In this sermon, Pooyan Mehrshahi addresses the topic of sadness and suffering in the context of our relationship with Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that as Christians, we all have weaknesses and sins that can hinder our walk with Christ. However, if we face the pain of letting go and rely on the promises of God, our sadness and suffering can be transformed and lead us to higher places. Mehrshahi also highlights the importance of confessing Christ and finding hope in Him, even in the midst of trials. He encourages believers to lament honestly and seek comfort in the love and compassion of Jesus, who understands our grief. Ultimately, the sermon reminds us that joy comes in the morning, and in the presence of God, all tears will be wiped away.

Dear friends, I want to have a very short series of messages over the next few weeks as we have been in Exodus for quite some time. And so I have been thinking about and praying over some of the needs of the congregation, some of the things that I know some of you have been struggling with or have been experiencing. And here this evening From John chapter 11, we want to consider the subject of our sadness, our suffering, and Christ. If you are a Christian, even a Christian, each one of us has things that hinder us from coming and fully relying on Jesus Christ if we are honest about it. There are certain things that we find this our weakness in our life.

We have these impediments we could say and speaking of myself some of these stubborn attachments in my life can hinder my walk with Christ. They're weaknesses in my faith. I'm not always as strong in faith. Are you? They're weaknesses and sins that remain, that is concealed in the dark corners of my heart, and there can be a reluctance to face the pain of letting them go.

And so consequently, I find myself at times walking not by faith, but by sight That's why we have the word of God to remind us That's why we the apostle Paul those Christians in the early days. They they were struggling with the issue of faith The Lord Jesus Christ had to speak to them and challenge to these disciples who had Christ with them. Where is your faith? Some of the things that I have been thinking about that have held me back and Some of the things that I have been thinking about that have held me back and some of the things that I see that are holding some others back, even in this congregation. Yes, it's my sadness, my suffering, my pride, my doubts.

Those are some of the things. And it holds us back from following the Lord as we ought to, or we think wrongly of these things. So over the next three or four weeks, God willing, we will explore these aspects and tonight we will focus on our sadness, suffering, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We must see all of these things with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is in John chapter 11.

And then, God willing, another time we will look at our pride and the Lord Jesus Christ from chapter 13 of John. And then we'll discuss about our doubts. Do you have doubts? Or you are going through life without any doubts? Are you sure?

Always about your faith in Christ? Or do you have doubts? Well, we want to study that in chapter 20 and so on. But tonight we want to center on the subject of sadness and our suffering and the Lord Jesus Christ. You're all familiar with the famous cliche such as well things will get better, things will get better, tomorrow things will get better.

However we often wonder how can we be sure of that? How can I be sure that tomorrow will be better? Things will get better. Another common saying is, well, time heals all wounds. Time alone doesn't have the power to heal.

These are the explanations of an ungodly world trying to deal with issues. Or as the ungodly Nietzsche, he is well known quote, he said that, that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Well, maybe it's true to some extent, but sadness and suffering doesn't automatically lead to growth and to strength. These are the words of the ungodly, dear friends. How can we deal with these matters?

And how we deal with these matters are important. We all have our struggles that hinder us from fully walking in our life if you are a child of God with the Lord Jesus Christ. These very struggles can be transformed by God to lead us to higher places. They can be used for our good as all things work together for our good. Or that we might have eyes to see it.

For them to lead us to the to a mountain of joy, to the right hand of God and to the heart of God. If we learn to handle sadness and suffering well, they can serve as a driving force, like a nail leading us to our true home, deep into the heart of God, the triune God, our Father God, that we call him by the grace of the Spirit, Abba Father, to the Lord Jesus Christ, our great Savior, and to the great comforter, the Holy Spirit. And towards the end of his well-known sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus Christ shared a poignant story emphasizing this storm that will inevitably enter each person's life. He spoke about those who are building their house upon something, some on rocks, some on sand, But certain things came to both of them. There are storms, he says.

