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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.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The year was 1984. I was in 7th grade, and my mom • • bought tickets it's for one of my good friends and I to go to a San Antonio Spurs basketball game. It was a spurs versus the Lakers. And at that time, the Lakers had Magic Johnson, Careem Abdul Jabar, all of my childhood heroes. But I'm a homer though, so I was going for the spurs. So anyway, she bought us tickets to the game. And then she said, listen, I'm going to pick you up at a hotel right by the stadium, because she said, I'm going to pick you up near the arena by a hotel where the Los Angeles Lakers will go. To this day, I have no idea how she knew the Lakers will go to this hotel after the game. Nevertheless, the spurs win the game. Me and my homeboy, we go to the hotel. We're sitting out in front. At first, nothing, but then all of a sudden, • • the Lakers started to come. The first person I seen was the great Bob MacAdoo, an incredible scoring machine. I patted him on the back, and then the next person I saw • • • was the one and only Kareem Abdul Jabar. So I ran up to him, I shook Kareem Abdul Jabar, shook my hand. I don't even know if I've watched it since 1984. Uh, then Gene Banks, one of the spurs players, came. I gave him a high five. I told him, Great job. So we're sitting there, we're talking, and all of a sudden there's a hoard of people coming. And in the midst of this horde was the biggest smile I'd ever seen. It was Magic Johnson. And when I seen Magic Johnson, the urban Magic Johnson, • • I froze. • • I didn't move. I just looked at him and I was just in, uh, awe. It was like he was gliding on the air, just signing autographs, smiling. And as he was walking by, I was going, that's Magic Johnson. That's Magic Johnson. And I was so in awe of him, • • • • he just passed on by. Before I knew it, he was in the hotel on his way to his room. So I missed the chance to shake Magic Johnson's hand. But, um, what I did not miss was this lesson I learned. Those that we admire, • we see • • • higher. • • • • Let me say it again. Those that we admire, we see higher. And those that we view higher, we're willing to allow them to shape and to influence our • lives. What in the world does Magic Johnson have to do • • with us finding happiness? • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Well, Jesus, as he's teaching, he says this blessed are happy are the pured heart, for they will see God. • • The way I phrase it are happy are the God. Seers, why is that important here's? Why it's important is because God, in his matchless beauty • • and in what's called his holiness. Holiness means that God is utterly separate and other, free from any decay, any death, any destruction, any sin, that God is incredibly holy and magnificent. In the Old Testament, • • Moses says, God, I want to see you. And God is like, Yo, home boy, once again, that's Hebrew. Not hebrew. Hebrew? Yo, man, listen, you can't see the full effects of who I am, but I want you to hide this cliff and I'm going to show you my glory. • • • So in order for us to see God, um, it's like we have to be holy ourselves. We have to be pure from sin. We have to be righteous, free from unrighteousness. So how in the world can we see God? • • Well, the way we see God is God opens our eyes that Jesus • shares his purity with us, that Jesus shares his cleanliness with us, that Jesus shares his righteousness with us. Jesus, the one who is God in human form, is the one who allows us to see God face to face. That on the cross, Jesus tears down this veil, that through his blood, we are forgiven. We are • • unified with Him through his resurrection, and that allows us to see God. • • • What does that have to do with our happiness? Because God is the most beautiful being that we could ever see. Everything that we're longing for, everything that we hope to be, every dream, everything that we'd ever desire in life is found in desiring Him. That happiness is more about the happening of our relationship with our good, good father. Our, uh, Father says, I want you to see me. • • I want you to know my ways. I want you to know my thoughts. I want you to know my purpose and my plan for you. I want to give you my best. We give God our worst, and God gives us his best. And his best is his son, Jesus. And so what happens is when we get a chance to see who God is, because he opened our eyes, because he drew us unto Himself, that's where the happiness comes from. And so when we get to see God, we get to see our purpose, which is to live a life of incredible love. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • As a matter of fact, Jesus, in John seven, verses 53 through John eight, one through eleven, uh, • • shares this incredible story. • • • • There's a woman who is caught in adultery. And according to the Old Testament, a woman or man caught into, uh, adultery, they, quote, unquote, must be stoned to death. And so this was at the temple. And so the religious leaders grabbed this woman and bring her to Jesus. Now, can you imagine the shame and the guilt? Here's my question. • • • Where's the man at? Like, where was he? Was the man who committed adultery one of the men who actually brought her to Christ to be condemned? Um, was he one of the Pharisees? The Sadducees? Are maybe one of the Sanhedrin, a man of power? Well, we don't know other than this that the man was not caught but the woman was brought to him, and they wanted to catch Jesus in a trap. By the way, trying to catch Jesus in a trap is like trying to drink the Pacific Ocean with a straw. It's never going to happen. • • • So they put the woman • • before Jesus, and in her sin, she gets to see God. She gets to see God face to face. • • • The religious leaders say, what should we do with her? Moses says that she's to be stoned. And so Jesus drops to the ground and he begins to write with his finger as an allusion to when Moses himself went up the mountain. And God with his finger, gave us the Ten Commandments, which the first four deal with loving God, the next six deal with loving your neighbor as you love yourself. And as Jesus is down there symbolically with her, as he is with us in our brokenness, he says, those of you who have not sin cast the first stone. • • • • And from oldest to youngest, they begin to drop their stones one by one by one. And then there's this holy moment where it's just a woman and Jesus, and she sees God face to face. That's what happiness is. That in the midst of our sin, in the midst of everything that we've done wrong, jesus says, Listen, I'm not going to throw stones at you. I'm m actually going to get up on a cross. That's the ultimate happiness that God has seen our, uh, worst. But the Father gives us our best. • • Jesus, • • • • • • • • • • • think about it. In this story, you and I are the woman. Our sin may not have been adultery, but all of us are born • • • shackled to sin. • • All of us are born in need • • of seeing God face to face. And the God of great love and the God of incredible mercy, the God of great patience • • • • stoops down where we are, and he says, I want to show you who I am. And what do we see when we see God? We see the God who says, I am • • • • love, • • • • • happier, uh, • • those • • who see God. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Speaker B
I, uh, have one question for you. When Jesus says, Blessed or happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God, what does it do for you and your faith to know that it was Jesus Himself, through his sacrifice and through his resurrection that made us pure enough to be able to see God? Um, • and I want you to marinate.
Speaker A
On this, that the only purity we.
Speaker B
Have that allows us to see God face to face is that Jesus took our impurity and gave us his purity. That Jesus took our unrighteousness and gave us his righteousness. We see God because God came and found us.
Speaker A
Uh, peace.
Speaker B
I'm out. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •