“In The Pursuit of Happiness”
Matthew 5:1-2
“God wants me to be happy?” We often hear that phrase in our day, usually as an excuse for some kind of behavior that the individual knows is wrong. But is that true? Is that the be all and end all; that God wants you to be happy?
It seems that many if not most Americans have bought into the Wall Street version of happiness and are pursuing it with a vengeance. We see this ideal set forth in the 2006 blockbuster “Pursuit of Happyness,” starring Will Smith. This movie is based on the real life story of Chris Gardner and is the record of his epic journey from rags to riches. In the minds of many Americans, the “pursuit of happiness” is unconsciously equated with the pursuit of wealth and security.
That pursuit of wealth and security has even found its way into theology in our day - this “happiness theology” is often called the Prosperity Gospel. This theology (if we can call it that) this stitched together, homegrown theology is not clearly defined but is centered on the insistence that God’s top priority is to shower blessings on Christians in this lifetime and is advanced by proponents such as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and Joel Ostten. It has been defined specifically by the teaching that "believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth.” “Of the four biggest mega churches in this country, three – Osteen’s, Lakewood Church in Houston; T.D. Jakes , Potter’s House in Dallas and Creflo Dollar’s, World Changer’s Church near Atlanta, are Prosperity or at least Prosperity Lite churches.” [David Van Biema & Jeff Chu. “Does God Want You To Be Rich?” Time. Sunday, Sept 10, 2006, www.time.com/time/magazine/article /0,9171,1533448, 00. html.]
But perhaps of the most concern to us today is that it seems to be a portrayal of the church in America’s headlong rush into materialism. I like Rich Warren’s response, “One should not measure their self-worth, by their net worth.”
• Sermon on the Mount
Chapter five of Matthew’s gospel begins what is known as “The Sermon on the Mount” and it will run through the end of chapter seven. I believe that all of this was one sermon delivered by the Lord at one time. But in order for us to digest it’s truths we are going to spend the next several weeks examining it piece by piece. The Sermon the Mount is probably the best known part of the teaching of Jesus, although it may be argued that it is the least understood and certainly the least applied.
What we have in Matthew was probably part of a longer message or was the summary of a much longer message. The Sermon on the Mount in our English bibles can be read in about ten minutes, it can hardly be assumed that the crowd that Matthew talks about have walked all the way into this secluded wilderness only to hear a ten minute message from Jesus and leave. (Although many present day Baptist would be fine with a ten minute message. But don’t get your hopes up.)It is more likely that this is a sample of the message that Jesus often delivered to his listeners.
John the Baptist’s death ended the Old Testament and the New Testament begins with the ministry of Jesus. The Old Testament ended with warning of a curse, “And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children; And the heart of the children to the fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:6) Yet the first sermon of the New Testament opens with the promise of a blessing. The Old Testament demonstrated man’s need of salvation and the New Testament message offers the Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ. [John MacArthur. “The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 1-7.” (Chicago; Moody, 1985) p.132]
• The Beatitudes
The first seven verses of chapter five constitute what is known as “The Beatitudes.” These do not describe eight different types of people but an abiding and progressive condition in one person in eight different experiences. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out three important points when studying the Beatitudes;
• They are a description of what every Christian is meant to be.
The “blessings” can be described as “be” attitudes, - the attitudes we should “be.” These are not meant as descriptions of some exceptional Christians or a few super-spiritual Christians, all Christians are meant to exemplify these characteristics.
• All Christians are meant to manifest all of these characteristics. It is not a list you get to choose from, every Christian is meant to be all of them.
• None of these come naturally.
Each one of them is produced by grace alone as we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us. [D. Martyn Lloyd Jones. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount . (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Pub., 1984) pp. 33-35]
The first four Beatitudes deal with one’s relation-ship with God and the second set of four deals with one’s relationship with other men.
