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Do You Want to Be Happy?
Everyone wants to be happy. We spend our money, time, and energy chasing our version of the good life. And on the way, we run ourselves into physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. But what if the happiness we’re all striving for isn’t the happiness we were created for?
Pastor and author Dr. Derwin L. Gray believes there is a better road to happiness, and it is found in the Beatitudes of Jesus. In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus revealed the shocking, countercultural path to true flourishing. It comes not through wealth, fame, or laughter but through poverty, obscurity, and mourning.
True happiness comes from a heart directed toward the kingdom of God and satisfied in Jesus the King. This 8-session small-group study demonstrates how Jesus taught us to search for, find, and hold on to the good life.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • I want to tell you a story about a friend of mine. His name is Manny, a homemade he's from, uh, Lagos, Nigeria. At nine years old, he saw something that absolutely • • • blew his mind. • • • • He saw a white man. But not only did he see a white man, he saw a white man with an orange ball. • • And a white man had other kids around him from his neighborhood. • • And they were throwing the ball into the air, into a basket. So it wasn't a soccer ball. It was a different kind of ball. Instead of kicking it, they were throwing it into the air. So Manny walks over to this thing that's not a soccer field, it's a basketball court. • And the gentleman has a ball. And he tells the kids, • • • if any of you can make this ball into the basket by shooting it, you get a reward. And guess what the reward is. A pair of shoes. So when Manny hears this, oh, I could get a pair of shoes. If I could get this weird ball from the strange person and put the ball in the basket, I could get a pair of shoes. Getting a pair of shoes may be something that you and I take for granted. But for Manny, in his neighborhood, • with his friends, with his family, most of the kids didn't own a pair of shoes. So Manny enters • • what is called a free throw shooting contest. He had no clue what it was. He just knows. An orange ball. I'm, um, putting it in his basket, and I'm getting some shoes. • • • So somehow, some way, mania homee wins • • • • the free throw shooting contest, and the man gives him a pair of shoes. • • • Uh, that changed Manny's life. • Uh, the man was actually a missionary from Wisconsin. And not only did it give Manny a pair of shoes, he began to articulate and communicate the gospel to Manny. • • And so Manny transitioned from kicking soccer balls into nets to being a basketball player. By the time Manny was a senior in high school, he was six foot four. Not only could he shoot the ball, he could dunk the ball, he could defend the ball. He became really, really good. So the next thing that took place is he started getting letters • • from colleges in America. • And there was one particular college that he really liked, because on the brochure, he's seen beautiful women. He's seen the sun shining. They were in sports cars. It looks like so much fun. And so Manny decided, this is the school that I am going to in America to play basketball. • • • So Manny takes basically everything he has as a senior in high school. He graduates, and he's getting ready to go to college in America. He has his shorts on, his flip flops, his T shirt. He's ready to experience the good old USA. • • • He gets on an airplane in the first place he flies into • • • is Chicago. • And he's looking around going, oh, boy, this place is is kind of weird. There's this white stuff on the ground I've never seen before. • • So good thing he doesn't have to go out there. He's getting ready to go to the sunny place. So he gets on another plane, and he lands at where his college is, • • • • and he walks outside in flipflops • • t shirt and shorts • • • in South Dakota in the winter. So the school that he was going to to play basketball was in South Dakota in the winter. He had never seen snow before. He had never been that cold before. Surely it was a mistake, he thought, but actually, it was no mistake at all. And so about the first month of Manny's existence in college, he said that he stayed in his dorm room with the thermostat turned up to, like, 90 degrees because he was so cold. Well, Manny ends up having a really good career in college. He graduates with a business degree. Manny has incredible leadership skills. He's moving up the corporate ladder. He's getting promotion after promotion. He's living the American dream. He has a beautiful wife. He has a family. He's accomplishing everything, • • but he's not quite happy. And one of the reasons why is, in the midst of that, • • he sees an image of all the other boys and girls • • • • where he's from • • in Nigeria, and he thinks, • • they don't have shoes. • • Many of them live on less than $2 • • per day. • • • And so what he did is, he decided to throw his lucrative business career away so that he and his wife could start a nonprofit organization called Samaritan's Feet. And they have an audacious goal to put 10 million shoes on children's feet, because children can get diseases from walking around barefooted. And and and so what they do is they unleash the power of corporate America as well as the church, and they unleash people to go around the world and to serve kids by washing their feet and putting on new pairs of shoes. And they're able to communicate the gospel. Man, uh, he's one of the happiest people I know. And his happiness is rooted in what Jesus said in the sermon or mount. Blessed are happier those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. You see, we were created to meet other people's needs, just as God met our need. Happiness is found in healing or hurt. Happiness is found in becoming God's paintbrush • • upon the canvas of life, in which we love, in which we serve other people. • • • • Happiness is joining God and bringing his righteousness to earth. Happiness is saying, I'm a kingdom citizen, so how do I display the king? Through my life? And what does righteousness mean? Righteousness simply means this that God's justice, god's love is to be expressed through his people as a gift to the world. • • And so Manny • • tapped into, man, I want to see kids have shoes. That that's not right. And I want to wrong that right. And the rest of the scripture says that those who hung their thirst for righteousness • • will be filled. That word filled literally means to be gorge, to to overflow. It's like going to a buffet. God is going, I want you to overflow with happiness. • How does that take place? Is we find a hurt in the world • and we attach our gifting to it and we become healers of that • • hurt. • • • • • • • You want to be happy? You want the good life it's found in joining God and bringing his righteousness to earth, • • • that there's a lot of things we can hunger and thirst for, but we were created to hunger and thirst • • for joining God and displaying his righteousness and grace on the earth. You, uh, are the answer to someone's prayer. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • As you go to your groups, I.
Speaker B
Want you to reflect on these questions. How did Jesus enter into our broken world and display God's righteousness? • • And how can you join God in displaying his righteousness in this broken world? And I want you to think about this. God doesn't need your ability. He has plenty of that. God needs your availability, uh, • • • • • • • • peace amount. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •