Is there hope after losing someone you love? In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul comforts grieving believers — not by denying their sorrow, but by anchoring it in hope. In this sermon, Dr. Toby Holt brings tender, biblical encouragement to grieving hearts.

Questions this sermon answers:

1. Is it wrong for Christians to grieve? No. Grief is natural and right. But Paul says we "do not sorrow as others who have no hope." Our grief is tinged with expectation.

2. Will believers see their loved ones again? Yes. Those who have died in Christ will be raised, and believers will be reunited with them and with the Lord forever.

3. What is the basis of this hope? The death and resurrection of Jesus. Because He rose, those who belong to Him will rise too. "But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus." — 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

There are times in life when things look bad.

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There's times in life when things look miserable.

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There's times in life when things look rocky.

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There's times in life when it looks like there's no hope.

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There's times in life, much as we see out this window, where the clouds have come in.

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Darkness has entered.

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We can't see the horizon two inches in front of our nose

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because of the thick fog of hurt and pain that has entered into our circumstances.

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Can you relate?

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This morning, your situation may seem particularly dark.

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You may feel that you're stuck in place, frozen in time.

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You may feel like you have no recourse except to throw up your hands and say,

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Dear God, what are you going to do next?

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If you're feeling that way, if you can relate to having felt that way in times past,

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it's understandable because this is a darkened world.

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Man alive, I served in a chaplaincy, dealing with people on the front lines of trauma, pain, hurt, death,

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and I can tell you that there are dark clouds that can and will enter into our lives

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at times when we least expect them, at times when we're not prepared,

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in times when we are the most vulnerable.

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There are things we do not want.

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There are hurts in the past.

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There may be hurts in the present.

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There may be hurts yet to come.

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But our hope is this, that no matter what our circumstances may be,

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no matter what our situation may be,

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that we have a relationship with one who transcends it all.

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If we had to face the fears, the hurts, the pains, the anxieties, the depression,

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the dangers, the death that this world can bring to our door,

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if we had to face that on our own, we don't stand a chance.

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But here's the thing.

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We don't face it alone.

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We don't face it alone.

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You have never been alone.

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You never will be.

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No matter what lie you've bought into that you're isolated, you've never been alone.

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When God created the world, think back.

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When God created the world, did he just spin it like a top and just watch it go,

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maybe watch it drop off the table?

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When God created the world, did he, like the deists believe,

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did he just go off and do his thing and cast not a care on the hurts and pains

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that would befall that which he'd created?

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No.

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We see right from the beginning this, that God, after he had formed the world,

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after he set down man and woman, that he dwelled with them,

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that he walked with them in the cool of the afternoon.

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He walked and talked and interacted and encouraged.

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He hung out, he visited those that he had made.

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He didn't just create the world, spin it like a top, see what was going to happen.

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He did not do this because he's not an absentee God.

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He's not an absentee father.

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He's not an absentee landlord.

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And throughout the centuries since, he's proved it.

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Think of this.

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He was with Adam and Eve in the garden.

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Thereafter, he spoke to their children.

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He spoke even to Cain.

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Thereafter, he sent the prophets.

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Thereafter, he created the temple where he dwelt between the cherubim.

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Thereafter, he sent his own son to live and breathe and die in the midst of those who are hurting.

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He is not indifferent to what his people are going through.

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He is not aloof a million miles away.

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That is the God of the deists.

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It is not the God of the Christian.

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Our God is not an absentee.

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He doesn't leave children alone unattended.

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Our God doesn't sit back and fiddle while the world burns.

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that's not the God of Scripture.

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Instead, our God is consistently depicted at his people's side,

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no matter what they went through.

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If there was a problem, if there was a fracture in the relationship

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between God and his people, it was not on God.

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How often did his people in the Old Testament push God to the periphery?

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How often have you and I done that?

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If there seems like there's a fracture in our relationship with God,

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I can tell you this, it is entirely man-made.

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God, for his part, is not aloof or indifferent to us at any time in our life.

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This morning, no matter what we're going through,

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something to be encouraged about is you look out and see all that God has made.

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God has fashioned trees and rain and the clouds and the stars and the cosmos and the universe.

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God who created all that is as intimately concerned with what you're going through today

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as he was when he formed the universe.

