James Merritt - Glad to Be Sad
Now, like a lot of men, I was raised kinda the old-fashioned way. I was raised that grown men don't cry, big boys don't cry, and so I haven't really been much of a crier in my life. I had just not given in to that. And, you know, for the longest time, I didn't get weepy-eyed over a sad movie or, you know, the end of a heartbreaking novel. I didn't even tear up when Georgia lost a football game. I mean, you know, you just don't do that. But some of you who've got older like I have, can relate to the fact that I don't know what it is about getting older, but I don't know whether it's the muscles in your tear ducts that get weak or I'm not quite sure what it is, but you just find it easier to cry.
You just find it easier to tear up at things, and you begin to cry about things that you just didn't ever think about crying before. So, I'm at an age in life, sometimes I get surprised at what makes me cry, and I thought it'd lead into a good question this morning. And I'd just like to ask you a question. What makes you cry? I mean, seriously, what brings tears to your eyes? The reason I ask that is because somebody on the social media network that we used to call Twitter, it's now called X, they once asked people to write in and tell what made them cry.
Now, I'm gonna show you some reasons why people admitted why they cried. I am not making these up. You won't believe this. Here's what they said. "I cried one time because I couldn't get my eyebrows to look the same". Oh, it gets better. "I cried because I couldn't find the exit in the shopping center". "I cried because I dropped some jelly toast face down on the kitchen tiles". "I cried because the Mexican restaurant put shredded cheese instead of queso on my nachos". "I cried when the brown hair dye I was applying to extensions seeped through the foil and stained my granite countertop". "I cried because my house key wasn't unlocking my door until I realized I was at the wrong apartment". "I cried because somebody put some trash in my trash can at work". "I cried because McDonald's gave me the wrong sauce with my McNuggets on Uber Eats".
I love this one. "I cried watching a Minute Maid commercial because I felt so sorry for the oranges". Unbelievable, unbelievable. And, you know, when I read things like that, when I read things that people cry over, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry myself because I read the other day, and I think it's true, somebody said, "If you really wanna know what a person's like, if you really want to know a person's character, find out three things about them, what makes them angry, what makes them laugh, and what makes them cry".
There's a lotta truth in that. What makes you angry? What makes you laugh? What makes you cry? Now, there are some things that ought to make us cry, if not on the outside, at least on the inside. And we're going to learn today that Jesus says we ought to be glad to be sad. We're in a series on the Sermon on the Mount that we're calling Get Used to Different. And the Christian life according to Jesus, if what he said in the Sermon on the Mount is true, the Christian life is to be radically different. The Christian life ought to look different, it ought to sound different, it ought to feel different, it ought to be different, and that's exactly what he's saying, these things that we call beatitudes.
And in the second beatitude in Matthew 5:4, of all the things that Jesus said, this is absolutely one of the strangest things that he ever said. It is countercultural. It is counterintuitive. You would never, ever, ever hear this from a psychologist. You would never, ever hear this from a psychiatrist. Here's what he said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted". Now, that sounds just strange to me because lemme tell you something I know that's true about you 'cause it's true about everybody. It's true about me. We wanna be happy all the time. I never have gotten up one day in my life, never, and said, "I just wanna be sad today," and you haven't either.
I'll tell you what I want my day tomorrow to be. I can already tell you I don't want any conflict. I don't want any problems. I don't want anybody to be upset with me. I don't want anybody to pull in front of me. I don't want anybody to blow their horn at me. I don't wanna get any bad email. I just want to be happy. And then Jesus comes along and says, "Oh, wait a minute. Happy are the unhappy. Blessed are those who mourn". He says, "You know, if you ever have a broken heart, maybe you don't realize that you are blessed". Because here's the fact of the matter, we all wanna go through life, if we could, we all wanna go through life without sorrow, without pain, without heartache, without suffering, and we think, wouldn't that be a great life?
Well, as I've gotten older, I finally realized, no, it really wouldn't. It really wouldn't be much of a life. You really wouldn't get out of life what you ought to get, and you really wouldn't give to life what you ought to give if life was always good, and let me just tell you one reason why. You live long enough as a Christian, and you look back on your spiritual life, and you're gonna realize something a lotta people don't realize. You actually grow closer to God in the bad times than you do in the good times. That's been my experience.