They're inevitable that they will hit your life. Perhaps some of you here this evening, that is exactly what you're in. You're in the midst of a storm. Your family might be barely holding on and hanging together by a thread. The Lord Jesus Christ acknowledges storms will come.

The wind did blow. The rain did come. And they do come. It's possible that a relentless disease is draining the life out of you, or a loved one. And you see them getting weaker and weaker and weaker.

The Lord said the rain fell. And maybe you are facing the reality that your family doesn't match the dream that you once had for them. Lord Jesus Christ mentioned that the flood came. Or you might be grappling with disappointment of all sorts of disappointments. Your career, your finances, whatever it may be in your daily, day to day life or some relationship.

The Lord says the wind blew, It beat down upon the house. You might have lost as well. Lost. Might have become an unwelcome companion in your life. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking directly to us, assuring you that suffering invariably brings pain and reveals the foundation of our lives.

It reveals the foundation. Is it a rock or is it a sand? Suffering, dear friends, permeates this world. It permeates our world. And if it hasn't arrived at your doorstep today, it may very well do so tomorrow.

Even if you find yourself in the sunshine, if I could say this evening, and the sun is shining, rest assured that darker times will come. Through much tribulation, we shall enter the kingdom of God, the Lord Jesus said. And as Christians, it becomes crucial to understand how the Bible addresses the realm of sadness and suffering. And we must inquire within ourselves, Where do we discover the means? Where do we find the resources not only to endure but to transform the experience into a journey towards joy leading us to the to the height of God's heart and leading us to ultimately glorify him.

That's the purpose of your life. It's not just to have a have an enjoyable time and a happy day in this world. No, our hope in life and in death is Jesus Christ. He is our hope. He is our life.

We want to see him. So we want to think about this whole matter of sadness as we experience suffering, as we experience, but with Jesus. With Jesus. As you have it here so wonderfully described in this experience of Lazarus and his sisters. And the first thing that I want you to notice and to think about is this, that first Christ loves his suffering and sad disciples.

Christ loves his suffering and sad disciples. Now let's delve into that what the Lord Jesus Christ does in response to our sadness and suffering during the time that we have left. While John 11 does not provide all-encompassing answers, it offers us some comfort and healing amid our trials. So take a look at this, closer look at this text with me. We didn't really concentrate on any of these passages before I feel, but if you were looking at verses 1 through to 6, they set the context of course.

In this narrative, we encounter these three dear friends of the Lord Jesus, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The Lord loved them. The Lord loved them and they were sad. They were heartbroken. One of them had died.

They were going through great trials and yet the scripture says again and again, look at the street, it says, therefore his sisters went unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. You love him, Lord, it says. Or in verse five, it says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. This family was dearly beloved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Take a moment to consider this, especially if you find yourself in a long and dark night, as it were.

Can you imagine being recognized as one whom Jesus loves? That's the grace of God. It's not that because they were lovely. It's the grace of God that he loves, not because of us, but because of his grace. Think about those verses three and five.

Can you fathom being known as one that Jesus loves? If you have experienced the love of Jesus Christ to you, how thankful you ought to be, dear friends. Could you even dare to imagine that when you are in need the Lord Jesus Christ might turn to his heavenly Father and I speak reverently here. He says, Father our friend is sick. Can you imagine that?

Because this is what these disciples go on. The one whom thou lovest is sick. Your friend is sick. Think about it. The Lord Jesus turning to his father and saying, the one that we love, the one that I died for is sick.

Whatever that sickness may be. Our friend is in need. Each of us, dear friends, has our own version, we could say, of John chapter 11. And there is this apparent contrast between love and affliction. And as we start to explore this, let's address what the reason cannot be for our sadness and suffering.

We yearn for reason, desperately seeking, seeking reason to understand. However, right from the outset as we see in John 11 verse 3, they say, he whom thou lovest is sick. Because someone is sick, it doesn't mean that the Lord doesn't love them. Take that out of your mind. And when you begin to be sick in any sort, when you go through dark days, when the trials come, if you are a child of God, you have to put that thought out of your mind that the Lord's love has changed.

