed the Lord. The Ephesian elders wept
because one who had 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.
(09:12):
His were tears of great love and compassion as he
stood before the tomb of Lazarus, and as he realized
that the people in Jerusalem, as he said, were like
sheep without a shepherd. And 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
(09:33):
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,
because all of us face 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
(09:55):
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 that the Psalmist
in Psalm fifty six eight said that he asked God
to keep his tears in a bottle for him.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Did you ever read that verse?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
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.
(10:39):
How can sadness ever be equated with gladness? It sounds
like a contradiction in terms. How is hurting in happiness
to be viewed together? How in the world do tears
relate to laughter? One author has called this beatitude the
(11:01):
bliss of the broken hearted. 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 Freudian
(11:23):
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. Well, I wasn't exactly sure
(11:46):
what masochism was, so I looked it up in the dictionary,
and this is what it says. Masochism is deriving pleasure
out of being abused. Wow, is that what this beatitude is?
Is Jesus suggesting that there's some sick kind of pleasure
we should receive from being sad, from mourning, from tears.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
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.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
So how to.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Happiness and morning go together? You won't find your answer
by discounting the pain. There are nine words in the
Great Text for mourning, 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
(12:56):
for the dead. It is a sorrow which pierces the heart,
a kind of sorrow which you can see in the
faces of those who have it, and 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.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
This is hurt at the very core of life. This
is mourning sorrow.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
So how do we resolve this paradox which says, happy
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted? I
like to suggest to you four ways you can look
at this and end at the way I believe it
was ultimately and purposefully intended by our Lord. First of all,
I believe happiness is discovered when we sacrifice the present
(13:49):
for the future. If you have your Bible's turned to
Luke chapter six. 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.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Especially this one.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
For in Luke chapter six and verse twenty one, 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. That's 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,
(14:27):
he will ultimately be able to wear the crown. If
a man chooses to live as if nothing matters beyond
this world, then 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 waits for him in the future.
(14:47):
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.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Do you remember the story of.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Lazarus and Divies in the Gospels, the story that Jesus
told and the rich man cries out to Abraham in
pain after his death, and Abraham said to him these words.
He said, son, remember thou in thy lifetime receive us
thy good things, and Lazarus likewise evil things. But now
(15:21):
he is comforted and you are tormented. Blessed are they
who more now, for they shall laugh. 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
(15:44):
and know the joy of the future. If we more now,
we may laugh later. Every student who hears my voice
understands this truth.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
If you work hard and.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
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 don't do what
you're supposed to do, and you put it off, and
(16:21):
you put it off, you have had joy now, but
you're going to have pain in the future twice the
day before the test and the day after the test.
Maybe this is a general truth that we all give
lip service to, and we agree with.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
This is a true statement.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
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
(17:02):
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.
(17:23):
He left his childhood home at a very early age,
and he does not know whether his parents are alive
or dead. He has lost touch with his own family
and has never married. He has no friends, He visits
no one, and no one visits him.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
That man will never mourn.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
His life is perfectly insulated against sorrow.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Would you call him happy?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
No.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Our sorrow, you see, is a product of our love,
and as our love grows, it draws into its circle those.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Who need our love.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
The very fact that a person mourns is the testimony
to the deep love in his life.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
You cannot mourn someone you do not love.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
The blessing of this beatitude is for those who, for
Christ's sake, refuse to shield their hearts from the griefs
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. It's like Moses who refuse to be
(18:35):
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. To mourn is to sympathize. Happiness
is discovered when we sympathize with those around us who suffer.
(18:57):
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.
(19:19):
Paul wrote to the Corinthians in Second Corinthians, Chapter seven,
godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, and David in Psalm
thirty eight eighteen said, I will declare my iniquity. I
will be sorry for my sin. Joel says it this way,
turn ye even to me with all your heart, with
(19:40):
weeping and with mourning. I ask myself why there is
so little sorrow among God's people for sin when we
were first starting out in the church. And some of
you who have hair that's grayer than mine will remember this.
In some of the old time churches, and I've seen
pictures of it, But in the early churches they used
(20:02):
to have down at the front what they call the
mourner's bench.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Do you remember that?
Speaker 3 (20:07):
And that was there specifically so that people could come
in the service and sometimes after the service, and there
at that place called the mourner's bench, they could weep
for their sin.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Do you know what we do today?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
We deflect it, we bury it, we try to replace
it with activity. A few years ago, a secular psychologist
by the name of Carl Meninger, 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
(20:42):
face the things that are wrong in his own life.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
What do we do?
