How To Find Happiness In
Strange Places
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To School With God Series
A Sermon
By Jim Hammond from Matthew 5:1-12
Have you ever noticed that just as your cup of
happiness is full and you finally settle back to enjoy it, somebody
bumps your elbow? Happiness
can be an elusive thing. I
don’t know how you would measure this, but according to one study only
20 % of the people in the U.S. claim to be happy.
For some people it is that bumped elbow upsetting their cup of
happiness. For others, it
can be that thing that never happens that upsets their happiness.
What is your picture of a happy life?
Is your picture of the happy life the “American
dream”, the ideal of owning a home, two car garage, having 2 kids and
a dog, enjoying your job, and having enough money to enjoy your leisure? What is your picture of a happy life? Where are the places you visit to find happiness,
the movie theater, the amusement park, mountain hiking trail, the
shopping mall, a good restaurant, Bank One Ball Park?
Or maybe for you it’s not the place so much as the
circumstances that you hope will make you happy.
Are you looking for happiness to come through something else?
Perhaps you are looking for happiness in your relationships, or
your family life? Or
perhaps you are waiting for happiness to return with the change of
circumstances, like the restoration of your health, or your financial
situation, or finding the right job, or the right romance.
Where do you look for happiness?
Take a moment before we start to fill in the
following blank, “I would be happier if _________________.” That statement you just wrote down says a lot about what you
believe. It might even say
something about your approach to life.
I want you to compare the statement you wrote down and your
beliefs about happiness with some of the words of Jesus describing the
happy life.
Jesus gave us a picture of a happy life that was
very different. Jesus told
us you can find happiness in strange places.
He described these strange places to find happiness at the
beginning of his ministry when he gave a defining message, his Kingdom
Manifesto, a message that is commonly called
The Sermon on the Mount. This sermon begins with those familiar
words “blessed are.” Modern translators have often used the words
“happy [are]” or “fortunate [are]” instead of
“Blessed [are]” as a translation to the term Jesus used.
This section
of Jesus’ message is referred to as the beatitudes. The beatitudes are not a series of commands, but blessings
that are described and the promises associated with the attitudes that
are rewarded with these blessings. The beatitudes describe the kind of
person who will receive the blessings of God. The beatitudes identify a
series of qualities that produce happiness, even though happiness is not
readily apparent.
Focus:
Jesus gave us an unconventional perspective on happiness when he
spoke the beatitudes as the introduction to his Sermon on the Mount.
This introduces more than simply a sermon; it introduces a whole
new approach to life.
I.
Jesus tells us to find Happiness in Strange Places
Happiness is found where there is . . .
1. Spiritual Poverty
Matthew 5:3
(NIV) 3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
This very first statement of his sermon is the
paradoxical premise of the entire Sermon on the Mount:
The only people who can
truly experience the "blessedness" Jesus offers are those who
know they cannot achieve it on their own.
How could being "poor in spirit” be the source of
happiness? Why does Christ begin with this?
What
does "poor in spirit" mean? Jesus’ choice of words was no
accident. The word he chose
for “poor” was not the word for the working poor who scraped by and
made enough to survive. The
word he chose was for the beggarly poor who could not make it without
outside assistance. Poverty
of spirit is the foundation of all
other spiritual graces. All
other gifts of God come only to the
degree that we recognize that we are poor in spirit.
We do not receive the
gifts of God based on merit. We
receive the gifts of God based on faith. This
faith is a humble reliance upon God's
goodness rather than our own. We
cannot become a Christian unless we are poor in spirit. Jesus is saying this is the starting point.
The
fact is Jesus knew that we on our own were incapable of scaling the
mountains of morality that he
depicts for us in the Sermon on the Mount.
The following truth is taught throughout the New
Testament—holiness is not achieved; it is received.
Only those who recognize
that they don’t have the personal resources to attain the
kingdom get in the kingdom. Jesus
said, “It is not the
healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners.”
(Mark 2:17) The
world says happy are the rich and famous and self
sufficient and proud. Jesus
says just the opposite. We will never be blessed until we see our poverty of spirit.
We will never lean upon God until we
see that we need Him. We
will never seek the physician until
we believe we are sick. Happy
are the sick who know it. Woe
to the one who is sick and does not know it.
Jesus came to fill those who admit their own
resources are inadequate.
Jesus was telling us that
we cannot be filled till we are emptied.
Let’s dump out our
cups and ask to be filled.
Let’s
just say you were walking down a country lane and you came upon a very
strange sight. You
are walking by fence post after fence post, and suddenly you come to one
of the fence posts and you stop and look because there is something on
it. You can’t believe your
eyes. There on the top of
the fence post sits a turtle. It
sits there, legs dangling, perched on the underside of his shell. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to do some quick figuring
and deduce a few things about what you are seeing.
If you ever see a turtle on a fence post, there is one thing you
know for certain. He
didn’t get there on his own. Now,
believe it or not, that’s the picture of the Christian life well
lived. If you ever meet a
person that DOES truly live out the values of Christ’s kingdom, you
know he didn’t get there on his own either.
The New Testament makes it clear that just like that turtle
someone helped him get there. The
rest of the “Sermon On The Mount” describes the turtle on the fence post.
In other words, it describes the Christian life, what it looks
like, but the beatitudes describe the fact that we didn’t get there on
our own. There are
preconditions that give us something that is not ours naturally.
These preconditions, these attitudes, open us up to the Kingdom
of God.
What’s “the
Kingdom?” Notice the
present tense. It is
something the “poor in Spirit” can have now.
Let’s call that kingdom the sphere of God’s reign and rule.
The kingdom of God is where God rules.
The precondition of acknowledging our own spiritual poverty opens
us up to a supernatural ruling of our lives.
This precondition, this attitude, opens us up to God taking
charge and ruling us, giving us new abilities, new inclinations and new
desires, even a new power. This
outside source is the ruling power of God in our lives.
That is why Jesus opens his sermon the way he does.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs IS the kingdom of God.
The ruling influence of the king can come only to one kind of
person, the kind of person who recognizes that they need Him because
without him they are spiritually impoverished.
Without this outside help we are spiritually bankrupt.
Knowing this is a very important key to finding true happiness.
Happiness is found in the very
strange place of emptying yourself and asking God for help.
The next strange place of happiness actually expresses the
practical how to side of it.
Happiness is found where there is . . .
2. Sadness.
Matthew 5:4
(NIV)
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
How can happiness be found in the place of sadness?
Isn’t this just some kind of spiritual double speak?
Let’s peel the layers of truth back from this statement slowly and
carefully. On the surface
Jesus is saying to us that happiness can be found where there is
weeping. There is a hidden blessing in mourning.
We as a nation have been mourning for a while over national
events. The mourning and
the tears are part of the grieving process.
It is part of the healing. It
is the counselor who tells us today that people who do not allow
themselves a chance to grieve and mourn actually hamper their healing in
a grief process. When grief goes underground it can channel its way into
bitterness or rage. All
this is true, but this is still just the surface truth to the statement
of Jesus, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
Jesus is saying more than this surface layer.
The context helps us understand the more profound truth that Jesus is
telling us. Jesus is
talking about how those who mourn over their spiritual poverty, their
personal sin, are the ones who are blessed by God.
2
Corinthians 7:10 (NIV) 10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves
no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
James
4:8-10 (NIV) 8
Come
near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve,
mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble
yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
These are words designed to wake up the sleeping soul.
Mourners are happy because only mourners are forgiven.
Happiness isn’t in the sadness itself, but in the results that
this correct assessment causes.
People who don’t mourn over their own sin don’t understand their own
sin. People like this look
at the disasters of the world and the evil of the world and settle into
a rage that can be counter productive.
It is easy for each of us at this time to walk through the
pathway of rage rather than the path of mourning.
Maybe I can explain it the way G. K. Chesterton did.
An editor to a series of articles asked the question “What is wrong with
this world?” Do you
ever ask that question? We
all ask that question when we try to puzzle through the horrible events
of terror. But G. K.
Chesterton gave a very short and surprising answer to the editor.
The letter to the editor read this way:
Dear Sir:
Regarding your article “What’s Wrong with the world?”,
I am.
Yours truly,
G. K. Chesterton.
Until we mourn our sin, we will not be set free from it.
Until we mourn over our sin, we will not be able to properly
respond in mourning over the corporate sins of our world.
Until we see ourselves as part of the problem, we cannot
ourselves become part of the solution.
Until we ourselves go through the process of receiving the answer
to our problem, we will not be able to offer the answer to anyone else.
1 Corinthians 11:31 (NIV) But if we
judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.
Happiness is found where there is . . .
3. Humility
Matthew 5:5
(NIV) 5
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
To the modern mind meekness is a quality to avoid.
To the worldly minded, meekness is weakness.
But this just isn’t true.
Meekness is not weakness. Meekness
is power under complete control. Meekness is not for the faint-hearted or timid.
Try to follow Jesus’ example of meekness.
Can you turn the other cheek when someone slaps you unjustly?
Can you control yourself to give back good for evil? Do you have such self control?
Can you go the second mile, when someone is forcing you to go the
first? These are all
responses of meekness. These
are responses that say, “I am going to do what is best for you even
though you don’t deserve that.”
Meekness is power under control.
But the kind of control is not really self control at all, but it
is yielded control. The
only truly meek people are people that understand the self control the
Bible talks about, the self control that is the result of the Spirit of
God getting control of your life (Galatians 5:22).
Meekness is perhaps best seen in the raw power of
the wild stallion that has been gentled by his master.
His power becomes completely useful to his master because he is
gentled, he is submissive, he has become meek.
This state or quality of meekness cannot be achieved without
first walking through the first two blessed states that Christ
described. In other words
you can’t get to verse 5 before going through verse 3 and 4.
In monopoly terms you cannot collect $200 till you pass go.
Verse 3 and 4 are the “go” to verse 5.
Each of these “beatitudes” build on each other.
You cannot get to the attitude in verse 5 without first coming
through the process described in verse 3 and 4.
Happiness is found where there is . . .
4. Hunger
The worldly thinker looks at happiness in
opposite terms. Happy are
the full and satisfied. Isn’t
that what we believe? Jesus
turns this upside down. He
says, happiness is found in strange places.
Happiness is found in the place of hunger.
Matthew 5:6
(NIV) 6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they will be filled.
The hunger referred to here is not the
rumble of a missed meal, but the gnawing hunger that results from
deprivation of another sort. It is not literal hunger for physical food,
but a hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Contrast the self satisfied with the hungry.
Jesus says the self satisfied are not going to be happy.
Only those who are not self satisfied will be blessed.
How hungry are you for righteousness?
We are a nation of children at God’s table.
We have come to him saying we are hungry.
God offers us healthy vegetables, and we say to him, “I’m not
hungry for vegetables, I’m hungry for dessert!”
Is your appetite too specific to truly qualify as hunger?
Most of us want fast food goodness, easy goodness.
Most of us settle for “good enough.”
I want you to notice something here.
This happiness is found in route, not the arrival.
The hungering itself is the precondition that brings about
happiness. There is
happiness with that hunger for righteousness.
We are in process now. Feeding
our hunger actually increases our appetite, increasing our hunger and
thirst, and this brings about satisfaction even as we are hungry.
What if I’m not hungry for spiritual
things right now? Should I
wait? Don’t wait.
The only way I know to develop a hunger for the right things when
you aren’t presently hungry for them is by eating appetizers.
In other words when you start feasting on the right things, you
want more of the right things to feast on.
You actually train your appetite to crave that which is good.
The more you get the good stuff the more you want it, the more
satisfied you are, yet the more you want it.
It is a great and happy place to find yourself when you start
craving the right things. So
let me say it again, when it comes to spiritual matters, if you aren’t
hungry don’t wait to eat the right things.
Too many have waited till it was too late.
10 Practices to Train Yourself to Be Happy
1.
Give something away (no strings attached)
2. Do a kindness (and forget it)
3. Spend a few minutes with someone who needs encouragement (someone who
is lonely, or hurting)
4. Look intently into the face of a baby (and marvel)
5. Laugh often (it’s life’s lubricant)
6. Give thanks (a thousand times a day is not too often)
7. Pray (or you will lose the way)
8. Work (with vim and vigor)
9. Plan as though you’ll live forever (because you will)
10. Live as though you’ll die tomorrow (because you will on some
tomorrow)
By the way, the reverse is also true.
The more you fill yourself with the bad stuff, the more dull your
appetite becomes for good things. What
are you using to satisfy yourself.
Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness. Happiness is
found in the strange place of hunger.
Happiness is found where there is . . .
5. Forgiveness
Matthew 5:7
(NIV) 7
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Most will agree that mercy is a blessing
when you receive it, but here Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful
... ” those who give it. We
want to receive mercy, but when injustice strikes that’s probably not
the thing we want to extend.
In On This Day
by Carl D. Windsor, the page for Valentine's Day includes this anecdote:
"Even the most devoted couple will experience a 'stormy'
bout once in a while. A
grandmother, celebrating her golden wedding anniversary, once told the
secret of her long and happy marriage.
'On my wedding day, I decided to make a list of ten of my
husband's faults which, for the sake of our marriage, I would overlook,'
she said.
"A guest asked the woman what some of the faults
she had chosen to overlook were. The
grandmother replied, 'To tell you the truth, my dear, I never did get
around to listing them. But
whenever my husband did something that made me hopping mad, I would say
to myself, Lucky for him that's one of the ten!' [i]
Happiness is found in strange places.
Some of you know what I mean, you were unhappy for years because
of the hurt that was inflicted upon you.
You never felt peace, until you finally forgave the person who
hurt you deeply. Maybe that
person didn’t even know, or didn’t even care, but you knew, and you
cared, and forgiveness was the way you were finally released.
Happiness is found in strange places.
It is found in the tears of forgiveness and release.
Since Christ could forgive you what you did to him, you can
forgive others. As you have
been extended mercy, you become empowered to extend mercy to someone
else.
Happiness is found where there is . . .
6. Purity of Heart
Matthew 5:8
(NIV) 8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
The non-Christian does not believe that
the pure of heart are blessed. The Christian knows a wonderful secret.
Purity carries its own reward. It is a lifestyle that brings health and
contentment.
Purity isn’t popular. The popular movies and videos aren’t rated “G”.
Why is that? People have stimulated that part of their flesh that craves
fleshly things and as a result people are craving things that are not
pure. Blessed are the pure
in heart. We need to guard
our hearts. The pure in
heart are morally pure, honest and sincere.
What is true on the outside is true on the inside as well.
In fact if we follow Paul’s advice, we will “have the same
attitude as Christ.” If
we focus right there, on the attitude of Christ, the actions will take
care of themselves. If we
focus on a heart like Christ’s we will find that our actions will
follow suit. We will become
people of integrity. The
real question for us is what are we holding back from God in our hearts?
If we aren’t holding anything back, we are 100 percent
committed to God. This is
the formula for integrity. This
is the formula for happiness. But
guess what, you can’t get there by your own effort, you have to go
through the steps we’ve already mentioned.
Happiness is found where there is . . .
7. Conflict.
Matthew 5:9
(NIV) 9
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of
God.
You should notice that Jesus did not say,
“Blessed are the peace-lovers.”
Everybody enjoys peace. But
just because you enjoy peace does not mean you are willing to go through
the painful process of making peace.
Making peace often means stepping into the conflict in order to
make peace. Reconciliation often requires confrontation.
Peace lovers avoid confrontation.
It is too uncomfortable and unsettling.
Peacemakers risk themselves by entering the tunnel of chaos to
come through to the other side to work toward reconciliation.
If we dare to make peace, then we will be given the greatest
compliment a person may know on earth. We will be called “sons of
God.” Jesus was a peace
maker. It cost him his
life. But he was raised
again to resurrection and raised the possibility of reconciliation.
We become like him when we take on the challenge of making peace.
Happiness is found in strange places.
It is found where there is conflict.
Happiness is found where there is . . .
8. Mistreatment.
Matthew
5:10 (NIV) 10
Blessed
are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
Don’t miss the surprises in Jesus’ statements.
Each one of his statements was surprising.
This one is surprising because everyone viewed suffering as an
indicator that something is wrong.
But Jesus shows that suffering mistreatment like this may be an
indicator that something is right!
This kind of suffering does not indicate God’s displeasure.
This kind of suffering marks people as truly those who are like
Jesus!, and approved by God. Christians
are citizens of another kingdom, yet we live in this hostile kingdom.
This fact results in clashes and mistreatments.
Jesus says, don’t look around and wonder what you are doing
wrong when you are mistreated. You might be doing it right.
Those who are effectively living the Christian life will be
living through difficulties and hardship.
Some of these hardships will be caused directly because of the
stands we take.
Everyone wants to be liked; it is our nature. It is
not possible to please everyone, especially if you are a Christian. A
person who lives as a genuine Christian is perceived as a real nuisance
to many who are not Christian. Why
is that? Why are Christians
who endeavor to be peace makers perceived as trouble makers?
Perhaps Jesus answered this question when he said something that
sounds very different.
Matthew
10:34-36 (NIV) 34“Do
not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come
to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a
daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law—36 a
man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
How could this come from the same man?
Jesus just understood the simple truth that those who become
followers of Christ would become enemies to people who didn’t even
though they are trying to be peacemakers.
Imagine being in a Jewish household at about 50 AD and you became
a follower of Christ. This
brought division within the family whether you wanted it to or not.
People hated Jesus, and they will also hate his
followers. Today Christians
are badly mistreated and misrepresented in many places in the world.
Persecution can be a character builder. It becomes
a visible proof of your allegiance.
Often the persecuted church is a more pure church.
The persecution has a tendency to shake off all the dead wood
from the branches. Persecution
can make us a more effective witness.
Conclusion
Well, that’s the picture of the happy
life. How do you like it? You don’t have to accept it, you know. But
when you find yourself asking, “Is there something more?” Remember
that Jesus told you how to find Happiness in strange places.
Dear Lord,
We want the kind of lasting happiness and blessing
that comes from you. So we
want to bend our attitudes to fit with your program for happiness. We admit that we are poor in spirit. We are spiritually bankrupt apart from your help.
We mourn over our own sin. We
have made many messes of our lives.
We have hurt you and we have hurt others.
We have every reason to remain humble.
Help us to respond with the strength of meekness, depending upon
you. We are hungry and
thirsty for righteousness. We
want more of you in our lives. We
want to be merciful. We
choose to forgive those who have hurt us.
We release them into your hands.
Help us to be people who reflect your mercy. Lord, we ask you to cleanse our hearts so that we might be
pure of heart. Where we are
holding back, help us to see how it is hurting us rather than making us
happy. Lord we offer
ourselves to you as instruments of peace.
Help us to have the courage to be part of the solution for people
who need peace like we have received.
Give us courage when we find ourselves in conflicts.
Give us the ability to go through that tunnel of chaos to the
place of reconciliation. Lord,
give us courage to stand for the things you stand for, even when it
means mistreatment, or misunderstanding.
Allow us to shine with the light of life you place in us, through
Jesus. It is in His Name
that we pray.
Amen.
[i] Illustrations for Preaching
and Teaching, From Leadership Journal, Baker Books p. 150
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