You know, it's so easy to get in the habit of that the only time you pray is when you say a blessing, or maybe the only time you pray is when you go to church and they ask you to bow your head, and you pray. But isn't it amazing when you go to the doctor and he says you have a tumor and it may be malignant how your prayer life increases? Isn't it amazing how your grandson has been in an automobile accident, and he's fighting for your life, the grandson you adore, the granddaughter you adore, and all of a sudden, it's amazing how you can pray so strong and so intense. You learn a lot more about yourself, about your spiritual maturity, about your love for Jesus, not in the good times, but in the bad times, not on the mountaintop, but in the valley.
One poet put it this way, "I walked a mile with pleasure. She chatted all the way, but left me none the wiser for all she has to say. I walked a mile with sorrow, not a word said she, but oh, the thing I learned from sorrow when sorrow walked with me". Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn". There are some things we ought to mourn over. There are some things we ought to be sad about. There are some things that ought to break our heart. There are some things that ought to bring tears to our eyes, not just tears to our heart. I wanna tell you about a man some of you have heard of. Most of you maybe have not, but his name was Will Rogers. How many of you have ever heard of Will Rogers? All right, a few of you.
Lemme tell you who Will Rogers was. Back in the 1930s, Will Rogers was the most popular comedian in America. He was a cowboy, and his humor was kind of homespun, kinda, you know, just country kinda dry humor, and people loved him. He had this unbelievable ability to make people laugh. He was a social commentator, and anywhere he went, people just fought. They would sell out big theaters to come hear him just to talk and pontificate and be funny. Here's how popular he was. "The New York Times" ran an article once a week that he would write. They did it for 13 years. Every single week, 45 million people read that article. They loved him. He was known for his laughter. He was known for his humor.
What they didn't know was he knew how to cry. 'Cause one day, he went to a hospital on his own, didn't ask for a dime, but it was a hospital that specialized in children who had polio, who had severe back trouble, who were crippled, who were lame, who could not walk, and who had very severe physical handicaps. When he walked in there, he could see how some of these kids were hurting, the incredible pain that were on these kids' faces. Well, before you knew it, he had everybody laughing, even those boys and girls that were in such great pain. But right in the middle of his routine, he just walked off the platform and left, and he went to the restroom.
Well, the manager of that event was worried and thought something might be wrong, so he grabbed a towel, and when he opened the door and walked in, Will Rogers was leaning against the wall sobbing like a baby because he was so brokenhearted over those kids that he knew even though they were laughing, they were hurting. And that man said later about Will Rogers, "I learned something about Will Rogers that day. You can make people laugh even when you have a broken heart". There are some things Jesus said that ought to break our heart, that we ought to mourn over, that we ought to cry about. So today, I want you to keep one thing in mind. Here's my message. Whatever breaks God's heart should break our heart. Can I get an amen to that one? Whatever breaks God heart should break our heart. Now, Jesus tells us why we ought to be glad to be sad. So if you're taking notes, write down three things.
Number one, we should be burdened by the sin that convicts us. We ought to be burdened by the sin that convicts us. Let's see what Jesus said one more time. He said, "Blessed are those who mourn". Now, you wouldn't know this. There are nine different words used in the Greek New Testament for the word mourn, crying, sadness, being sad, but this is the strongest word. Jesus used the very strong, it's the most intense word for mourning in all the New Testament. This is the kind of sadness that goes right into the bottom of your heart. It goes into the deepest part of your soul. It's reserved for a person who's crying and weeping because they've lost a loved one in death, someone they love more than anybody else in the world, and so, lemme just make something plain here. This is careful.
You gotta hear this. He didn't say, "Blessed are those who moan". He's said, "Blessed are those who mourn". He's not talking about people, and you know some of them, right? They're always whining. They're always complaining. They're always moaning and groaning about something or somebody. They're always finding something wrong, never finding something right. Jesus said, "These are not the people that are blessed. I'm not talking about people who moan". In fact, I'll give you a little practical advice. If Willie Whiner ever marries Debbie Downer, don't let your kids play with their kids. If Willie Whiner ever marries Debbie Downer, don't let their kids play with your kids. He's not saying, "Blessed are those who moan". He's talking about people who are brokenhearted. But one thing, keep in mind, this is the second beatitude.
