PRESCRIPTION FOR HAPPINESS
The Beatitudes – Matthew 5:1-12
Everybody I know wants to be happy. However, it appears to me that some folks may not understand what true happiness is.
There are those, for example, who seem to think that lots of money would make them happy; yet, some of the wealthiest people in the world have said that fortune brought misery to their lives.
Others seem to think that if they could just be famous, they would be happy; yet, many famous folks come to the end of their way feeling unhappy due to loneliness and sadness.
Neither fame nor fortune brings true happiness to any individual. This is as true today as it was when
Jesus preached a sermon about happiness during his ministry on this earth.
Times have changed, but the search for happiness is still one of our top priorities.
Perhaps we would do well to adopt as one of our main goals in life: To be happy and to make other happy.
One of the memories that I cherish of my father-in-law is the note that he wrote to himself and taped on the mirror into which he looked every morning when he shaved.
The note read:
“Thursday mornings
Go to nursing home
Make people happy.”
Whether in a nursing home or not, we all want to be happy. We want to wake up each morning with a reason for living yet another day . . . with an inward feeling of assurance that life is worthwhile . . . with no thought as to whether or not our needs are going to be met that day . . . with as bright an outlook on life as possible . . . with the hope that someone who needs a word of encouragement will cross our path that day; so, “Lord, help me to encourage someone today.”
My father-in-law discovered happiness by making others happy. He could not make people happy by giving them money; nor could he make them happy by offering them fame. He did so simply by going where there was a need for encouragement. Oftentimes all he had to offer was a smile, a handshake, or a pat on the back, without saying a word. His actions spoke, as if to say, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee.”
When Jesus saw a multitude of people searching for happiness, he had pity on them – and then, “He went up on a mountainside and sat down, and he began to teach them.”
“How to be Happy” was the theme of the first lesson Jesus taught in His “Sermon on the Mount”. Here was the Great Physician, taking time to sit down with those longing for a happy life, giving them a prescription consisting of eight components of the blessing of happiness.
Think of these eight components as noted minister-author Robert Schuler and my long-time friend Harmon Born, along with other respected servants of God have suggested: BE Attitudes – the person God wants me (us) to BE.
When a medical doctor prescribes an antibiotic, the patient is advised to take the entire dosage over a period of time in order to realize the full benefit of the prescription.
Jesus our Great Physician advises those who desire true happiness to incorporate all eight BE Attitudes into daily life if they (we) want to benefit fully from God’s Prescription for Happiness. Amen.
PRESCRIPTION FOR HAPPINESS SERMON VI: BE PURE
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
Do you have a longing in your heart to know God better? In my younger days, as a teenager, I sang a little chorus containing these words: “I have a longing in my heart for Jesus, I have a longing in my heart for Him, Just to be near Him, to feel His presence, I have a longing in my heart for Him.”
If you have a yearning in your heart to know God in a real, personal, life-changing way, then this Be Attitude is for you. How do we become “pure in heart? I suggest three ways:
(1) Wise up! Sad to say, there are folks in our world today who unwisely do not believe in God. Yet, the Word of God says, “in the beginning God” - and if we are wise, we will take the Bible at its word. No scientist has ever disproved the existence of God. Wise men and women believe in God.
One of my favorite expressions of belief in God is the wisdom we find in these words of the Psalmist: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they speak; night after night they display his wondrous works. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
“Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has placed the sun . . . It rises on one horizon of the earth and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its warmth.” (Psalm 19:1-6)
No wonder the Psalmist felt led by the spirit of God to make this declarative statement: “The fool says in his heart, there is no God.” (14:1)
Although I hesitate to mention her name, all of us have heard about Madelyn Murray O’Hare, who spent her entire adult life crusading to have the name of God removed from our society. She proclaimed to the whole world, “I am an atheist.”
Yet, did you know that her son, Bill Murray, who was raised and indoctrinated in atheism, and worked for his mother for years in her worldwide crusade against God, had a life-transforming experience that turned him into a believer in God!?
Many of us have had life-transforming experiences that reaffirmed our faith in God! If you are struggling with your faith, wise up! Realize that the very reason why you have a longing in your heart is due to the urging within you of the spirit of God. The Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, creator of mankind, takes the initiative to encourage you.
