Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
The Blessed Life - Session 3
What does it truly mean to mourn in a way that brings blessing? In this profound exploration of the second Beatitude, we discover that godly grief reaches far beyond merely feeling sad about circumstances—it’s about recognizing sin for what it truly is and experiencing the transformative comfort that only God can provide.
Through the contrasting stories of King Saul and King David, we witness two fundamentally different responses to confrontation about sin. Saul’s desperate grasping at Samuel’s cloak represents worldly grief focused on consequences rather than true repentance. David’s straightforward confession—“I have sinned against the Lord”—shows us genuine godly sorrow that leads to restoration.
The spiritual posture of mourning invites us to stop whitewashing our sin like the Pharisees’ “whitewashed tombs” and instead to acknowledge our brokenness before a holy God. This vulnerability opens the door to experiencing God’s comfort—not as mere emotional soothing but as profound peace through reconciliation.
Just as Jesus restored Peter after his denial and healed the woman who touched his garment in faith, God extends comfort to those who mourn with honest hearts. Through Christ’s sacrifice, the veil has been torn, granting us direct access to God’s comforting presence even in our darkest moments.
The ultimate hope for mourners lies in Revelation’s promise of a new creation where God “will wipe away every tear” and where “mourning, crying, and pain” will be no more. This is our destination—a place where godly grief completes its transformative work and gives way to eternal comfort.
Have you allowed yourself to truly mourn your sin rather than merely its consequences? How might embracing godly grief lead you to experience God’s comfort in ways that superficial happiness never could?
We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Subscribe to our Podcast & YouTube channel to find past sermons, classes, interviews, and more!
Find us on Facebook & Instagram
So we're going through the Beatitudes, as you know, and tonight I have the privilege to bring Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted Matthew 5, 4. So my goal tonight is that the Lord is going to use our conversations afterwards, use my words, to grow us all in our faith that the Lord will speak through the words that I speak, through his word that I read. And I'm going to talk in my half, because it's going to be broken up into about a half an hour of me talking, half an hour of breakout discussion, and so in the first half I'm going to kind of talk about the topic of mourning and in the second half it's going to be breaking out and we're going to kind of go through the questions and talk about comfort. So that's kind of the plan for tonight. And mourning is something that everybody experiences in different ways and I am by no means an expert in the topic. I have gone through seasons where I have mourned, but I am definitely a novice in this subject. But we do have role models throughout the scriptures and we can look to the scriptures to give us a lot of insight on the topic. Give us a lot of insight on the topic Now.
Nick Prisco:Mourning can be in the traditional sense, used in the traditional sense, and the dictionary actually defines it as the expression of deep sorrow for someone who has died, typically involving certain, involving following certain conventions, such as wearing black clothes, following certain conventions, such as wearing black clothes. And we can mourn the loss of somebody. But we can also mourn other things as well. We can mourn the loss of a relationship with somebody, maybe a loved one or a friend, maybe a relationship was severed. We can mourn the Maybe a relationship was severed. We can mourn the expectation that has been dashed by something.
Nick Prisco:So why is mourning key to our Christian faith? And I would have to say that the answer to that starts way back at the beginning. In the Garden of Eden, adam and Eve chose to eat the fruit that they were told not to, and at that first disobedience, sin, entered the world. And it's the trait that is passed down generation to generation to generation and it's the one, it's one thing that we are born into this world and we have it. We got it. You might be missing you know your parents hair. You might be missing an arm. You could have some ailment, you know, naturally, but you know you're going to have sin. We're born into this world with it. So what does I want? To back up a second, and I want to talk about how the world mourns and to talk about that first.
Nick Prisco:I'm going to go back into the Old Testament and I'm going to go to 1 Samuel 15. And if you want to turn in your Bibles with me, buckle up. It's a good story. And this is the story about the Lord rejecting Saul. As you get there in your Bible, so read along. I'm going to be reading out of the ESV Saul as you get there in your Bible, so read along. I'm going to be reading out of the ESV.
Nick Prisco:This is the story about when Samuel gave Saul instructions and Saul didn't follow them to the letter. But I'll talk more about that. All right, here we go. 15, verse 15. And Samuel said to Saul the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people, israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts.
Nick Prisco:I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them to lay 200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites go depart, go down from among the Amalekites lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt, and he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
Nick Prisco:And the word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night and Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, saul come to Carmel and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him blessed be you to the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said what then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Saul said they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord, your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.
Nick Prisco:Then Samuel said to Saul Stop, I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to Saul stop, I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him speak. And Samuel said though you are little in your own eyes and you are not the head of the tribes of Israel, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and said go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.
Nick Prisco:When they did not obey. Why, then, did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil sheep and oxen and the best of the things devoted to destruction to sacrifice to the Lord, your God.