If you were here last week, these beatitudes, they go together. You remember what the first beatitude said? If you don't, let me remind you. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". How many of you were here last Sunday? I'm not trying to call you out. Oh, some of you were. All right, let's see. Let's see if you remember what we talked about. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? You remember, here's what we said. It means that you declare you are spiritually, what? Bankrupt. That's what it means to be poor in spirit. You are spiritually bankrupt. That you come to God with empty hearts, empty hands, empty pockets.
You got nothing in your account. There's nothing you can offer God. You can't bargain, you beg. There's nothing good about you at all. You are absolutely empty. There's nothing good apart from the God that wants to live in you. So now you're spiritually bankrupt, but Jesus says, "Okay, once you recognize you're spiritually bankrupt, how does that affect you? Does that bother you"? Because the first way you'll know you've truly come to know God, you know how you'll know it? When you've really come to know God is when your heart breaks for the sin that kept you from God to begin with.
In fact, let me just illustrate this. This will help you. I could ask you a question, and I'm sure I'll get a unanimous vote so you don't need to raise your hand. But if I were to ask you, how many times have you heard a pastor say this, Jesus died for your sins? Everybody in this room raised their hand. Yeah, I heard that a thousand times. Jesus died for your sins. I know you've heard it, but have you heard it? Do you understand what that means when I say to you Jesus died for your sins? Jesus died for my sins. Jesus died for our sins. Do you understand what that means? Well, let me just make it now. Let's get real practical. That means it was your sin, and it was my sin, and it was our sin that crucified Jesus.
So lemme just make it as plain as I can. When I say you, I'm including me. I'm not just pointing you out, so I'm in it with you, okay? You're the one that spit on Jesus. You're the one that jammed that crown of thorns down on his head. You're the one that denied him. You're the one that betrayed him. You're the one that flogged him. You're the one that turned your back on him. You're the one that laughed at him, and you're the one that crucified him. And if that doesn't break your heart, you got a hard heart. You ought to mourn over your sin. We ought to mourn over our personal sin that we still commit every day. 'Cause let me ask you a question. You don't have to answer it. I already know.
How many of you sin every single day? Now, if you say, "Not me," you just did. Oh, so what? Yeah, I sin every day. Does that break your heart? You know what's wrong with a lotta us? We have got so accustomed to sinning it doesn't even bother us. Did you read your Bible yesterday? No, that bother you? Not really, that's a problem. Did you spend any time in prayer yesterday other than just maybe blessing your food? No, does that bother you? No, not really. That's a problem.
In the last week, did you talk to anybody about Jesus at all? No, that's a problem. Did it bother you? Nope, that's a problem. We get so used to it. How many days do we fail to do what we ought to do, say what we ought to say, go where we ought to go, love who we ought to love, give what we ought to give, be what we ought to be? And every time we fail to do that, we ought to mourn. We ought to be heartbroken. And while I'm in the neighborhood, we shouldn't just be heartbroken over our personal sin, we ought to be heartbroken over our national sin.
You know what the psalmist said? Listen to this. The psalmist said this, "Streams of tears flow from my eyes," why? Because "your law is not obeyed". Does it break your heart, do you mourn over abortion, sex trafficking, racism, child abuse, divorce, murder, crime? A nation that has increasingly turned its back on the only God who can solve our greatest problems? Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem, wept, why? 'Cause they turned their back on the one that could save them from their sins. See, these two beatitudes go together. "Blessed are the poor in spirit". Blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt. But they're not just spiritually bankrupt, they're broken over it. They mourn over it. They're not just, it's not just they know they're empty-handed. They know it's our fault.
See, confession's one thing, contrition is another. We ought to be burdened over the sin that convicts us. But if you are ever broken over the sin that convicts you, then the second step ought to also happen. Number two, we should be broken by the sorrow that consumes us. Not just burdened by the sin that convicts us. We ought to be broken by the sorrow that consumes us. See, when we're soaked in sadness or guilt or grief, let's think about this. How many times has this happened to you? It's happened to me.
How many times have you done something wrong? You did something you know you shouldn't have done it. You said something you know you shouldn't have said it. You did it, and you regretted it, but you didn't really grieve over it. It didn't really break your heart. You really didn't mourn over it. Can I just tell you about the kind of grief that God expects from us? Paul talks about it in another book in the Bible. Here's what he said. He said, "Godly sorrow".
Lemme just stop right there. If you don't know, if you wanna know what Jesus meant when he said mourn, "Blessed are those who mourn," that's what. Those two words. That's what it means. To mourn is to have godly sorrow. Well, what is the mark of godly sorrow? "Godly sorrow brings," can you see that word right there? What is that word? Repentance. "Godly sorrow brings repentance". Now, listen carefully. Godly sorrow is different from worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow, first of all, is not just to regret things that you wish you hadn't done 'cause lemme tell you a dirty little secret. When we do things wrong, and then we regret it, do you know most of the time why we regret it? I'll tell you why. We regret we got caught.
That's why we regret it. It's not that we really regret what we did. We regret that somebody pointed out, somebody caught us. Well, you'll notice that Paul says in that verse godly sorrow "leaves no regret". Now, you may think, "Well, I know godly sorrow is not just regret. Godly sorrow is remorse". Well, no, it's not just remorse because you can feel sorry that you did something, sorry you said something, sorry you saw something. In fact, you might even feel good about yourself that you feel bad about what you did, but that's not godly sorrow.
Now, godly sorrow contains regret, and it revolves remorse, but it's not just regret, and it's not just remorse. He said, "Godly sorrow brings," say it one more time. Repentance, you don't hear that word used much, repentance. So you say, "How do you know when you're really mourning over your sin"? Here's how you know it. When you hate it so much, you're so sorry for what you've done, not just to somebody else, but to God, you really wanna turn away from it. You never want to do it again. For example, I do something that's wrong. I know it's wrong, but that stops right there. It never goes anywhere. It just stays right in my mind, that's regret. Yeah, I wish I hadn't done that, just wish I hadn't said that. But you say, "Well, all right, wait a minute. Maybe it goes from your mind to your heart".
All right, that's remorse. If it stays in your mind, that's just regret. But then it goes to your heart, that's remorse. Man, I really am. I know I shouldn't have done it, and I'm really sorry that I did it, but that's not godly sorrow. Godly sorrow is when regret in your head moves to remorse in your heart, but then it moves to repentance in your will when you say, "I am so sick over what I've done. I am so broken over what I've done. I am so sad over what I've done. God, with your help, I'm never going to do it again. I repent and turn away from it". That is godly sorrow. That's when you're truly mourning over your sin. That's when you're broken by the sorrow that ought to consume you.
So to drive the point home I'm trying to make, let me just reframe it in one other way. Sin ought to break our heart for one big reason because every time we sin, big sin, little sin, little white lie, big black lie, doesn't matter, every time we sin, we break his heart. And that ought to break our heart. Yeah, we ought to be burdened and broken that we hurt other people, but primarily, we ought to have a broken heart because we've hurt God. Let me take you back to a great example. You remember King David? Man after God's own heart.
So David walks out on a porch, sees Bathsheba taking a bath, calls her up to the palace, and they have a one-night stand, and she has a baby, she's pregnant. He's gotta cover up the dirty deed, brings Uriah home, her husband, does everything he can to get him to sleep with her, so he'll think he's the dad, but he's gonna be honorable. He wants to be back on the battlefield. He won't even go into his house. He won't even sleep with her. So the secret's gonna come out, so what does David do? He has Uriah murdered. Nathan comes to him as prophet, his best friend, his right-hand guy, tells him a story that reveals the truth of what he did, and he said, "You're the man. You did that David, and you know it," and God broke his heart.
Now, listen carefully. When David committed with adultery with Bathsheba and her husband, what happened? Well, he hurt Uriah. We all agree with that, had the guy killed. He hurt Bathsheba. He hurt his family. He hurt his people. He hurt his kingdom. We know all that. But years later, when David wrote down his experience of how God broke him and how he was broken, how he was brokenhearted, he wrote this in Psalm 51 talking about God, "Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so you are right in your verdict, and you are justified when you judge".