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God doesn't give part of his attention to some of us and focus more on others of us.

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He doesn't give most of attention to keeping the world spinning

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and only have a little bit of time for us.

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He is as attentive now to what's going on in your life

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as he was when he created the world,

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when he created the cosmos, the universe itself.

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He is that attuned.

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He is that attentive.

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He cares that much.

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If you live long enough, you may have seasons

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when no one else cares for you in that way.

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There may be times when it feels like no one else can relate.

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No one else has the empathy and compassion you desperately need,

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but God does.

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And that's the message of the psalmist.

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Furthermore, the message of the Psalms we're going to see in these nine verses is this,

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that things end well.

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The story really does end well.

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The story ends well, whether it's the story of creation, whether it's the story of Scripture,

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whether it's the Gospel, whether it's your story, the story ends well.

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But when you're in chapter 1, or chapter 2, or chapter 5, or 10,

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some of us here may be in chapter 30 or 40,

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when we're along the path, we may not see that.

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If only you could flip to the end of the book

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and see the hand of God wiping away your tears.

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If only the confidence that the story ends well

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would give you so much hope no matter what you're facing today.

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I'm here to tell you the story does end well.

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It does end well.

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You may be sitting upon the ash heap, but you won't stay there.

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You won't stay there.

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And that's what we see in today's passage.

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Let's look now.

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Let's look at verses 1 through 3,

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and then we'll work our way through the text.

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Verses 1 through 3 say this.

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Praise the Lord.

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Praise, O servants of the Lord.

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Praise the name of the Lord.

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Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth forevermore.

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From the rising of the sun to its going down, the Lord's name is to be praised.

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All right, what's the main takeaway from verses 1 through 3?

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It's not a trick question.

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In the very first verse, we see this.

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Three times we see this.

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The psalmist is telling us, inviting us, compelling us to praise the Lord.

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It's not a hidden objective here.

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The first verse, the psalmist says it three times.

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Praise the Lord, praise the servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.

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Have you ever had someone send you a text message?

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You get a text message and someone really wants to convey something important to you.

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So really wants you to know what's on their mind.

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So what do they do?

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Well, maybe they'll send the text message and it'll be in all caps.

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I've got some of those.

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Sometimes you get the text message and there's like 10 exclamation points at the end of the message.

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Got some of those.

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My phone used to not get emojis, so it'd like blow up when I'd get 20 of those.

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But sometimes people will send all the emojis.

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And the idea here is they're conveying some emphasis.

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Something is important to them.

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Well, the Hebrews didn't have emojis.

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They didn't have anything quite like that.

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So what they had was this.

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They had repetition.

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They had repetition.

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That which was important to the Hebrews, they would state multiple times.

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If you stated something once, it was significant.

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If you stated something twice, it was really significant.

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You get up to three times, especially in one verse.

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Oh, my stars, that is something else.

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That is important.

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We are supposed to pay attention at what is being said.

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Praise the Lord, praise the servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.

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The psalmist, no matter what we might think of what he's saying, we know this much.

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His emphasis is on praising the Lord.

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Now, why should the people respond?

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Why should you and I respond?

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Why praise God?

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Does he need it?

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No.

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Does he deserve it?

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Yes.

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You see, there's two primary reasons.

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There's a lot of reasons, but there's two primary reasons

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why people of every age would be wise to praise the Lord.

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The first is because of this, because of who he is.

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The more you know about the nature of God,

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the more praising is the obvious reaction to who he is.

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So we praise God for who he is.

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Beyond that, we also praise him for this reason,

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because of what he has done.

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Who he is, his nature, who God is, his attributes.

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You also praise him for the things that he has done.

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Let's linger for a moment on who he is.

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if you and i were to go out and look at a beautiful sunset i don't think we're going to see

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one too brightly today but if we were to go out on the beach go down to the gulf and it's one of

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those beautiful sunsets out on the water it's it's gorgeous it's amazing if you were to look out a

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window of a tall building you saw the sunset and the colors and the hues you would stop you'd be

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transfixed how many times has that happened to us where you just look and just marvel at a sunset

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sometimes sunsets are so amazing you can't help but invite people to share the look at what you

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see you say hey you look at this look this come on come on it's going down you got to see this

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you got to see this so beautiful we look at the sunset we admire the sunset we even praise the

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sunset for this reason because its nature compels us it is that good it is that beautiful is that

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majestic is that radiant it lights up the sky in the way it does well if a sunset can do that

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if a sunset can gender that reaction on the basis of its nature how about the author of the sunset

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I'm not the author of a million sunsets.