He seeks a relationship with you. May you respond to the longing in your heart by thanking Him for His presence, by asking Him to guide, comfort and strengthen you all the days of your life. Thank Him. Tell Him your needs. Trust Him to answer your prayers. The AT&T of prayer is this: Always Thank & Trust God. How do we become pure in heart? First: Wise up. Second:
(2) Clean up! Ever heard it said about someone, “They need to clean up their act?” Believe it not, this applies to Christians who want to become pure in heart. Jesus of course is talking about a spiritual quality when he uses the word heart. So, it would have to be that our Lord is telling us that if we want to be pure like Him, we need to clean up the impurities in our lives. Someone might say, “Who, me? What impurities do I have in my heart?”
That is a question that only you or I can answer for ourselves. As for me, I can make a list of impurities that I, and others I know about, have had to work on to get rid of during a lifetime.
Mama had the right idea when she warned me as a kid from time to time that if I said such and such again, she would wash out my mouth with soapy water. Well, it’s just as true with us adults. We constantly need to apply the soap and water of God’s Word to our minds and our hearts in order to get rid of impurities.
If there is hypocrisy, we need to clean it up . . . jealousy . . . envy . . . pride . . . selfishness . . . hate . . . despair . . . Any one of these impurities is enough to make a person miserable. We cannot be happy if our heart is filled with resentment or hatred or suspicion or jealousy or despair or any other impurity that causes us to be unhappy all the time. There are two ways to get rid of unhealthy impurities.
We must ‘fess up. Once we become aware of the impurity that is keeping us from being happy, once we identify it and acknowledge that it is there, once we admit that it is a sin, then we must confess it.
We must ‘fess up and ask God to help us give it up. And you know what? He will. For, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all impurities.”
How do we become pure in heart? (1) Wise up. (2) Clean up. Third: (3) Cheer up! One of the most meaningful lessons I ever learned in my Christian experience was when I discovered that God is in the business of turning negatives into positives.
God took the greatest negative the world has ever known – the Crucifixion – and turned it into the greatest positive the world has ever known – the Resurrection.
During that one weekend long ago, God turned despair into hope. He turned night into day. He turned defeat into victory. He turned doubters into believers. He turned fear into courage. He turned hatred into love. He turned sadness into gladness. He turned weeping into shouts of joy. He turned death into life.
God wants you and me to turn the negatives of our lives into positives. It is difficult – especially when you are confined to a wheelchair . . . you must depend on someone else to remember for you . . . you must have someone else to assist you in getting around . . . you must depend on family members or friends to take you wherever you need to go - to find anything positive to think about. So, how do you turn negatives into positives?
Two ways come to mind. As you sit around waiting for the next activity in your daily routine, replace negative thoughts with thoughts of the many good things that have happened during your lifetime. Meditate on the good things in your life . . .
Yes, review your life story; if someone is willing to listen to you, share your life experiences with them. Think of all the folks in your life that meant a lot to you.
Recall the happiest days of your life – your graduation from school, your marriage, the birth of your children, your baptism, your anniversaries, your jobs that you were blessed to have, your friends that brought happiness to your life, and on and on you can go reviewing your life, each and every day. Remember the good!
The other suggestion is this: Meditate on the goodness of God. See how many favorite scripture verses and songs you can recall. If your eyesight is still good, read the Bible daily; but what I like to do is to recall a scripture verse or a story in the Bible and meditate on it; also I like to remember a favorite song or chorus and whistle it or sing it.
If you do these things, be surprised at how your mind will begin to recall scripture verses you memorized in Vacation Bible School or Sunday school . . . hymns that you sang so many times in church that they were engraved on your mind. You will be happy that you remembered them.
I can think of nothing better than meditation to cheer you up and make you happy. If you wise up, clean up and cheer up – the best part about it is that you will not only purge your mind and purify your heart, but you will, Jesus said, see God!
You will see the goodness of God in your life . . . see how God has provided for you . . . see the nature of God as loving and caring and gracious . . . see that God loves you, cares for you, and wants what is best for you . . . see that God keeps His promises.
The prayer to pray is this: “Let the words of my mouth, And the meditations of my heart, Be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” Amen!