Nick Prisco:And Gilgal and Samuel said has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as sin as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king. Saul said to Samuel I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king of Israel.
Nick Prisco:And Samuel turned to go away. Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you and also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not man that he should regret. Then he said I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. Your Samuel said bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said surely this bitterness of death has passed and the end of this is not really great for children's ears, probably. So I'm going to kind of skip past that. But we know that Samuel had to finish what Saul didn't finish and he took care of Agag the way that the Lord commanded it. So that's a long story. I hope you were able to follow with it.
Nick Prisco:But verse 27, something interesting popped up to me that you know. As Samuel turned to go away, saul sees the skirt of his robe and tore it, and Saul was unable to let go of his control by attempting to force Samuel to return with him. And Saul, saul was having a moment where he was mourning because of his sin and he was desperate for Samuel to to undo what had been done. But that just wasn't Saul's lot. He was not going to get that, and a big reason was because in verses 24 and 30, we see that Saul was more worried about what the people and the elders thought than what God thought. So he decided that he was going to take matters into his own hands. And we see in verse 35 that the Lord, he, said that he regretted making Saul king over Israel. So this is a was to me a good picture of you know how the world can choose to mourn, because so often we can.
Nick Prisco:Well, I guess, before I get more into that, I want to take a look at a way that Christians should mourn and what the Bible says about mourning. So I want to go over to 2 Corinthians, 7. Verse 10. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. I guess I should preface this by saying paul's writing to the corinthians and he's expressing the joy that he has from the hard rebuke of the Corinthian church, I believe, and that this rebuke produced a grief and then allowed the Corinthians to turn away from their sins that they were doing. So Paul says in verse 10, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. And so to understand godly grief, we have to be able to understand repentance, and repentance is something that I think that we can see in I don't know if that's the right word we can see back in the Old Testament.
Nick Prisco:Right after Samuel is a story of the next king, king David, which we all know the story. So I don't think I'm going to read the whole story, but we know I'm going to summarize it that David and Bathsheba. David, he saw Bathsheba out on the roof when it was the time of year where kings go out to battle and David wasn't there and he stayed back and Bathsheba was there and he fell into temptation and she ended up pregnant. So he had to come up with this clever scheme about trying to make it look like Uriah Bathsheba's husband. I could just read it, couldn't I, after I go through all this trouble to talk about it. So let's just take off where I am. So David sent word to Joab and send me Uriah the Hittite, and that was Bathsheba's husband. And David is now trying to conceal the pregnancy from Uriah and others.
Nick Prisco:And Joab sent Uriah to David and when Uriah came to him, david asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. And David said to Uriah go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house, house with all the servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house. When David told Uriah Uriah did you not go down to, did you not go down? Uriah did not go down to his house because they told him that David said to Uriah have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, eat and to drink and to lie with my wife. As you live and as your souls live. I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.
Nick Prisco:So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next and David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord. But he did not go to his house. So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.
Nick Prisco:Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting and he instructed the messenger when you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger arises and if he says to you why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerubasheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall? Then you shall say your servant Uriah the Hittite, is dead also.
Nick Prisco:So the messenger went back and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David the men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in your field. But we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archer shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant, uriah the Hittite, is also dead. David said to the messenger. Thus shall you say to Joab do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours one now and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage him.
Nick Prisco:And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the morning was over, david sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Now, in chapter 12, the prophet Nathan comes to David and he calls David out for his sin, for his sin, and basically, um, david, he, um. Well, david calls himself out truthfully. So, um, he tells a story about um, a poor man.
Nick Prisco:Let me just read it also, because it's and the Lord said to Nathan, sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him there were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought, and he brought it up and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold. Because he did this thing and because he has no pity, he's had no pity.
Nick Prisco:Nathan said to David you are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. If this were too little, I would add to you. He says Now. Therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord. Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.
Nick Prisco:David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die, nevertheless, because this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord. And the child is born. The child who is born to you shall die. And then Nathan went to his house and then, as most of us know that David's child did die and we know that David um wept for his child and fasted for his child, but the child still didn't make it.
Nick Prisco:And the big difference between Saul and David here is that David, although he did wrong and it was wrong what he did when he was found out, when his sin was found out, he did not deny that it was wrong. He, uh, he, he said it was what it was. And um, instead of uh, grasping at Nathan's cloak like Saul, grasped at um at Nathan's cloak, like Saul grasped at Samuel's cloak. He accepted the consequences of his sin and trusted God, that God would do what he was going to do. And it didn't make him feel any better. It wasn't through this time of mourning for his child, it wasn't something that you know. He felt the guilt, he felt the I mean, I can't say what he felt, but it appears that he did so. Alright, I know that was a lot of reading and hopefully you're still awake, but learning to mourn.