He doesn't love like we do love. We know that the reason for sickness and for our troubles cannot be Because he does not love his people. He loves with an everlasting love, the scripture says. Never forget that Christ loves his people dearly. He died for them.

So If you're a Christian, however you feel, you're eternally loved by Jesus Christ. So your feelings do not really matter. They don't come into the calculation of God. He doesn't say, Well, I only love them if they feel for me. No.

So that's one thing. The second thing is this. Christ for his own purposes, and because he's sovereign, he delays in our sadness and suffering. There is always a delay, we could say. The time delay that the Lord places in our suffering and our times of sadness.

Now let's delve a little deeper into the meaning of verses 5 and 6 as they're essential to understand. In verse 5, look at it, it says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. This is important. There's a significant consequence of Jesus' affection, Jesus' love.

Because of his love for them, when the Lord Jesus Christ heard about Lazarus' illness and sickness, he deliberately stayed where he was for two more days. You understand that? If he did this for this man, why should he not wait for when we have certain things, certain trials, certain temptations, certain illnesses, certain troubles in our lives, why won't we let the Lord Jesus Christ have his time and delay in dealing with us? This delay eventually led to Lazarus's death and it adds tension to the story. It's an amazing account and it really happened.

So moving on, the chapter continues with a poignant moment in verses 16 and 17 where the Lord Jesus Christ finally arrives in Bethany after his delay And by this time Lazarus has been dead for four days. And interestingly, Martha and Mary's response to the Lord Jesus' arrival differ greatly. One minister pointed out that their reactions are aligned with their character traits. Mary withdraws, do you notice that? Mary withdraws, she stays at home.

Martha poses a question. Martha approaches the Lord Jesus Christ directly and in verse 21, then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died, she says. Lord where were you? Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died, she is saying. Where were you, Lord?

Don't you say that at times? Where were you, Lord? You delayed. If you had acted straight away, if you had answered my prayers straight away, this thing wouldn't have happened. What am I going to do now?

What are we going to do now with Lazarus? He's died. But then moving on, the third point is this. Our sadness and suffering ought to bring us to a place of confessing Christ. So the Lord delays, that's one point, in our sadness, in our suffering.

The Lord delays. In our sadness and in our suffering, the Lord loves something else that you have to nail down on your heart and meditate upon it. But all of our sadness, all of our suffering, it should bring us to a confession of Jesus Christ. It shouldn't cause us to be moved away from him. Now Look at it, verse 27.

Martha here, with all that has happened, with the delay of the Lord Jesus, with the fact that Lazarus, their brother, has died, this is a serious thing. That the Lord Jesus had specifically had delayed to come. He did not go straight away. They could have been very angry with him very upset with him Martha here makes one of the most significant confessions of faith recorded in the New Testament And he she says this, Yea Lord, the Lord says, Believest thou this? And she says, Yes, yes I believe, yes I believe And then she says, I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of God, which should come into the world.

Who could have said this except it was revealed to them? Who could have said this except God had worked in her heart? What a testimony! Her brother has died. All these sad things that happened.

The Lord had delayed and yet she goes on to confess Christ. Make this profession of faith, oh dear friends, it tells us so much about our responses. What and how we should be when troubles come, when everything seems to go bad and you're in a very dark, dark place. As this woman was, and to say, Lord, I know. Yes, Lord, I do believe thee.

I believe, This is what I believe. I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. And understanding this confession more deeply, this term Christ is not just Jesus's last name, no. It is a title in Jewish tradition. This title signifies the anointed one of God, the ultimate prophet, priest, and king that was promised in the Old Testament.