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One whose nature dwarfs the sunset a million times over.

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Isn't he worthy of our praise?

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Absolutely.

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If we were to look upon God and his radiance and his glory,

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it would dwarf every sight you've ever seen by an infinite magnitude.

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He is worthy of praise.

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He is, he is, he is.

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Our problem is that we have such a thick veneer of sin before our eyes

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that we can't see him for who he is.

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We can look at nature, the world around us, and even suppress what we know about it.

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That's our nature.

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However, I don't think that's a problem the angels have,

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and I don't think that's a problem we'll have down the line.

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God's nature warrants our praise.

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God's nature warrants our praise.

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Every last ounce we have to give of it.

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But that said, as I said a moment ago, we not only praise God for who he is,

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we also praise God for what he's done, for what he's done in times past,

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maybe long past, maybe your past.

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We praise God for what he has done.

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Now, what's an example of that?

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Well, in the book of Psalms, there are three collections that are called Hallel.

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Hallel.

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Does anyone know what that means in Hebrew?

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Praise.

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Someone, I heard it from the left.

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That sounds right.

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There we go.

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It means praise.

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So when you're saying hallelujah, what are you saying?

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You're saying praise the Lord.

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So there's three segments, three sections in the Psalms that are called Hallel.

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And Psalm 113 through 118, which starts with today's text,

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Psalm 113 through 118 are often referred to as the Egyptian Hallel.

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The Egyptian Hallel.

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And that's because they were sung during Passover celebrations

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that remembered the time that God saved and rescued his people out of Egypt.

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We remember what God has done.

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The Psalms are a reminder of what God has done.

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They were sung with that intention.

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God's people remembered how he had saved them from Egypt,

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how he had saved them from Pharaoh.

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Psalm 113 through 118 were sung at the Passover.

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The first of those psalms was sung at the outset of the Passover meal,

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the others towards the end.

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In all likelihood, Jesus Christ himself and his disciples sung Psalm 113,

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which we're looking at this morning, sung Psalm 113 the night he was betrayed.

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This was a song of praise.

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It was a song of reminder who God is and also what he has done.

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They remembered.

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That's what the Passover was all about.

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We remember what God has done, and we praise Him for what He has done.

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They look back, they remember ten plagues.

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They look back, they remember the Red Sea that parted.

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They look back, they remember being set free from exile.

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When God's people had been in the direst condition,

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when God's people had needed Him the most,

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and in our greatest need, He came through.

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He does that.

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He came through for His people.

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And it's not limited just to Passover.

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You can look at Passover, you can look at Sinai, crossing the Jordan,

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you can go to Calvary, you see it time and time again in Scripture.

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If you're introspective, you can probably look back at your own life and see it, picture it, remember it.

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From the rising of the sun to its going down, the Lord's name is to be praised.

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Let's look at verses 4 through 6 now.

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The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the nations.

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Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high,

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who humbles Himself to behold all things that are in the heavens and in the earth?

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Who is like the Lord, our God?

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When my daughter was young, she was real small, she once compared me to Batman.

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I thought that was pretty cool.

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You know, a kid compares you to Batman, I can live with that.

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That sounded pretty good.

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Of course, later down the line, she once compared me to Fred Flintstone.

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That didn't have the same effect.

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In either case, my daughter was likening me to qualities of someone else.

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There was a comparison that was being made.

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With that said, you can't do that with God.

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Who is the Lord our God?

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Who is like the Lord our God?

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Given his infinite majesty, given his attributes, his nature, and his characteristics,

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the answer is no one.

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No one, no way, no how is like the Lord our God.

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God's very nature.

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It's in the job description of being God.

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God's very nature precludes him from having an equal.

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He has attributes that he's communicated to mankind,

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and yet he has attributes that he has not.

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They're incommunicable, that no one else shares.

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The Creator transcends the created.