David understood, this is why I'm mourning. This is why I'm crying. This is why I'm weeping. This is why I am devastated, not just because I sinned against her, not just because I sinned against him, not just because I sinned against them, I sinned against you, the God that made me, the God that loves me, the God that sent his Son to die for me. I sinned against you. I have broken your heart. I have godly sorrow. And by the way, not only did David never, ever even come within a country mile of marrying another woman or having another affair, in his last days as an old man, he couldn't stay warm.
They put a beautiful virgin and put the virgin in bed with him just to help keep him warm, and the scripture says plainly, but he had no desire for her. He had repented. He had turned away. I'm not gonna do that. I've broken your heart once. I will never break it again. It's one thing to sin against others. It's another thing to sin against yourself. It's another thing, though, to sin against God. And all sin is against God, and when you realize that, then you begin to mourn. Then, you say, "I'm just not regretful. I'm not just sorry I did it. I'm not just remorseful. Boy, I'm just really, really hurt that I've done it," you repent, you turn away.
Now, remember, every one of these beatitudes is a way to be blessed or God's blueprint for blessing. You say, "Okay, well, it's been hard," and I know it's hard. Remember, I preach to me before I preach to you, so I've been on me before I get on you, right? So you say, "Okay, well, where's the blessing, Pastor? I mean, okay, I get it. I'm not as good as I think I am, not as good as people think I am. Matter of fact, compared to him, I'm no good at all. I get it, and I'm brokenhearted over it. So where's the blessing"?
Well, number three, we will be blessed by the savior that comforts us 'cause here's what Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn," be glad when you're sad, "for they will be comforted". Now, what does that mean? Well, we all know that guilt is a part of everyone's life. If you've got a healthy conscience, you're gonna sometimes feel guilty and be guilty. And lemme tell you what's so sad. There are so many people today that live with guilt, and they're gonna die with guilt, and you know why they're gonna die with guilt? Because they were full of regret and they were full of remorse, but they never repented. They never came to a place of a true relationship with Jesus. They never received the comfort of knowing all is forgiven. Jesus said, "If you will understand that and come to me, if you will be glad when you're sad, I will comfort you".
Now, lemme tell you why I know what I'm telling you is right. Two reasons I know it. First of all, that word for comfort is more than just sympathy. The word comfort comes from two Latin words that mean literally with strength. There's a difference between sympathizing with somebody and comforting somebody. When you sympathize with someone, you say, "Man, I know how you feel. I feel your pain. I've been there. I know exactly what you're going through". That's sympathy, but that's not comfort. When you comfort someone, you say, "I'm here to walk with you through this, and I'm here to help give you the strength to overcome it".
Now, here's the second reason I know what I'm telling you is right. Because the Greek word that is used there for sympathy is exactly the same word that's used for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the great comforter in the Christian life. 'Cause lemme tell you something I've learned about comfort. There's no comfort in being alone. I have watched people go through a tough time in their life. They lost a loved one, or they lost their job, or, you know, lost a grandchild or whatever it may be, but, I mean, they had a tremendous tragedy, and you know what a lotta people do? They isolate themselves. They just totally just get away from the world.
It's the worst thing you can do because you cannot find comfort ever alone. You can't find it. It won't be there. And that's why God, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, to be our comforter. God has put the Holy Spirit in us who's always with us, so when we do blow it, and we will, when we mess up, and we do, and we know we've broken God's heart, he's the one that comes to us and holds us and loves us and cares for us and helps to remember, hey, you're not in the battle alone. And the most important thing he does is to remind us that the sin that we're burdened with and the sin that we're broken over has been forgiven through Jesus.
So that's the good news because there's only one remedy for the sin that everybody has, there's only one remedy for the sinner that everyone is, and that remedy is the forgiveness of God. Because, at the end of the day, there are only three words that will bring comfort to you when you're mourning, when you're grieving, when you're brokenhearted, when you sometimes kinda have to come face to face again, I am nothing, and I am nobody without you.