And in this account, we will be going later on to explore how the Lord Jesus embodies all the three roles, prophet, priest, and king. These are his three offices that you and I ought to be not just familiar with, but to cherish and love and learn more of what it means for Christ to be our prophet and priest and king. Here is a deep confession of faith by this distressed woman. And all of us would profess this, that have this confession of faith that I do believe it I do myself believe it personally let us confess Christ dear friends in our suffering and sadness do you do that Your heart is breaking, everything has gone bad for you. But to say, but I know this, Christ, Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

He is Lord of my life. I am willing to wait on him and see what his will is for my life. I am willing to praise his name to the end of my days. Even if he slay me, Yet will I believe and trust in him." For those who are currently lost in deep darkness, for those of you who are feeling lonely, unable to get past this fog in your life. I hope that as we observe the Lord Jesus Christ in this text as prophet, priest, and king, it will provide you a glimmer of light, just as when you're going through in a dark night and there's fog everywhere, you can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make it through through this journey.

And I aspire us to find a little light in our darkness through encountering the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage. And as you go through your life, go back to the Word of God. Go back to Jesus Christ and see. So here we see this perfect prophet. Look at this passage again.

As a perfect prophet, as the one who comes as a messenger of God and as one who comes himself being God manifest in the flesh and he brings a word from himself to this woman, the Lord Jesus Christ compassionately engages with Martha's suffering. You see prophets reveal truth and assure us of promises. And in verses 25 and 26, look at it. The Lord Jesus Christ offers assurance by saying, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Believest thou this? Do you see, he is making this promise and makes this amazing statement to this woman who is suffering. He comes to her as this perfect prophet. And this interaction, it reminds us that in the Bible, God's people often receive promises instead of immediate answers. And that's why, dear friends, in your times of great tribulation, you ought to go to the promises of God.

Yes, we pray for an answer, but don't just give up because the answers don't come. God's timing is not your timing, and so, but he's given you hundreds, thousands of promises. You go and immerse your soul in these promises. And that's what he says to this woman who is grieving, who's just lost her brother. Living by faith means embracing the questions while clinging to God's promises.

You understand the questions, you have questions, But you don't just spin your wheel with all of these things going on. You cling on to the promises of God. And as Christians, if you are a true Christian, a child of God, we take our lives on God's promises. That's what we rely upon, the promises of the Lord Jesus. Jesus as the perfect prophet.

Enter his friends' suffering and compassion, providing assurance in his promise of the resurrection. But then something else, you see this horizon of hope that he brings as the prophet. He offers Martha this horizon for her sadness and suffering. Just like watching an old wedding tape, you know what's going to happen at the end, the people get married. It's like watching something you have seen before, you know the end of the story.

And something that's been recorded. You've read the book, you know the end. Martha here is given the glimpse of the victorious outcome through Jesus' promise of resurrection. So walking is a prevalent biblical image of for facing suffering. And we find discomfort, the solace in the promises of God while journeying through difficult times.

Even though these promises might feel distant. They become our guiding light, our guiding lanterns, as it were, in darkness, leading us towards this celestial mountain, towards a place where the Lord is, where the Savior is, this place of joy and peace. So the Lord comes as a Prophet he speaks and he says I am the resurrection and life. He gives a promise of the resurrection. But then you see him as the priest.

The Lord Jesus embodies the perfect priest, starting from verse 28. In one of the most heartwarming interactions recorded in the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ calls for Mary, knowing she's also suffering. She's suffering deeply. She's staying at home. And in response, Mary runs to him and falls at his feet.

And in this moment she finds herself before God in the flesh. And she's hysterically weeping and crying out The same words that her sister had said in verse 21. Where were you, Lord? Where were you? Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

And how does the Lord Jesus respond to her cry? He does not react with a rebuke. He doesn't react with indignation. Instead, we witness one of the most profound statements in the Bible in verse 35. Jesus wept.

Jesus wept. It's amazing. Jesus, our high priest, this is where we see him as our high priest. Jesus wept. As Hebrews tells us, he sympathizes with us in our weakness.

We have a God who weeps, the Son of God who weeps. Can you understand that? He weeps with us. This is the Sympathizing high priest that the Apostle Paul speaks of. Can you see, can you accept the tears of Jesus?