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It can't be any other way, no matter how much the created might try to rob the glory from the Creator.

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The Creator transcends the created.

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And we see that.

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It's implied in verse 4 when it says that the Lord is high above the nations.

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Not just hanging out in the midst of the nations, although we do believe He's eminent just as He's transcendent.

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The point is here, He's above the nations.

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He's above their laws.

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He's above their precepts.

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We march to his tune, not the other way around.

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Now, presuming that's true, and I want to encourage you that it is,

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presuming that that's true, that God will his high above the nations,

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presuming that he is in a throne room and that the earth, such as it is,

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is just his footstool, as we see in Scripture,

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presuming that's true, then everything in the world around us is under his feet,

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is subject to him, subject to his reign and to his rule, subordinate to these.

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Every person, doesn't matter whether you believe in them or not,

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every person, every angel, every mountain, every molehill

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is subjugated to the reign and rule of the Creator.

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And yet, in spite of that, as amazing as that is to consider,

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and the more you consider it, the more your mind will spiral,

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the more you think about the majesty and the size and the infinite nature of God,

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that He always was, He always will be, when you think about these things,

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sometimes your mind can't really process that quite right.

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The more you think about that, the more you think how majestic He is,

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the more his nature stands out to you, the more mighty you perceive him to be,

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then the more amazing it is, as verse 5 says, that he would condescend to you.

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As big as he is, how amazing that he has time for you and I.

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That he carefully fashioned us together.

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He formed us in our mother's wombs.

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He who made the cosmos spent the same focus and attention when he formed and put you together

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and when he decreed your circumstances.

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which can be a hard thing sometimes for us to understand.

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But we know this much, as in verse 5 says,

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that this God, in spite of being high, in spite of being powerful,

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in spite of being radiant, in spite of being majestic,

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at the same time, he gently, patiently stoops, stoops down to us,

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condescends into our lives and our circumstances.

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Who is like our God, verse 5 says,

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and it might have been, he could have said,

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who is like our God who is big and strong?

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And that would have been true, but that's not what he says.

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He says, who is like our God who humbles himself to behold the things on earth?

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The Baals didn't do that.

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Zeus didn't do that.

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The gods of the pagans, the gods of the Egyptians, the gods of the Greek didn't do that.

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Baal didn't stoop down.

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He didn't humble himself.

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He didn't have gentleness and mildness.

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It was not in the lexicon of Baal or Asher or Molech or any of them.

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Who is like our God that does this?

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No one, no how.

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All the gods are pagans, you might know them for their strength, so what?

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Our God is not only strong, but he's tender.

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And that sets him apart.

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How cool is that, that you don't just serve a big God,

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but a tender God, a caring God, a patient God, a merciful God.

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A God who is, we see in Philippians,

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when your life was on the line, did not hesitate to humble himself and be born in a manger.

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When your life was on the line, did not shy away from the cross,

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but embraced it in order that you and I might be saved.

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There is no other God like this.

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The question is, who's like him?

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No one is.

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And the more you reflect on who he is and what he's done,

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the more amazing he is, the more obvious praise becomes.

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Sometimes praise can be something that we find difficult or hard,

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or we'd rather praise ourselves or praise politicians or praise other people, what have you.

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Well, phooey!

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Whatever praise we might give ourselves,

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Yeah, that's not the attention we're supposed to have.

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Praising God because who he is and what he has done outshines us by an infinite magnitude.

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He is worthy.

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He is worthy.

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He is worthy.

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Psalm 8 puts it another way.

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It says this, who is man that you're mindful of him?

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It's about who you are.

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Who is man that you're mindful of him and the son of man that you would visit him?

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Newsflash.

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God doesn't owe you and I jack squat.

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God doesn't owe us anything.

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And yet, and yet, who is man that we would receive this sort of grace,

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this sort of love, this sort of compassion?

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We tend to think that God owes us.

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He doesn't.

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He doesn't.

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If he owes us anything, he owes us judgment, because that's what we deserve.

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And yet, and yet, and yet, he gives us grace.

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We think, the world thinks, the secularist thinks, the humanist thinks,

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that the world orbits around us, and that God, if he exists at all,

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that he's a genie, that he's a divine butler.

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We bang a gong and he shows up.

