Hey everyone I’m Pastor Gary Hoban and welcome to Refinery Life Australia.
This year our goal is to release a new video / Podcast every Monday Wednesday and Friday.
To begin the new year we are starting on Sundays with “The Way to Happiness”.
Everyone wants to be happy, and the New Testament is the greatest authority on happiness.
Jesus gives is the key that will unlock the door to happiness.
This key is found in the eight Beatitudes.
Did you know the word “Blessed” is sometimes translated as “Happy”.
Today is part 2 Sorrow, The way to Happiness.
Text
Matthew 5:4 (ESV)
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Introduction
The way to happiness is outlined in the first twelve verses of Matthew 5.
Last Sunday we noted that the word "blessed” the Beatitudes could also be translated to “happy”.
In the first Beatitude , Jesus said the initial step toward happiness is humility, being “poor in spirit”.
We find a very strange statement in the second beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
What would you think of a person who said to a crying child, “why are you so happy?”
You would probably think that this person was either crazy or just plain cruel!
The response to Christ’s remark that a mourning person is happy has been similar.
The statement doesn’t seem to add up.
So we now need to remind ourselves that the beatitudes were not spoken to unbelievers but to the disciples.
Remember verse 1? “And seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain, and when He was set. The disciples came unto Him.”
What Jesus said regarding the way to happiness is directed to Christians alone, those who are capable of experiencing life at its highest level of happiness.
“Blessed (happy) are they that mourn.”
Does this refer to those people who wander around with a dismal attitude, or those that when we se them we try to avoid them because of they always have bad news?
Not at all!
This verse could be translated more like, Jesus said, “how happy are those that know the meaning of sorrow, for they will be given courage and comfort!”
There are two types of sorrow. One leads to happiness and the other leads to misery.
One carries with it a blessing and the other nothing at all.
One leads to life, and the other death.
Paul distinguished between the two in 2 Corinthians 7:8-10 (ESV)
8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.
9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
To understand this beatitude and experience the happiness it promises, we need to recognise sorrow that leads to misery and sorrow that leads to happiness.
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