Speaker 3 (20:45):
We have become a nation of victims. We blame everybody
in the world for the problems that are ours. And
I used to think how wonderful it would be if
we'd stand to our feet once in a while and
in true honesty seeing the old spiritual that goes like this,
it's me. It's me O Lord standing in the need
of prayer. It's not my brother nor my sister. It's me,
(21:06):
O Lord. I love this one. Not the deacon nor
the pastor. It's me O Lord. And one of the
interesting things about the Christian life is that the closer
we get to the Lord, the more sensitive we become
to the things in our life that are not the
way they should be. You show me a person who
(21:28):
is arrogant about his walk with God, who wants to
tell you how great things are with him, and the
Lord who wants to stand up and tell you.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
You know how close he is.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
You know, a person who gets close to the Lord
is never going 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,
(21:57):
you will discover an amazing thing. Paul wrote a bunch
of letters in the New Testament, thirteen in all, and
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 an apostle. Seven years later he wrote the Book
of First Corinthians, and in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians,
(22:19):
Paul wrote, I am the least of the apostles and
not fit to be called an apostle.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Eight years later he wrote.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
The Book of Ephesians, and in that book he wrote,
unto me, who am less than the least of the saints,
is grace given. Now he's even taken himself out of
the apostolic category. He's gone down to the sainthood category
and says he's the least of the saints.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
In the last book that Paul.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Wrote before he died, one Timothy, this is what he said.
Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief. His growth as a Christian took him
from being an apostle to being the chief of sinners.
Now that's sort of upside down theology, isn't it. How
many of you would say my goal in life as
(23:07):
a Christian is to move from my apostolic realm to
be the chief of sinners.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Did Paul get worse as he got older?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Know, he got better, But as he got closer to
the Lord, and as he grew in his faith, he
became more sensitive to the things that were really true
about his life. And I think maybe if you put
all of the beatitudes together, at the center of this
truth is this. Blessed are they who are poor in spirit,
(23:35):
who know they are bankrupt without the Lord. Blessed are
they who mourn, who mourn over their bankruptcy, for they
shall be comforted.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Well, that's a good place for us to put our
period for this week, and we'll have some more about
this particular subject on Monday. Hey, let me remind you
on this Friday edition of Turning Point that something's coming
up on the weekend you don't want to miss.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
That's church. That's right, go to church.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
It's wonderful when you see your church full of people
who've come to be nurshed up in the good word
of God and to worship the Lord in their singing
and in their fellowship with each other. So don't be
left out of the church experience. It's God's way for
you to be accountable and to grow and be his
person and we'll be back here on Monday as we
(24:22):
continue our discussion of how to be happy according to Jesus.
You can get the monthly resource Twelve Habits of Truly
Happy Christians with your gift of any size to Turning Point.
All you have to do is send your gift and say,
please send me the book. And when you get it,
I think you'll sit down and start to read it
and you'll gobble it up because it is really good
(24:43):
and it will really be helpful to you. Thank you
for being with us this week. I hope you have
a great weekend. I'm David Jeremiah. I'll see you next time.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Right here.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you just heard came you from Shadow Mountain
Community Church and senior past doctor David Jeremiah. Turning Point
is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn
where to find it, visit our website Davidjeremiah dot org,
slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dotorg, slash Radio, or call eight
hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your
(25:18):
copy of David's book, Twelve Habits of Truly Happy Christians
with Jesus Prescription for Happiness. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study
Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's
decades of study. To let us know how this ministry
(25:39):
blesses you, write to Turning Point pobox thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue how
to be happy according to Jesus On Turning Point with
doctor David Jeremiah
When someone's life is untouched by pain or grief, we
call them blessed. But Jesus said the real blessing is
for those who endure heartache and sorrow. Today, on Turning Point,
doctor David Jeremiah takes a closer look at that special
blessing and how God can turn suffering into satisfaction. From
(00:25):
the series How to Be Happy According to Jesus, here's
David to introduce his message, happy are the Hurting?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, today we're going to talk about a subject that
kind of cuts us all open, and we know what
it's like to hurt every one of us. It's not
possible to not have experienced that. But what about that
when we're Christians? People ask me that question over the years,
how come you're going through such terrible times when you're
a Christian? When I had cancer twenty five years ago,
(00:55):
and people say, how'd you get cancer? Aren't you a Christian? Well,
you don't get a pass when you become a you
don't get a pass through all the difficulties. In fact,
sometimes it seems like the fires turned up. And what
we learned during these difficult times, according to Jesus, is
that when you go through these times, it leads you
(01:15):
to a sense of joy and happiness that you could
never know outside of it. I'm not promising you I
can explain that completely, but I'm going to do my
best in these next two days to help us understand
that happy are the Hurting. As we face the weekend,
I'm going to remind you that you should take some
of the extra time you have this weekend to order
(01:37):
the book for this series. This book will really be
an encouragement to you because it's Twelve Habits of Truly
Happy Christians. It's really meant to be a primer and
a follow up on this series. It was written just
for this particular series that we're going through here in
(01:57):
the Book of Matthew. You can have your copy of
Twelve Habits of Truly Happy Christians by simply requesting it
when you send your gift to Turning Point during the
month of February. Don't wait till the end of the
month to do it now during this month, which is
often a difficult month for us financially, you could be
real blessing to us with your financial investment. Here is
(02:18):
part one of Happy or the Hurting.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
One of the 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, we think he has the right
to live above pain and to enjoy happiness. And yet,
(02:48):
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 it's really not true.
