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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.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Hey, what's happening, everybody? I want to thank you, • • uh, for this journey. I know your time is valuable. I hope that this has been beneficial for you, that this idea of understanding that the good life and the happy life is a life in which God makes us his kingdom citizens through the redemptive work of Jesus. So I pray that as your love for Christ has increased because of his great love for us, that our understanding of happiness and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus has increased. As I worked on this project, as I prayed and I studied and I journeyed with Christ, • • um, • • • something happened in me. • Um, my heart became more tender. My desire and my understanding that happiness isn't necessarily about my surroundings, but happiness is about being surrounded and indwelt • by the presence of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so this last session is probably the most challenging one for me. Jesus opens up with Matthew, chapter five, verses ten through twelve, and he says this blessed or happy are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. You are blessed or happy when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Verse twelve, be glad and rejoice • • because your reward is great in heaven, for that's how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Wow, those are some incredibly strong words and challenging words to, uh, be happy • • • • when we are persecuted. So the first thing is understand as Jesus has persecuted for • • righteousness. • • Well, in the Old Testament understanding of things, and as Jesus brings it to the New Testament, if we want to know what righteousness is, we look at Jesus. He is the embodiment of the Torah. He's the embodiment of what righteousness is. And it's the embodiment of love. • • • • Uh, it's a radical righteousness that will sit down with prostitutes and tax collectors and say, I want to eat with you. It's a righteousness that goes to a man by the name of Zacchaeus's house and say, hey, I want to eat with you. It's a righteousness that says, what's happening in the temple is wrong. You've turned my Father's house into a den of thieves and I'm a wreak havoc in here. It's a righteousness that says the leper needs to be healed. It's a righteousness that says, this world is broken • • and it's breaking my heart, and I'm going to be broken on a cross • • • to heal its hurts. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • So if we choose to follow this path, the good life, it's a life of saying, • • uh, I'm not standing up for Christ. Christ is standing and living and moving in me. We are loving our enemies. • We are forgiving those who've hurt us. We're learning that false accusation • • means, uh, • that Jesus is my defense. • • • Uh, all throughout the world, there is incredible persecution. But what I want to talk about specifically is in the American context. So as followers of Jesus, we need to know • • • • the game has changed. No longer is, quote unquote, Christianity the center of American • • • society. Christianity is now being pushed to the margins. And I know some of you, uh, are saying, well, Darwin, that's a bad thing. I actually think it's rather a good thing because it's going to make us more like the early first century church. The early first century church had no political power. They had no economic power, they had no cultural power. But what they did have is the power of the Holy Spirit. And so as the church is m moved to the margins, more and more and more, what's going to happen is • • those who truly follow Christ, those who are truly walking in the good life because of his good grace and his good mercy and his good power, • • you're going to see the church become more effective. It's amazing. • • The most powerful movements of Christianity on the planet • • are from third world countries. • • The center of Christianity is no longer in the west. It's growing in the global South, Latin America and Africa. As a matter of fact, by 2051, in three Christians will be a Nigerian woman. The underground church in China is exploding in growth. Why? Because they don't have cultural power, they don't have political power. But what they do have is the power of the Holy Spirit. And so as we're pushed to the margins, we can expect forms of persecution. But that persecution is actually going to push us to be more fervent in our faith. It's going to m move us to actually pray more. So instead of getting angry at the culture, we're going to love the culture even • • more. So let's take a step back. Let's go back to the first generation of Christians. • • • That when the early church would say that Jesus is Lord. That could have gotten them arrested. It could have got them killed. It could have got them, uh, obliterated. Because you don't say Jesus is lord. Because Caesar was lord. The Roman government, • • • all, um, they cared about was, listen, you can worship and believe whatever you want to believe, as long as you believe that the Caesar is ultimate, that he is Lord. And the early Christians were like, no, • • Jesus is Lord. The actual good news is that there's a new king named Jesus. • • • He lived a perfect life, fulfilling all of the commandments because we couldn't. This new king died to death. That we should have died to forgive our sins, to make us righteous, to reconcile us to our dad. And he rose again from the dead, defeating sin, death and evil, to live his majestic and incredible life in us and through