Now look with me as read the first three verses of chapter five and attempt an introduction to the Beat-itudes. “And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. (2) Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: (3) "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
It should be noted that Matthew identifies three groups of people who surround Jesus; the disciples, the religious leaders, and the multitudes (or crowds). The “disciples” were those who have made a personal commitment to Jesus. The “religious leaders” (Phar-isees, Sadducees and Scribes) were generally opposed to Jesus and his message. The “crowd” was those who were casually interested by what He had to say but who had not made a personal commitment to Him. So which group do you belong to today?
Now look with me at three things that we can learn about “blessedness.”
First, The Meaning of Blessedness
As we have already noted the first seven verses of chapter five are known as “The Beatitudes” and they are called that because the word means “blessing” and because the first word of each verse beginning with verse three and ending in verse ten is “blessed.”
What does the word “blessed” mean? The Greek word translated “blessed” (makarios) is a difficult word to translate, sometimes “happy” is used as a translation but that is less than a satisfactory translation.
• “Happy” (from the Anglo Saxon word “hap”)
means chance, so happiness depends on circumstances and is therefore uncertain and temporary.
"What is happy?" A number of years ago the magazine "Psychology Today" did a survey of 5200 readers to determine what constituted happiness. I love the response of one man who wrote "I think I’m happy please verify." The editors of Psychology Today didn’t discover what happiness was but they did discover what happiness was not. They ruled out some attributes that are thought to contribute to happiness. It didn’t seem to matter if the people were rich, or poor, married or single, or where they lived. Instead happiness appeared to be related to an inward attitude, or the way we regard our circumstances.
• “Blessed” in its real sense refers to one’s
relationship to God and refers to a condition of inner satisfaction.
So happiness is dependent on what happens and blessed is not. Happiness is circumstantial, therefore uncertain and temporary. There is more to blessedness than happiness! There is nothing wrong with the desire to be happy, there is everything wrong with the way we often go seeking it.
Now that we understand the meaning of blessedness we need to look,
Secondly, The Pursuit of Blessedness
The Declaration of the United States of America begin with the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among them are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The founding fathers recognized the importance of happiness, but they were also wise enough to guarantee the pursuit not its attainment. The Russian author, Alexander Solzhetsyn said, "If humanism was right in declaring that man is born to be happy then man wouldn’t be born to die"
Carl Elliott in his book “Better Than Well” senses that pursuit of happiness by Americans in our day has become so desperate that it now seem to require “not only that I pursue happiness, but that I pursue it aggressively, club it into unconsciousness and drag it back bound and gagged to my basement” [Carl Elliott “Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream” (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003) p. 295] Many Americans seem committed to the pursuit of happiness at any cost; whether it be by committing adultery, dishonoring their parents, killing unborn children or numbing themselves with the use of some drug.
If we follow the our natural inclinations the Beatitudes would read, happy are the rich, for they believe they have it all, happy are the carefree, for they do not worry about nothing; happy are the arrogant, for people defer to them; happy are the hardhearted, for they pity no one; happy are they that care nothing about justice, for they care only about themselves; happy are the wicked, for they care nothing about God; happy are the violent, for they do not care about belonging to God; happy are those who persecute others, for the only kingdom they think about is their own. But through grace the Holy of Spirit creates within us the ability to strive for greater possibilities.
• Conditions for Happiness
I believe that most Bible believing Christians would agree that the believer is not free to do whatever they please to make themselves happy. God does not want his children to be happy if requires;
If it requires sinning.
Some times the lyrics of the old song that says, “If loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right” really describes how many people, even Christians think. But if what we think we need to make us happy means that we must disobey what God’s word, then that alone should tells us right up front that God is not favor of that course of action. Sometimes we hear people say something like, “Well God understands my situation and He wants me to be happy.” While it is always true, that God understands your situation, that is not the same as God approving of what you are thinking about doing, what you are doing, or what you have already done that His word says is wrong.
If it leads to compromise with false doctrine.
Often within cults we hear of how these false teachers pervert and twist the clear teaching of the Word of God to allow them to allow themselves special privileges. There is within each of us, the desire to carry out those things that we think would make us happier. When we hear individuals say that the word of God does not apply to them then we can know for sure that they are in an area of great moral danger. If what you desire forces you to consider twisting or ignore the clear teaching of God’s word, beware!
If our actions cause anyone else to stumble.
The Lord will warns His followers, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6) It is a serious consideration to understand the influence that our actions have on others. Our behavior concerning right and wrong may convince others to follow our example. To lead someone into a sinful action is a serious matter to God.
If means bring reproach upon the Lord and His church.
The prophet Nathan in confronting King David of his adultery with Bathsheba said, “you sin has given the enemies of God great occasion to blaspheme.” (2 Samuel 12:14) In the New Testament Paul reminded the Jews in the book of Romans, “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through (or because) of you.” (Romans 2:24) We need to make sure in seeking our happiness we do not bring shame to the name of the Lord.
In other words we can never say, “I know God wants me to be happy, so this departure from His will which I am contemplating or have already done, is alright with Him, because I thought it would make me happy.” God never gives His perm-ission for sin. He does however extend forgiveness to those who in repentance and brokenness come to him in confession.
“You will notice the first Beatitude and the last Beatitude promise the same reward, ‘for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. What does that mean? Our Lord starts and ends with it because it is His way of saying that the first thing you have to realize about yourself is that you belong to a different kingdom.” [D. Martyn Lloyd Jones. p. 39]
We have learned how not pursue blessedness but …
Third, The Possibility of Blessedness
Sometimes God gives an unbeliever more insight into the lives of Christians than most Christians have. For instance someone once said to Hannah Whitall Smith, author of the book, “The Christian Secret of a Happy Life.” “You Christians seem to have a religion that is like the man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to much to keep it.” You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything that uncomfortable.” ( Hannah Whitall Smith.“The Christian Secret of a Happy Life. (Chicago: Moody, 2009- Originally pub 1883, Fleming H. Revell)
To such a world and to all unhappy Christians, the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount give hope. The Beatitudes or “blessings” are meant to inspire us as to what we are to “be.” And we will spend the next few weeks examining exactly what that means. But for now; there are just three things that we need recognize about the possibility of happiness or blessedness.
Recognize that we will never achieve lasting happiness on our own.
We will never find true and lasting happiness the state of being “blessed” until we give up on our own efforts and allow the Holy Spirit’s transforming power into our lives.
Realize that the blessing of God in an individual life begins with forgiveness of sin.
A life of blessing begins with the greatest blessing of all the blessing of being forgiven of your sins! The Psalmist says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. (2) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity…” (Psalm 32:1-2)
Rely on the Holy Spirit to find blessedness.
As the Apostle Paul demonstrates it is all about yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to do a work in your heart. “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Romans 6:13)
Finding happiness really is as simple as that!
Conclusion
So does God want me to be happy? Yes, He even gives us the Beatitudes or “blessings” which are meant to inspire us as to what we are to “be.” But happiness should never be our goal. But being conformed into the image that God has intended for each of us we will find not just happiness but blessedness!
“In The Pursuit of Happiness”
Matthew 5:1-2
We often hear the phrase, “God wants me to be happy?” But is that true?
• Sermon on the Mount (5:1-7)
• The Beatitudes (5:1-7:29)
They are a description of what ______ Christian is
meant to be.
All Christians are meant to manifest _____ of these characteristics.
None of these come ___________________.
First, The ___________________ of Blessedness
What does the word “blessed” mean?
• “Happy” (Anglo Saxon word “hap”) means __________, so
happiness depends on _______ therefore uncertain and temporary.
• “Blessed” refers to one’s relationship to _____ and refers to a condition of inner ___________.
Second, The _______________ of Blessedness
• Conditions for Happiness
God does not want his children to be happy if
It requires _______________.
It leads following false ________________
Our actions cause anyone else to __________. (Matt. 18:6)
It means bring ________________ upon the church. (2 Sam. 12:14, Romans 2:24)
Third, The ________________ of Blessedness
Recognize that we will never achieve lasting happiness on our ___________.
Realize that the blessing of God in an individual life begins with ___________________ of sin. (Psalm 32:1-2)
Rely on the _________ _________ to find blessedness. (Rom. 6:13)