When you have those times in your life when you go like I do, "Boy, I sure am glad they don't know that about me. I sure am glad they can't read my mind. I sure am glad they didn't hear me use that word. I sure am glad they didn't know that I did what I shouldn't have done or didn't do what I should've done. I'm so glad they don't know that," and that's when the Holy Spirit will come and whisper in your heart, not just when you first come to Jesus, but after you come to Jesus, he'll whisper to you three words over and over and over and over and over, and those three words are all is forgiven. All is forgiven.
That's what the Holy Spirit does when you blow it, when you mess up, when you fall short, we all do, and we all will, the Holy Spirit says, "Hey, can I have your hand"? And he'll take you by the hand, and he'll lead you to the cross. And when you're burdened with your sin and broken by your sin, the Holy Spirit will remind you you've been forgiven of all of your sin. And lemme tell you something, there is nothing like laying your head on your pillow every single night of your life and knowing if this is my last night on this earth, if this is the last breath I am about to take, all is forgiven. Nothing like it. Money can't buy it, robbers can't steal it, and jails can't keep it. All is forgiven.
So you probably have never heard, I'm not even gonna ask you 'cause I know you don't know him. But there's a man named Nicholas Wolterstorff. You don't who that is. You would if you were in my profession. If you were a pastor or a minister, you know exactly who he is. He is one of the most renowned Christian philosophers and theologians of the 21st century. Lemme tell you how sharp this guy is. Lemme tell you how brilliant this guy is. He's a Christian. He's a strong believer. He loves Jesus with all of his heart. He would be welcome to teach on this platform right here. And you know who's asked him to come and be a visiting professor?
Lemme just name five, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, and Notre Dame. You say, "Wow, he's a sharp guy," he is. But his oldest son was in a mountain climbing accident and died when he was 25 years old, and it devastated Dr. Wolterstorff, and it devastated his wife, and it devastated his children, and it devastated his family. And years later, he wrote a small book, how he relied on the comfort of God to get him through his mourning. And here's what he said, "When we've overcome absence with phone calls, winglessness with airplanes, summer heat with air conditioning, when we've overcome these and much more besides, then there will abide two things with which we still must cope: the evil in our hearts and death".
There's two things I live with every day of my life, and there's two things you live with every day of your life, the evil in your heart and the knowledge that one day your life is going to end. And what Dr. Wolterstorff was saying was, yes, we ought to mourn over the sin in our lives, and, yes, we ought to mourn over the death of those that we love. We even ought to mourn over what we've done to the one who is one day is coming back for us. But he said remember, when you do, there's the comfort of forgiveness for your sin, there's the comfort of the resurrection in your death, and there's the joy of knowing that God will always give you what you need, so you can be glad when you're sad.
So here's the question. The thing that really burdens me about this message is that little R word. It's a word most TV preachers don't use anymore. It's a word that most pastors don't use anymore. It's strange 'cause it's the very first word Jesus ever said and the first statement he ever made, and that word was repent. So I want you to hear me carefully. We all should go to heaven with remorse over what we've done, and we all should go to heaven with regret over what we've done or failed to do, but you will not go to heaven without repentance.
And that's the reason why more than a few church members aren't going to heaven, and it's the reason why some of you, you say you've been saved, you say you know the Lord, but there's never been a real difference in your life. Because remorse won't make a difference in your life. Regret won't make a difference in your life. It is repentance that makes a difference in your life. And the reason why some of you wonder, "Why don't I get more outta the Christian life than I'm getting"? 'Cause you've never experienced it. Because all the baptismal certificates and all the money you give and all the service you may perform and all the good deeds you do will mean nothing if you have not repented.
So I just wonder who here today watching online, who here in this building today, I just wonder who here would say something like this? Lord, I've never repented. I've never really been broken like that, but I want you to break me today. I now understand. I get it. I'm spiritually bankrupt. I've got no shot at you without you, and that breaks my heart. I mourn over the fact that it was my sin that crucified you. I'm the one that nailed you to the cross, so I just wanna hear you say to me just three words today, Lord Jesus, all is forgiven, and I know you will if I will do my part. So today, I confess you as my Lord. I believe in my heart that God raised you from the dead. And to paraphrase, that's Romans 10:9, "If we confess with our hearts that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, all is... forgiven".