us by the power of the Spirit. And now we become his hands and his feet. We become the citizens of heaven on earth. We're bringing the culture of heaven to earth. We're bringing the kingdom of light into the kingdom of darkness. But what did the early church do as a movement that was on the fringes? What they did is they loved when Roman prostitutes would have babies • • • and they would put them outside • • • • for a process of death called exposure. It was the Christians who would adopt these • • • little precious kids • • • when there were disease that would attack villages, and villages would die, and the pagans and the Jews were leaving. It was the followers of Christ, jews and Gentiles, this new humanity who would stay with these people. And sometimes God would supernaturally heal the sick. • • • But then sometimes the sick, • • along with the follower of Christ, would die. • • • • • They would feed the hungry. They would clothe the naked. • • • When there were ethnic and race riots, it was the church there who brought the different ethnic groups together. • • So in other words, • • uh, they lived the good life. • • • They benefited the culture by their presence. Let me ask you this. If your local church did not exist, would your community • • • miss it? • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • One of the things that we did at transformation church to tap into • • • what happened in the early church, as the church of today gets pushed to the margins, we said, how can we make ourselves • • so indispensable that if we didn't exist, our community would miss us? Well, it begins with love. And we thought the first thing we got to do is we have to help our kids. And so we went to the public schools and we said, how can we serve you? And they said, what do you want? We said, how can we serve you? And they said, what do you want? We said, how can we serve you? And from that meeting, what's happened now is there are seven public schools • • that we do tutoring in that we do backpack meals where we feed over 200 kids a week, because over the weekend, we heard that they were not getting meals. And so what do we do? We fill their backpacks full of food. This year, our church has made over 200,000 meals. Why do we do that? Because we want the world to know that God loves them. And he expresses his love through the body of Christ, through us as individuals, but through us corporately, • • • we have, uh, pro life ministries because we want people to understand that life matters from the womb all the way to the tomb. So we're going to experience • • persecution. We're going to get pushed to the margins. But as we're pushed to the margins, it's going to push us deeper into the heart of Christ. And so we don't respond with anger. We don't respond, • uh, with visceral attacks. We respond the way Jesus did. Do you remember the scenes in the gospels where punches Pilate tells the religious leaders, I find nothing wrong with this man? Just for context, • • • jewish people were not allowed to kill others, • • • so they got the Romans to be able to do it. And ultimately, Jesus died not at the Roman hands or the Jewish hands. He died at your hands and my hands for the sins of the world. So Jesus is flogged and punches. Pilate has an opportunity • • to set a prisoner free, and so he chooses Barabbas and he chooses Jesus. And the religious leaders got the crowd to say, free Barabbas. We want Barabbas. And so Barabbas, who was guilty of insurrection, that means causing a riot. And Jesus, who was only guilty of producing love, is sentenced to death. • • And what's ironic is the name Barabbas means • • son of the father. So you have Barabbas, the false son of the father who's guilty of sin, and you have Jesus, the true son of the father who is sinless. But what did Jesus do? Jesus goes to the cross. Why? Because it is in the midst of a world of hate and darkness that love and light wins. And so as we as a church are pushed to the margins, • we're not going to defend ourselves. We're going to present Christ. We're not going to respond back with hostility and anger. We're going to respond with grace and mercy. • • In other words, it's the kindness of God that leads to repentance. • As we experience persecution for his name's sake and his righteousness, jesus says, be glad, be happy, because your reward is great • in heaven. But what's great about our reward is great in heaven is the power of heaven is present in our lives. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Speaker B
I've got two questions for you. The first one is this when Pontius Pilate had Jesus and Barabbas stand before the crowd and the crowd was whipped up and Pontius pilot says, who do you want to be set free? Barabbas, who was guilty of insurrection, or Jesus, whom Pontius Pilate found no fault in? The crowd said they wanted Barabbas, what was Jesus's posture • to persecution? • Here's the second question. What's our posture to be as the church is pushed more towards the margins? Is it anger? Is it hostility? Or is it in the same spirit that Christ responded with love and grace.
Speaker A
And truth and mercy?
Speaker B
Because it's the kindness of the Lord.
Speaker A
That leads to repentance. • • • • •
Speaker B
And I want you to marinate on this. • • • As we, as God's people are pushed to the margins, know that that pushing is pushing us closer and closer to Jesus. And so his character and how he interacted with the world becomes ours. What did Jesus do in a broken culture? He was broken as bread to feed hungry souls. I'm, um pastor Darwin, Gray.
Speaker A
Peace. I'm out. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •