John 16:19-24 “Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them,
“Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore, you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Continuing Pastor Kyle’s important message, he tells us that thirdly, the Holy Spirit turns our sorrows into joy by helping us glorify God in the midst of it. The word glorify is defined as “to praise; to magnify and honor in worship; to ascribe honor to, in thought or words; to make glorious. God is glorified, when such his excellency, above all things, is with due admiration acknowledged.” It is 100% supernatural to praise God when you are in the middle of a deep sorrow in life. All-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God , who created time, space, matter and life, is outside of time seeing the end from the beginning, so nothing surprises Him; He knows that they are going to happen. Jesus has overcome the world, so all of our sorrows are “past tense” to Him. Because Jesus has overcome the world, we can have peace in Him and we are called to be overcomers. Because Jesus overcame, we shall overcome. But, this doesn’t just happen. We have to train ourselves to trust the Lord in the midst of life’s sorrows and for the future sorrows of life.
Psalm 86:9 “All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name.”
Lifting our hands in sweet surrender and praise to God Almighty is not an act that we especially do not feel like doing when we are going through sorrows in life. The easiest thing to do is to turn inwardly and pursue temporary pleasures of distractions in other people, places or things. But, God says to crack open your Bible, get to church, get to your small group Bible Study group, and pray with a sacrifice of praise no matter how heavy the weight feels above and around you. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” God helps us deal with sorrows.
Psalm 28:8 “The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of His anointed.”
The church is the safe environment where we learn to know God more, praise and worship God, our heavenly Father, giving Him the glory in your life. Open questioning to learn truth, forgiveness, encouraging each other, looking to the greater godly good of the community and the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and improving through we make mistakes and stumble along the path. If we do not do it inside the church, how are we ever going to do it out in the world? It is said that the purpose of the church is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted”. God will push you out of your “comfort zone” and put you into His “comfort zone”. Revelation 21:4 tells us, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Psalm 23:4 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Then you can say, as it is written in James 1:2-5, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” But, we are also out there in the world with our own reactions, dealing with ourselves and handling your own sorrows in life. Know that your Lord God is in control and handling life’s situations. Then, we can say as in 1 Chronicles 16:8 “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!” Through the Lord, we can operate out in the world.
Nehemiah 8:10 “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
God designed us to be relationship with Him and the people that He put around us. Interpersonal relationships can get heated at times with our different God-given personalities, likes and tendencies, so we learn to walk in the Spirit during those moments and are able to say as in Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” But, know that at times, something is going to come out of left field and down the pike that you never saw coming and the core of who you are is going to get tested in life. Employment uncertainty, health issues, family crisis and life-changing accidents will shake any person and drive them to their knees. If we, by faith, keep our eye on the Lord and cling to His loving promises, we may find the strength to pray Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
Isaiah 40:29-31 “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Sometimes, we get to the point that we do not know I we can do this because it feels really heavy. How can we put our hands in the air to the Lord when we are falling apart? We take a deep breath and pray Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” It’s when anxiety and depression kicks in with ferocity and you feel like you are in a dark, heavy cloud and you don’t know how you are going to get out of it. Then, God tells you, “I know that this feels heavy, but” in the words of Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
You are saying, “God, I wasn’t ready. I needed more time. This wasn’t fair.” And you remind yourself of Job 1:21, where it says, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Sorrows don’t just turn themselves into joys. You don’t just show up out of nowhere praising God in the midst of horrible situations; it doesn’t make sense. You start small and you do it every single day. You implement every day that which you learn from the Word of God and you are training your mind and your heart to respond to situations the way that Jesus would have you to do it. And when the load gets heavier, Jesus makes the load lighter. For the Christian, God says that if you lift up your hands, He will lift you up and take the weight. When you lift up the name of the Lord, the Lord will lift your heart and your joy back to Him. Jesus came to turn our sorrows back to joy. That by dying on the Cross and rising from the grave, anyone who would believe in him would have the hope of eternal life and have the promise that even though our sorrow lasts for a little while, that with Him we can have our sorrows turned to joy.
Human sorrow in the hands of the Lord turns to joy and human sorrow in the hands of the Lord gives birth to Divine strength. So, that thing that seems so heavy right now; that makes you feel that you can’t get your hands up to praise God, I want to encourage you Christian to get your hands up and watch God take the weight off your soul and your heart, with a spirit of joy, a spirit of power and a sound mind with self-control. Lord, help us to love you back.
In Christ, Brian
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