Nick Prisco:Mourning glorifies God. I mean there's a promise that you know those who mourn will be comforted. God is not sin and he's not death and he came to destroy those things. Now the importance of mourning is that it's less about our circumstances and more about seeing sin for what it really is and seeing that God is holy. In 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16. He says, he says but as he who was called, he who called you, is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. We serve a holy God and sin is not compatible with this holy God.
Nick Prisco:And repentance is not treating sin like a little oopsie. It's not treating it like you know, it's a little imposition and you know it's no big deal and we're forgiven. But it was our sin that nailed Jesus to the cross and in that story of David you see that he realized oh no, like I have done wrong before the Lord. And repentance is acknowledging that sin is not compatible with the Lord and turning away from that. In 2 Corinthians 5.10, it talks about how we're going to appear before a judgment seat of Christ and you know we're going to be held accountable for our sins if we don't repent and turn away from the Lord, which is obviously. I mean, if we're Christians, we understand that to some degree. But the point that I'm trying to make is that sin is not a joke, which should also be understood, but kind of like Mark's sermon on Sunday suggested, we shouldn't look at sin externally by the letter of the law, but we should look at the spirit of the word of God.
Nick Prisco:And in Matthew 23, 27, jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he says Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. The outside and the consequences of sin. From the outside, then we risk being, um, appearing good, appearing whole, appearing right, looking good from the outside, but we're actually dirty and broken on the inside and um, you know that's the, that's the trap, that, and you know that's the trap that Saul fell into by trying to please others there. So I want to talk about how God's comfort is available, because this is like has been very heavy, but God does promise his comfort to those who mourn. So an example of how is in John 21.
Nick Prisco:And Jesus is talking to Peter after Jesus has revealed himself. And and John 21, 15, and we see Peter and Jesus and there's this healing happening. And I would I would, I mean I see it as comfort to Peter. It was and it goes when he had finished breakfast, jesus said to Simon Peter, simon, and I guess you all know that Peter denied Jesus like Jesus had said he would, and so he was wrecked with guilt. And so it says when he had finished breakfast, jesus said to Simon Peter, simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him yes, lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him feed my lambs. He said to him a second time Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said to him yes, lord, you know that I love you. He said to him tend my sheep. He said to him a third time Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he had said it to him a third time Do you love me? And he said to him Lord, you know everything and you know that I love you. Jesus said to him feed my sheep.
Nick Prisco:So there's an example of Jesus extending comfort to one of his closest friends. Now I want to talk about how this comfort is extended, and to do that I want to go over to the book of Hebrews, 10, verse 19 and 20. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope, without wavering for he who promises faithful, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near and we can be comforted from our mourning, because Jesus was willing to come for us and die on that cross, and he shed his blood, and his blood made a way for us to enter into his presence, so there will be an end to mourning and we do have a hope that is in Jesus Now.
Nick Prisco:David's life was a good example. You know God said that he was. I'm actually escaping me what he said about David. Somebody help me out. What did he say about David, man after God's own heart, thank you, and that was encouraging to me.
Nick Prisco:There was another story in the New Testament that was also encouraging to me and that was Matthew 9, 22. Sorry and behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. She said to herself if I only touch the garment, I will be made well. Jesus turned and, seeing her, he said take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well, and I was. You know, I was going through this and I was thinking of Saul and how he tore at Samuel's tore, at Samuel's cloak, and tore it apart because he was so desperate that he would change his mind, and that he and that this woman was so desperate but didn't try to take it into her own hands and force the Lord's hand, but all that she had left in her was to just touch his garment and not try to rip it and do it in our own strength, and I thought that was a good example for us, that you know, if we could have the same faith to believe that God would comfort us when we mourn.
Nick Prisco:To try and wrap up my side of things up here, basically I want to go to Revelation 21, 1, 7. And we see here that there will be a place of no more pain and no more suffering. So 21, verse 1,. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, he will dwell with him and they will be his people and God himself will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall their mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. There should be no more mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. There should be no more mourning, crying or pain anymore. For the former, things have passed away.
Nick Prisco:And he who was seated on the throne said behold, I am making all things new.
Nick Prisco:Also, he said write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end To the thirsty. I will give from the spring of water of life, without payment, to the one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son, this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. So that's about all the strength I have to, because this, this to me, this was really like this was a lot going through the morning, and so I kind of had this thought that if I shared the morning, I thought that we could kind of shared, kind of what I saw about morning. If then we could go around in the tables and maybe talk about the comfort that God can bring. And so these questions are just conversation questions and I thought that they might be good and hopefully I didn't bring us down so much that we can't ask them, but there we go.