This is the God that you have. This is the God that we profess. One who deeply sympathizes with your suffering and grief don't think he's far away. He weeps, he wept for this, for this friend that had died And for the state of the hearts of her, his friends. Jesus, the man of sorrows, is well acquainted with our grief.

Jesus sees your tears. He has borne our grief. He has carried our sorrows. He will not break the bruised wreath. He's near to the broken hearted.

He will bind up your wounds if you are a child of God. This is the one whom you pray to. This is the one who is the mediator that you have with your God. This is the God that we have. And because that's true, we must become a people who express, who express the reality of suffering.

And that is to say that Christians are to be a people who do not only walk, who do not only walk through the valley of the shadow of death, who not only walk through the fire, knowing that The Lord Jesus Christ is with them. Christians are to be a people who know how to honestly lament. And that comes hard to an Englishman, to show emotions. It may be. Some cultures have things in them that there are certain barriers, but we should not be ashamed of them.

To see and accept Christ's tears. To also for us to realize there is nothing wrong with weeping. There's nothing wrong with being cast down and sad. There's nothing wrong with grieving. There's nothing wrong to be in that dark place and crying out to God?

What is wrong with it? To recognize that we are living in a world that is very sad indeed. Christ our priest, high priest, invites Mary with his tears, and Christ our high priest invites us with his tears to lament our suffering and the suffering of our neighbors. To sorrow over our sinfulness, to sorrow over our circumstances. Let us therefore, Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4 16, let us Therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Becoming more like the Lord Jesus will mean that there is more lament in your life, because you have eyes to see that this world is not the way that it's supposed to be. You have eyes to see that the sadness and the suffering that is all around you, you see that and it grieves your heart. You're not trying to put a smiling face, a fake smile on your face and just think positively. That is a new age idea that everything we need to think about it has to be positive. We shouldn't be sad.

We shouldn't shed tears. If you were to read the Psalms, 150 of God-inspired Psalms, this is the hymn book, the inspired hymn book that the Lord has given, that we sing from. If the scholars would tell you this, that a common form of Psalms that we read, a third of these Psalms, a third of these 150 Psalms are Psalms of lament, Psalms of lament. There are cries in the Psalms, there are sorrows in the Psalms. Why would that be?

Someone had said the very presence of lament in scripture is a witness to God's understanding. He knows how men and women speak when they are desperate. How true that is. He knows how men and women speak when they are desperate. The Lord Jesus knows, God knows, he's not so far away, he's not so distant, he's not an abstract God, dear friends.

He doesn't just allow us, he invites us, He invites us to come before him. He directs our sorrow and sadness because he knows how we speak when we are desperate. And so when we weep, When we weep, we can also worship Him. We can also praise His name. Don't think that worship doesn't need to, it all has to be happy.

That's why it is important to have serious hymns. The Psalms that speak about a variety of experiences, variety of feelings. And that's where the charismatic movement go wrong. There is no hymn of lament in the charismatic songs. It's all about happiness.

It's all about how great things are for us. And yet the person goes on a Monday morning, faces trouble, says, well I thought it was all happy. Why am I not happy? So it is not a bad thing. It is right to be real and honest in our worship of God.

And God receives as we sing these things meaningfully to him. Friends, weeping and worship, sadness and joy, they aren't mutually exclusive. You don't have to pull yourself together to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have to leave your cries and your complaints and your confusion at the door and say I need to now be looking all happy. You come as a poor sinner coming to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We beep and we worship in the same heart at the same time because one of the things that the psalmist understands, One of the things that the psalmist understands, one of the things that the scriptures show us is that one emotion doesn't eliminate another emotion. We weep, we worship, we rejoice when We are sad at the same time and we shed tears. And all happens in the same heart at the same time. And both are there crying out in praise to God and yet in sadness over the circumstances, as we give them all to the Lord. And that's why the most important word in the Psalm of Lament is but.