There are only one group of people that I know
who achieve in actuality, the eradication of all pain, and
(03:09):
they are the insane, and they do it by denying
reality instead of finding reality. In contrast to our ideas
of a pain free society. Doctor Joseph Fabery, a disciple
of Victor Frankel.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
One time wrote these words.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
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 some way or another, are
(03:47):
acquainted with the grief. How many can give a witness
to the fact that you experience a little grief in
the aging process. I mean of you done the mirror
thing lately, and you know what really kills me about
that is we set aside one day you're celebrate the
whole thing.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
I can't figure that out.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I mean, every one of us we do, and then
we send cards to each other. You would not believe
the cards we send to each other. I was telling
some friends at a dinner meeting. The meanest card I
ever got was like this. It's kind of a processed card.
On the front of it, it says, Hi, I'm the
birthday Ferry. And then you open it and there's a
little flap inside it says, every year on your birthday,
(04:30):
I touch you with my magic wand and you look
one year older. And I opened it up to the
center and it said, good night man. I must have
beat the tar out of you. And I grieve over that.
I want you to know I do. I agrieve over
(04:51):
not being able to go out in the basketball court
and literally compete with my two sons. I mean, they've
gotten a lot better, but I've gotten a lot worse.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
That's the worst part of it. And all of us
know a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
But it's surprising to me how in our culture and
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, a theology that says
that it has no place in the life of a
person who lives by faith. And yet I read the Bible,
(05:28):
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
wept when Sarah died Genesis twenty three.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
David mourned over.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
The loss of his son Absolom, and I can hear
his wail often when I think of this story, Oh,
my son, Absalom, my son, my son, would God I
had died instead of you on Absalom, my son, my son. Jeremiah,
my namesake, preached his message of judgment, but.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
He didn't do it with hard, angry tones. He wept
as he preached.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
In fact, in the ninth chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy, he says, Oh,
that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain
of tears, that I might weep day and night for
the slain of the daughter of my people. In the
New Testament, a father wept as he brought his demon
possessed son to Jesus, and when he asked Jesus to
(06:39):
heal his son, Jesus said, all things are possible if
you believe. And the Bible says that the man cried
out with tears. I do believe helped all mine unbelief,
and his son was healed. A woman came to Jesus,
and the scriptures say she washed Jesus' feet with her tears,
(07:00):
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 eleven
thirty five says Jesus wept when Jesus saw the lostness
of the people in the city of Jerusalem. The Bible
(07:21):
says he wept because he loved the people so much.
Hebrews tells us that when he anguished in the garden
of Gsemone, it was with strong crying and tears. Peter
denied the Lord. Remember that, and when he realized what
he had done. Matthew twenty six tells us he went
(07:42):
out and he wept bitterly. After the death of Jesus,
those who had loved him and had walked with him.
We are told they gathered together and they mourned, and
they wept. Luke sixteen ten, Mary Magdalene stood outside of Jesus' tomb,
not knowing about the resurrection yet, and the scripture says
she wept tears of hurt and disappointment. When Paul was
(08:08):
preaching to the Ephesian elders in the Book of Acts,
we were told that night and day for a period
of three years, he had monished them with tears, and
when it was time for him to leave, the Ephesian
elders who had become so close to him. One of
my most favorite stories in the New Testament. In the
twentieth chapter of Acts, we were told that the Ephesian elders,
(08:28):
when they knew that Paul wasn't going to come to
see them anymore, they fell on his neck and they
wept bitterly. When we surveyed the verses that are in
the Bible, we discovered there are many kinds of tears.
There are tears of devotion, like the tears that Mary
shed when she washed the Lord's feet. There are tears
(08:49):
of deep concern, like Paul shed when he instructed the Ephesians.
Peter's tears were tears of deep regret as he realized
that he had failed the Lord. The Ephesian elders wept
because one who had 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.
(09:12):
His were tears of great love and compassion as he
stood before the tomb of Lazarus, and as he realized
that the people in Jerusalem, as he said, were like
sheep without a shepherd. And 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
(09:33):
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,
because all of us face 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
(09:55):
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 that the Psalmist
in Psalm fifty six eight said that he asked God
to keep his tears in a bottle for him.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Did you ever read that verse?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
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.
(10:39):
How can sadness ever be equated with gladness? It sounds
like a contradiction in terms. How is hurting in happiness
to be viewed together? How in the world do tears
relate to laughter? One author has called this beatitude the
(11:01):
bliss of the broken hearted. 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 Freudian
(11:23):
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. Well, I wasn't exactly sure
(11:46):
what masochism was, so I looked it up in the dictionary,
and this is what it says. Masochism is deriving pleasure
out of being abused. Wow, is that what this beatitude is?
Is Jesus suggesting that there's some sick kind of pleasure
we should receive from being sad, from mourning, from tears.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
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.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
So how to.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Happiness and morning go together? You won't find your answer
by discounting the pain. There are nine words in the
Great Text for mourning, 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
(12:56):
for the dead. It is a sorrow which pierces the heart,
a kind of sorrow which you can see in the
faces of those who have it, and 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.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
This is hurt at the very core of life. This
is mourning sorrow.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
So how do we resolve this paradox which says, happy
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted? I
like to suggest to you four ways you can look
at this and end at the way I believe it
was ultimately and purposefully intended by our Lord. First of all,
I believe happiness is discovered when we sacrifice the present
(13:49):
for the future. If you have your Bible's turned to
Luke chapter six. 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.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Especially this one.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
For in Luke chapter six and verse twenty one, 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. That's 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,
(14:27):
he will ultimately be able to wear the crown. If
a man chooses to live as if nothing matters beyond
this world, then 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 waits for him in the future.
(14:47):
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.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Do you remember the story of.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Lazarus and Divies in the Gospels, the story that Jesus
told and the rich man cries out to Abraham in
pain after his death, and Abraham said to him these words.
He said, son, remember thou in thy lifetime receive us
thy good things, and Lazarus likewise evil things. But now
(15:21):
he is comforted and you are tormented. Blessed are they
who more now, for they shall laugh. 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
(15:44):
and know the joy of the future. If we more now,
we may laugh later. Every student who hears my voice
understands this truth.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
If you work hard and.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
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 don't do what
you're supposed to do, and you put it off, and
(16:21):
you put it off, you have had joy now, but
you're going to have pain in the future twice the
day before the test and the day after the test.
Maybe this is a general truth that we all give
lip service to, and we agree with.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
This is a true statement.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
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
(17:02):
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.
(17:23):
He left his childhood home at a very early age,
and he does not know whether his parents are alive
or dead. He has lost touch with his own family
and has never married. He has no friends, He visits
no one, and no one visits him.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
That man will never mourn.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
His life is perfectly insulated against sorrow.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Would you call him happy?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
No.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Our sorrow, you see, is a product of our love,
and as our love grows, it draws into its circle those.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Who need our love.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
The very fact that a person mourns is the testimony
to the deep love in his life.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
You cannot mourn someone you do not love.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
The blessing of this beatitude is for those who, for
Christ's sake, refuse to shield their hearts from the griefs
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. It's like Moses who refuse to be
(18:35):
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. To mourn is to sympathize. Happiness
is discovered when we sympathize with those around us who suffer.
(18:57):
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.
(19:19):
Paul wrote to the Corinthians in Second Corinthians, Chapter seven,
godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, and David in Psalm
thirty eight eighteen said, I will declare my iniquity. I
will be sorry for my sin. Joel says it this way,
turn ye even to me with all your heart, with
(19:40):
weeping and with mourning. I ask myself why there is
so little sorrow among God's people for sin when we
were first starting out in the church. And some of
you who have hair that's grayer than mine will remember this.
In some of the old time churches, and I've seen
pictures of it, But in the early churches they used
(20:02):
to have down at the front what they call the
mourner's bench.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Do you remember that?
Speaker 3 (20:07):
And that was there specifically so that people could come
in the service and sometimes after the service, and there
at that place called the mourner's bench, they could weep
for their sin.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Do you know what we do today?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
We deflect it, we bury it, we try to replace
it with activity. A few years ago, a secular psychologist
by the name of Carl Meninger, 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
(20:42):
face the things that are wrong in his own life.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
What do we do?
Speaker 3 (20:45):
We have become a nation of victims. We blame everybody
in the world for the problems that are ours. And
I used to think how wonderful it would be if
we'd stand to our feet once in a while and
in true honesty seeing the old spiritual that goes like this,
it's me. It's me O Lord standing in the need
of prayer. It's not my brother nor my sister. It's me,
(21:06):
O Lord. I love this one. Not the deacon nor
the pastor. It's me O Lord. And one of the
interesting things about the Christian life is that the closer
we get to the Lord, the more sensitive we become
to the things in our life that are not the
way they should be. You show me a person who
(21:28):
is arrogant about his walk with God, who wants to
tell you how great things are with him, and the
Lord who wants to stand up and tell you.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
You know how close he is.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
You know, a person who gets close to the Lord
is never going 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,
(21:57):
you will discover an amazing thing. Paul wrote a bunch
of letters in the New Testament, thirteen in all, and
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 an apostle. Seven years later he wrote the Book
of First Corinthians, and in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians,
(22:19):
Paul wrote, I am the least of the apostles and
not fit to be called an apostle.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Eight years later he wrote.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
The Book of Ephesians, and in that book he wrote,
unto me, who am less than the least of the saints,
is grace given. Now he's even taken himself out of
the apostolic category. He's gone down to the sainthood category
and says he's the least of the saints.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
In the last book that Paul.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Wrote before he died, one Timothy, this is what he said.
Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief. His growth as a Christian took him
from being an apostle to being the chief of sinners.
Now that's sort of upside down theology, isn't it. How
many of you would say my goal in life as
(23:07):
a Christian is to move from my apostolic realm to
be the chief of sinners.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Did Paul get worse as he got older?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Know, he got better, But as he got closer to
the Lord, and as he grew in his faith, he
became more sensitive to the things that were really true
about his life. And I think maybe if you put
all of the beatitudes together, at the center of this
truth is this. Blessed are they who are poor in spirit,
(23:35):
who know they are bankrupt without the Lord. Blessed are
they who mourn, who mourn over their bankruptcy, for they
shall be comforted.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Well, that's a good place for us to put our
period for this week, and we'll have some more about
this particular subject on Monday. Hey, let me remind you
on this Friday edition of Turning Point that something's coming
up on the weekend you don't want to miss.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
That's church. That's right, go to church.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
It's wonderful when you see your church full of people
who've come to be nurshed up in the good word
of God and to worship the Lord in their singing
and in their fellowship with each other. So don't be
left out of the church experience. It's God's way for
you to be accountable and to grow and be his
person and we'll be back here on Monday as we
(24:22):
continue our discussion of how to be happy according to Jesus.
You can get the monthly resource Twelve Habits of Truly
Happy Christians with your gift of any size to Turning Point.
All you have to do is send your gift and say,
please send me the book. And when you get it,
I think you'll sit down and start to read it
and you'll gobble it up because it is really good
(24:43):
and it will really be helpful to you. Thank you
for being with us this week. I hope you have
a great weekend. I'm David Jeremiah. I'll see you next time.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Right here.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you just heard came you from Shadow Mountain
Community Church and senior past doctor David Jeremiah. Turning Point
is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn
where to find it, visit our website Davidjeremiah dot org,
slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dotorg, slash Radio, or call eight
hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your
(25:18):
copy of David's book, Twelve Habits of Truly Happy Christians
with Jesus Prescription for Happiness. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study
Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's
decades of study. To let us know how this ministry
(25:39):
blesses you, write to Turning Point pobox thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue how
to be happy according to Jesus On Turning Point with
doctor David Jeremiah
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