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Wow, that is not, that's not the God of Scripture.

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That's just a little bigger version of ourselves

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that we're appealing to when we do so.

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But the psalmist knew that God is altogether holy,

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is altogether transcendent,

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and that even as he is transcendent,

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he takes notice of us.

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What you're going through today or this week or next week,

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God is not so big that he doesn't care.

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He's not so big that he doesn't know.

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And he's not so big that he can't or won't help.

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God has both the ability and the inclination to love you, to help you, to come alongside you.

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And you know what?

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That won't change tomorrow when you mess up.

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Those of us who have children, do we stop loving them when they mess up?

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No.

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Our God's love for us is sustained.

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It's sustained.

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Let's see how God's humility is further manifested as we look at our final verses, verses 7 through 9.

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He raises the poor out of the dust.

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He lifts the needy out of the ash heap,

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that he may seat him with princes, with the princes of his people.

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He grants the barren woman a home like a joyful mother of children.

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Praise the Lord.

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You know, when a king looks around a crowded room,

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he's looking for other kings.

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When a king looks around a crowded room,

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he's looking for other noblemen, magistrates, people of his clout and his authority.

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Power is attracted to power.

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Wealth is attracted to wealth.

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Beauty attracted to beauty.

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But verses 7 through 9 remind us that God is just the opposite.

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He seeks out the lowly.

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He seeks out the needy.

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He seeks out the widow.

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He seeks out the broken.

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He seeks out the hurting.

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He seeks out you.

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He seeks out me.

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When our Savior came into the world,

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He was born in the most humble estate, a manger.

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The animals lowing in His midst.

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He grew up in a humble estate.

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He went to the most humble of places, a cross.

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He did not, when he came down to earth, just place himself at the top of a high and lofty mountain

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and make it so hard for you to approach him as to make it impossible.

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He didn't.

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Now, he could have, I suppose.

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I mean, he's that worthy.

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He could have put himself far at the top of a mountain, a red carpet,

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but you have to scrape and scratch every inch just to get up to him,

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and only the strong could do so.

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Only the worthy could make it into his presence.

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He could have done that, but he didn't.

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Instead, what he did is he sought out broken people where they were.

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He went and he hung out with the sinners and the tax collectors.

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He went to those who were lost.

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He went to those who were broken.

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He sought out the woman by the well.

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He seeks you and I out in the midst, in the crucible of our pain.

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There's times when no one else will because they're afraid that someone is going to rub off on them.

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There's times in our lives where things are going so bad for us

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that other people will give us words of help from a distance,

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but they don't approach us closely for fear that something that's going on in our life will rub off on them.

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Christ seeks out.

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Christ embraces.

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Christ comes alongside.

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He did it then, he does it now.

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Whatever our circumstances are, he's with us.

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Emmanuel, God with us.

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Like I said before, it does not change.

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He doesn't need us.

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Again, I want to make that point clear.

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There's no man-shaped hole in God by which he needs us,

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and we're not that lovable that he can't help himself.

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No, that's not true.

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And yet, in spite of that, in spite of our failures, in spite of our flaws,

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he seeks us out.

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That will only fail to make a dent in your conscience

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if you have too high a view of yourself.

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You think, God just can't help himself, I'm that good.

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The more you understand you, the more we understand who we are, the more amazing this is.

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The more we understand us, the more we understand him, the more marvelous such a thing is.

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And the more we'll be able to relate when the psalmist says, praise the Lord.

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The more we'll be able to relate.

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He raises the poor out of the dust, he lifts the needy out of the ash heap,

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that he may seat him with princes, with the princes of his people.

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He does that today, for many of us he's done that in times past,

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And he will yet do it tomorrow.

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And in the end, we will see this, that our story ended well.

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A day will come, it might be on the other side of glory,

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when you will look back, and you'll look back upon your life, upon your walk,

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and you will see that he was with you every step of the way,

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he carried you every step of the way, and that your story ended well.

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Again, in chapter 2 or 5 or 10, you might wonder how things are going to turn out,

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but if you could flip to the back of the book of your life, you'd see.

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And you'd be encouraged.

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And that is no matter who you are.

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If you're a child of God, no matter who you are or what you've done,

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God is capable and willing to do this.

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And he's committed to it even when we aren't.

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He's committed to wiping away tears, to cleaning and restoring us,

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to giving us hope for a better tomorrow.

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Even if the whole world turns its back on us, he won't.

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God is on the side of his children.

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That won't change.

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Again, that's what got the psalmist excited.

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That's what they sung with such hope.

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Even in the midst of darkness, even the night Christ was betrayed,

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even in the midst of the darkest circumstance,

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then in the days yet to come,

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there was this understanding that God would not abandon his people.

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That God would not abandon his people.

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That's what got the psalmist excited in today's passage.

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The psalmist, who we believe to be King David,

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had made some seriously bad life choices,

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and yet God's love had not left him.

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God is committed to what he has started.

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Our God does not leave his projects half-baked.

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He finishes what he has begun.

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In time, we will see that.

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We will see that.

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David saw it.

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I know I've seen it.

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I trust that you may have as well.

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With our remaining time, our remaining moments this morning,

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I want to transition this thought, this mentality of God's care for us

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to how he uses the church to be his arms.

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We know our God is in the heavens, and he has appointed a church.

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He has appointed a church to be his everlasting arms,

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to breathe out and speak words of encouragement,

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to provide love and care for those who need it.

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Let's talk for just a moment as we close to how the church is part of God's solution to

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our problem, how God uses the church to help bind up the wounds of those who are hurting.

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Years ago, there was a doctor in Europe, and he had a patient that had a condition that

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he was unable to treat.

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He was in rural Europe.

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He didn't have all the means to treat this patient.

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He needed to refer him somewhere else.

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He needed to refer him to a specialist to deal with his terminal condition.

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Now, this patient he had encountered on a number of occasions was important to him.

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He loved this gentleman.

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He wanted what was best for this gentleman.

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And it pained him to some extent that he was unable to handle it all on his own.

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With that said, when he referred this man out, he wanted to refer him to the best.

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He wanted to refer him to the best.

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So what kind of specialist did he refer him to?

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Did he open up the phone book and just pick a name?

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Well, no, because the doctor loved this patient

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and he had this patient's best interests at heart.

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The doctor did not want to send him just to anyone

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because he knew that not all doctors care equally for their patients

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and not all hospitals are equal in their care.

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So the doctor did some research and he sent this man

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to the best single treatment facility in the land.

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When our physical needs are dire, we need good hospitals.

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We need good doctors.

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In the ER room, in the ICU,

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a less than sterile or less than competent environment

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will do us no good.

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In fact, it will harm us.

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The same principle holds true with regards to churches.

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Spiritually dying, hurting, broken people need loving, caring, patient, competent, godly, theologically driven care.

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And I can tell you that the greatest confidence, or I can tell you with the greatest confidence,

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that one of the best validations a church is ever going to have that God is with it,

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that God is in the midst of it, that God is at work,

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one of the greatest validations that a local congregation like ours could ever have

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that God is at work in its midst and that it is on track with its mandate

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is when God trusts that church enough to send it broken people.

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To refer to that church, those who are desperately hurting.

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To refer to that church, those who are crying out and those who are in need.

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If we're doing God's work now and in the time yet to come,

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one of the signs of God's confidence in us, in our ministry,

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is when he sends us those whose needs are desperate.

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When he trusts us enough to know that we will take care of the wounded.

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That we will love those who are hurting.

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What a validation that is of our work.

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That it is in line with Christ's own work.

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when he trusts us enough to be the house, to be the church, to be the hospital,

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where he refers those in desperate need of treatment.

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But here's the thing, that can be hard.

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That ministry can be hard, it can be difficult, it can be messy.

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By their nature, hospitals are hard environments to work in.

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By their nature, hospitals deal with hurts and heartache every day.

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Someone once said the church is not a museum of saints, it's a hospital for sinners.

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This is true.

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Whatever the case, my prayer is that God would continue to send our church broken people in the time yet to come.

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Send us broken people just as we were once broken.

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At one point, we were all without God, without hope in this world, but praise the Lord.

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Praise the Lord for his gracious work in our own lives.

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Praise the Lord for the kind and humble way in which he once came to us.

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Praise the Lord for the privilege we have in serving him, serving his children.

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Let's pray.