But. It's a wonderful study. Every time you come across a word but to see what is this? What is the Psalmist saying here? So in Psalm 13 and verse 5 it says, but I have trusted in thy mercy.

My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. But he's been just talking about all the sad things in his life. But then he goes on to say, but this is what I'm going to do. This is what I feel. Or in Psalm 59 and verse 16, he says, but I will sing of thy power.

Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning for thou has been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. And the whole Psalm is about his troubles and difficulties and his enemies and yet he says I'm going to sing. Both can happen in the heart of the child of God at the same time and it's because of God's grace. But also we don't just have a perfect prophet, perfect priest, we have a perfect king represented here to us And so we see him in this way. You see the Lord Jesus Christ still with Mary in verse 33.

He not only weeps with her, but when he sees the reality of her suffering over her brother's death, when he sees the sadness that's covering this place and people are all over, they are seeing this. When he sees this, he then takes control. He shows himself to be the Almighty. He shows himself to be the sovereign. The thing is not out of his hand.

John Calvin said this, and I'll quote, the general misery of the whole human race, he talks about. This is the case. He says, this pictures, this whole situation, pictures the general misery of the whole human race. And then the verse says this, in verse 33, and he groaned in the spirit and was troubled He's groaning in the spirit is very moved in his spirit. He's troubled so amazing word The same language is used in verse 38.

Jesus therefore again groaning in himself. It says, what does that mean? This is where we, I'm saying that this is a wonderful window into the fact that the Lord is king. He takes control by his groaning. If you were to study that word, groan, it indicates a grunt.

But it is a word that is used for horses. And it's not any kind of horses. It's used for a horse that is a war horse. It is the sound of the battle. It's a sound of the horse going forward in the battle.

It is charging in the battle. And so what does that mean? As the Lord Jesus Christ approaches, this is a situation of death. As he approaches the presence of death, his eyes are not only filled with tears, but His heart is filled with rage of war, we could say. It's a groaning of a captain.

He's not only a priest who grieves beside us, but he's a king who goes into the battle for us. And so he sees death, he sees the last enemy, death itself, and he is enraged with its temporary power, that death has this temporary power. So he goes. And then there is this command, the final point is this, the imperative, the command that he gives. Lazarus come forth, or there are actually a number of commands that he gives.

Look at verses 38 to 44. Look at the language that the Lord is using. This is the language of a king speaking. He's ordering them about. He's taking charge of the situation.

These people have been shedding tears. He has been shedding tears. But it doesn't mean that it's a shedding of tears of despair and hopelessness. No! He gives commands.

It's like a sergeant that is commanding his privates. He says in verse 39, what does he say? Take ye away the stone That's imperative in verse 43 He says Lazarus come forth In verse 44 He says, Loose him and let him go. He commands them for these things. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is here as the great king.

He sees death. He sees the one as the book of Hebrews speaks of. And he sees the the thing that holds the power of death, and that is the devil, and he grabs as it were the jaws of death, and as our great king, he rules, he defends us, he conquers all, and all of his and our enemies as the catechism puts it He goes in for us So if you look at the next section verses 45 onwards and Specifically verse 53 you see that the Lord Jesus Christ knew. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. He knew about this.

You see that the Lord Jesus Christ knew that for him to raise Lazarus, Jesus knew that for Lazarus to come out of the tomb that he would have to go in himself. He had to die. He had to go to the tomb himself. That They will plan to kill him. He knew that.

And so here, he's providing a sign for us. This is John's gospel's seventh sign. This is the end of the book of the signs. And the first half of the Gospel of John. So here he's providing a sign where he's heading, to crush Satan's head.

And the scriptures tell us that he will rise. He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He will rise with healing in his wings. That's where the history is heading. That's where we are heading.

And so we walk here, friends. We are sad. We suffer. We lament. But we have a great prophet.

We have a great priest. We have a great king. And because we don't just have a priest who grieves beside us, but we have a king who went to battle for us because of our great King, it is that we rejoice. And so we walk and we lament. We live our lives and we become sad.

