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Grieving With Hope · In the Stillness Podcast

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  Hey you guys, it's friends. Lee, welcome back to another
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  episode. Thanks for joining me on In the
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  Stillness. Before we even get into the
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  content and reading the passage today, I want to start by
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  praying. Umm, I have just been feeling a
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  lot of different emotions this week with a loss that's been
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  close to me. And so I just want to call on
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  the Lord for strength as I speak.
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  So with that, let's go ahead and bow our heads.
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  Father, I need your strength right now.
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  This passage is it's tender, it's weighty, but it's also so
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  hope filled. You know, the loss that is made
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  these verses hit differently, whether that be for me or for
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  whoever is listening right now. So I just ask that you would
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  speak through me that anything from me, from my flesh, that it
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  would fall away, and that what is from you would land exactly
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  where it needs to. To whoever is listening to this
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  right now, would you comfort us together?
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  And as you comfort us, would you teach us how to comfort others
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  with the same comfort that we receive from you?
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  We love you, Jesus. Amen.
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  OK, so I'm just going to go ahead and begin reading it.
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  We're going to be in First Thessalonians chapter 4, verses
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  13 through 18 today. Brothers and sisters, we do not
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  want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that
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  you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope for.
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  We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe
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  that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in
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  Him according to the Lord's Word.
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  We tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until
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  the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who
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  have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come
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  down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the
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  Archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in
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  Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still
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  alive and are left will be caught up together with them in
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  the clouds to meet the Lord and the air.
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  And so we will be with the Lord forever.
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  Therefore encourage one another with these words.
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  OK, this passage, I think it starts in an interesting way
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  because Paul begins by addressing misunderstanding,
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  misinfo, and I couldn't stop thinking about this flow.
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  I'm very visual, so sometimes I like to write it in a little
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  chart, and I wrote it with arrows.
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  I wrote misunderstanding leads to grief, which leads to a loss
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  of hope and eventually a loss of peace.
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  And I was thinking about it. That spiral that is the enemy's
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  playground, y'all? Because the devil is literally
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  called the deceiver. So if he can distort truth or
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  distract us from what our living hope is in Jesus, he can pull us
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  into momentary troubles and he can make them feel ultimate.
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  And it's when that happens that we start to lose awareness and
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  sensitivity of the Lord's presence and nearness, because
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  in Psalm 1611, it says that in the Lord's presence is where
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  there is fullness of joy. So Paul steps in to correct this
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  misunderstanding. And I've read this passage
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  before, but this week it felt different.
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  Paul says he doesn't want us to grieve like the rest of mankind
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  who have no hope. Notice that he doesn't say don't
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  grieve. He says don't grieve without
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  hope. We see in Ecclesiastes chapter
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  3, verse four that there is a time to weep and there is a time
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  to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
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  There are seasons for everything under the sun.
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  And in Romans 12/15 it says to mourn with those who mourn and
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  rejoice with those who rejoice. But we're not meant to remain in
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  a state of hopeless sorrow like everyone else in this world.
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  And I love this. Scripture often calls death
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  sleep. So why sleep?
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  Because sleep implies waking up. It's not minimizing pain when
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  the Bible calls death sleep. It's reframing finality.
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  It's saying this is not the end of the story.
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  This is temporary rest before your awakening.
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  God calls it sleep because he sees the wake up.
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  He sees the bigger picture. And it's interesting because two
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  of my friends on two different walks, we were not together, but
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  they brought up how the Lord has been speaking to them about
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  this, about how Jesus said Lazarus was asleep and how he
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  said in another story that there was a 12 year old girl and she
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  was said to be dead, but she was only sleeping.
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  And it's because it's not meant to make us sad.
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  It's meant to anchor us in a resurrection hope.
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  So This is why the full Gospel matters, because it's not just
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  the crucifixion that's significant, it's the
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  resurrection too. Without Jesus's resurrection, we
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  don't have this living hope. Romans 65 says that if we have
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  been united with him in a death like His, we will certainly also
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  be united with Jesus in a resurrection like his.
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  And that resurrection life, it doesn't just start one day once
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  we hit eternal life. It begins the moment that you
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  believe and you declare Jesus as Lord of your life.
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  Because when you surrender your life to Christ, you accept His
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  death and resurrection on your behalf, which means you're not
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  meant to stay buried. And what once buried you?
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  We're not called to return to the grave close.
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  We're not called to go back to what He brought us out of y'all,
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  our earthly death. It is an entryway into eternal
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  joy, our real life, into the physical presence of our King.
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  We're meant to be unashamed in His presence.
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  We're whole, we're content. That's what we were made for.
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  And with this, it changes how we grieve because it doesn't erase
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  the ache, but it transforms it. And I found it can even stir
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  something unexpected. Gratitude, thankfulness for the
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  gift of someone's life when they pass, even excitement knowing
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  that they have overcome the troubles of this world and
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  they're with Jesus, without the pain, without the sorrow on this
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  side of eternity. And so then we see Paul paint
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  the picture of Christ's return. And this is one of the most
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  vivid portrayals in the Bible. We see in his writing.
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  He says the Lord himself will come down, He will descend with
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  a loud command, with the voice of the Archangel, with the
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  trumpet call of God. This is not subtle and this is
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  not anticlimactic. You'll know how sometimes in
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  this life you can work for something and wait and build
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  something up in your mind. And then sometimes when it
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  actually comes, it's kind of underwhelming.
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  But y'all, this is not that. This will be victory.
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  We can't even fathom what it's going to be like because it's
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  going to be so great. This is our encounter with our
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  Bridegroom. And the same love that holds the
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  church and the body of believers together here on earth is the
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  same love that will unite us with believers forever.
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  It's a bond that cannot be broken because God is love and
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  we're joined in union to Him. God turns our tragedy to
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  triumph. He turns our poverty to riches
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  and wealth pain to glory. He takes us from defeat to
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  victory. And it feels upside down
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  compared to this world, but that's because we serve an
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  upside down Kingdom. Hebrews 11/1 says faith is
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  confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we
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  don't see. 2nd Corinthians 418 commands us to fix our eyes not
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  on what is seen, but on what is unseen, because what is seen is
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  temporary. What is on the earth, it's
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  fleeting, but what is unseen, that's what's eternal.
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  And we know that God's word is true.
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  Guys, it has been proven. It has been fulfilled.
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  Prophecies upon prophecy, faithfulness across thousands of
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  years. I just want us to reflect on
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  this really quick. Has God ever not delivered what
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  He said He would deliver? Has He ever not done better than
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  you imagined? Ephesians 320 He does
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  immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine, even if the
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  timing stretched you. Has He ever truly let you down?
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  God is a keeper of His promises. Second Corinthians 610 Paul
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  describes himself as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor yet
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  making many rich, having nothing and yet possessing everything.
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  That was a passage that I really cling to in one of the hardest
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  seasons of my life, my freshman year, and it brought so much
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  hope and encouragement. But it also reminded me that how
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  we view our momentary troubles right now, it says a lot about
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  how we view our good Father. Yes, there is a time to mourn,
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  but we are not meant to dwell in it.
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  Verse 17 here says, And so we will be with the Lord forever.
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  Just think about forever. It's one of those things where
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  we can't even comprehend it. Our finite brains can't go to
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  that concept. But this world is not our home.
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  So when we are taken from here, we are transported to our real
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  home, not into an absence, but into presence, the presence of
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  our Father. So I just want to say, if you're
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  grieving right now like I am, or if you know someone who is, let
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  this truth comfort you and study you.
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  Sleep is not the end. One day the trumpet will sound,
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  the King will come, and we will be with him into eternity.
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  So my encouragement for y'all is hold on to that hope.
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  Maybe you have experienced losing a loved one, or you know
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  someone who has, or maybe you're just going through a really hard
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  season. Let this hope lift your eyes
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  past the moment. Let it soften your grief without
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  silencing it. Let it remind you that this
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  story, it ends in victory when you trust in Jesus as your Lord
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  and Savior. So this is what was really
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  sitting on my heart as I went through this quiet time.
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  And my hope is that you can really be uplifted and that you
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  can just be reminded to cling to the living hope that we have in
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  Jesus. I will see y'all on the next
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  episode. Have a great day.