We go through dark days. We are so confused at times. We have our questions that we ask the Lord, why did you have to wait about these things? But yet in the midst of it, we rejoice and we praise his name and we confess his name before all who are the Christ. He is my savior, the savior of the world.

And so we... This is our experience. Joy and sadness cannot be locked away in separate compartments and categories because to experience sadness doesn't eliminate joy and This is what the world cannot understand, but the Christian can understand This is where you you cannot drown out your sadness dear friends because if you take hold of Jesus Christ, he knows your pain, he knows your suffering. He helps you through it. One writer says, I have come to think that sorrow actually deepens our capacity for joy, that as our lows are lower, so our highs are higher.

Deep sorrow expands our ability to feel deeply. We feel sadder than we ever knew we could, sadder than we think we can survive, but our sorrow prepares for us to experience a more satisfying and solid joy than we have ever known before." And that is so true. And so the scriptures tell us in James, James 1 and verse 2, my brethren counted all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations or trials. When many, all kinds of trials come your way and they are painful, they are hard. This is where he says, this is the paradox.

Count it all joy. Or in Romans chapter five and verse three it says, but we glory in tribulations also That's an amazing statement We glory in tribulations also. So all is going around you, falling apart. I rejoice, I glorify God in my tribulations. Or Peter says in 1 Peter 1 and verse 6, we are in, you greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations.

The world would say, no, take something for it so that you don't get upset. So these writers, inspired writers, tell us To rejoice knowing that suffering won't have the last word. Your confusions, your sadness, your being cast down is not the last word in your life. To rejoice because we are in the hand of one who not only calls us friend, but we are in the hands of God of the resurrection. Even as we are in the fire, he says he will be with us.

And so we rejoice. You know, in closing the verse that I think from time to time, in Psalm 30 and verse 5, Weeping, it says, may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. The weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning, and suffering and sadness for you may tarry, may be there for a long time. It may be a dark night tonight. Maybe it's a long night for you.

It may be a lot of dark and long nights for you, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." So the picture here we are given here in John 11, we have his sorrow, But it's the splendor of Christ, it's the glory of Christ. It's an amazing thing to think that our Christ, our savior, also sorrows. And you get to the last book of the Bible in Revelation chapter 7 and you have a great multitude that no one can number from every tribe from every language from every tongue and nation and they look up to the throne of God and they see the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 7 and verse 17 and it says for the lamb Which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and then it says And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. That's what it says. And all of us should stop and think, will my money do that?

Will my house do that? Will my friends do that? Will my family do that? Will my worrying do that? To wipe away my tears?

No! But there is a day coming that Jesus Christ will wipe away my tears. All of my sadness. This is not going to be everlasting, even though it is lasting right now. Oh, friends, the Lord Jesus, our prophet, priest, and king, will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

And I want to tell you, as I tell my own heart, to walk and to lament and to rejoice while it's still dark. As you're asking, will I be loved? Will it be all okay? Will it all be worth it? Weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning.

On that day, dear friends, that revelation is talking about. On that day as you are on the mountain in the place of joy in the presence of the Lord you will see the face of God you will experience the heart of God you will save it the psalmist for thou has delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." So what shall we do? In our sadness, in our suffering, Is it all hindering our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we tempted to look away from Christ, or are we confessing him? Even though we don't understand why he is tarrying, Why he is letting things fall apart from around us.

Are we still confessing him and praising him for who he is and what he has done for our souls? Are you a child of God? Well this is the instruction and encouragement from the Lord. Yet let us sorrow, but not sorrow as the world. Let us weep, but our weeping is not hopeless weeping, like the world's weeping.

Let us glorify Christ and bear witness for him while you shed tears and while you walk through the valley of the shadow of death and the Lord Jesus Christ will still love you, his timing will still be perfect, He will show himself to be your prophet, priest, and king. And one day in glory, he will wipe away all your tears. That's the answer. That's the solution that the Lord gives us. Amen.