MATTHEW 5:1-12
“God’s Recipe for Happiness”
BY: Rev. Kenneth E. Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News,
VA
When I was a real young kid I used to like to bake cookies...cause I really liked to eat
cookies and my mom would very rarely buy the store-bought kind.
So, I would pull out my mom’s “Joy of Cooking” book--find a recipe and start making a
mess.
I can remember several times when I would inadvertently miss one of the ingredients in
the recipe, and the cookies would come out tasting horrible.
What a disappointment that was.
Later on in life--as a bachelor--I would often cook spaghetti--but I wouldn’t follow any
recipe. And I got to thinking that I made pretty good spaghetti.
Unfortuantely, I was the only one who thought it was good.
Now, when Jeanne, Ben and I are trying to figure out what to have for dinner, I’ll say,
“How about I make some spaghetti?”
There’s always a brief pause....then almost in unison Jeanne and Ben will say.... “Let’s go
out for dinner.”
In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus is giving us a sort of recipe.
It’s a recipe for happy and constructive living.
It cuts across all differences of temperament and abilities.
It outlines the kind of character which is possible for any person--gifted or relatively
ungifted, strong or weak, clever or slow in the uptake.
Christ is placing His finger not upon the externals, but upon the vital internal attitude.
It’s not what we are that really counts--not what we possess or have done.
It is our internal attitude.
There is a wonderful book called Your God is Too Small. It was written by a man named
J.B. Phillips.
Phillips is also highly acclaimed for his translation of The New Testament in Modern
English.
In his book, Phillips addresses Matthew chapter 5, and says that verses 3-10 which are
commonly called the Beatitudes outline the sort of people God intends for us to be.
In his translation, Phillips substitutes the more modern word ‘happy’ for ‘blessed’.
When you ask someone what they want out of life, the normal response is that they want
to be happy.
And you see, God wants us to be happy too, but the way God defines happiness and
the way the world defines happiness are polar opposites.
For instance, many of us think: Happy are the pushers: for they get on in the world.
But Jesus said, “Happy are those who realize their spiritual poverty: they have already
entered the kingdom of Reality.
Poverty of spirit is basically equivalent to being humble.
In other words, a humble person is a person who realizes that he or she is dependent on
God....that he or she cannot do it on their own.
And this is true reality.
This is the first step toward entering the kingdom of God.
The opposite of humility is pride, which the Bible judges to be the root of all sin.
And in this world, pride is something which is often encouraged.
In our society, as well as many others, to be humble or obedient is seen as a sign of
weakness.
To take orders marks us as the ones who are inferior to the ones giving the orders.
And in this world, the strong often impose themselves on the weak.
But Jesus says that this is not the way it is supposed to be with His followers.
As Christ’s disciples, we are called to be willing to be servants and give up the striving
for positional advantage, because power and position have nothing to do with our value or worth.
And they certainly have nothing to do with our happiness.
And we can only overcome the sin of pride through the power of the gospel.
Christ took the weakness of pride to the cross and nailed it there.
Through our obedience to Christ, God makes our spiritual weakness our real source of
strength.
The new birth that we experience once we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior
can be compared to a heart transplant.
God uses the weakness of our old hearts in order to get us on the operating table so that
He can implant in us new hearts--hearts that are no longer ruled by pride--but hearts that long
for the living God.
Many people think: Happy are the hard-boiled: for they never let life hurt them.
My friends--this is a ruse.
Sure, we can harden our hearts, and live only for ourselves....doing anything and
everything we can to get ahead....but this is not where true happiness lies. This is a cop-out!
Jesus said: “Happy are they who bear their share world’s pain: in the long run they will
know more happiness than those who avoid it.”
Who do you think lived a happier life?...
Mother Teresa or one of the many billionares who spent all their time and energy storing
up for themselves treasures here on earth--caring nothing for the outsider, the down troden,
the hungry, the diseased, the dying?
Many people think: Happy are they who complain: for they get their own way in the end.
Jesus Christ said: “Happy are those who accept life and their own limitations they will
find more in life than anybody.”
A wise person once said, “No matter how palatial our dwellings, we all still live in tents.
We can either be content or discontent.”
The easiest thing to do is to complain. But that’s no fun. We can never be happy if we
spend our entire lives complaining.
I’m sure most of you have heard the old saying, “I complained I had no shoes until I saw
a person who had no feet.”
And amazingly enough, quite often the person with no feet...as long as they are able to
accept life, and their own limitations are much more happy than those who complain about
much less serious problems.
A friend of mine recently told me about his father.
For most of his life he had been a robust man of strength and endurance, but he was
diagnosed with cancer six years ago and toward the end of his life the disease completely
sapped his vitality.
During the last nine days of his life, my friend and his wife had to care for him just as
they would a baby.
My friend thought that his father would complian about his weakness, but he didn’t.
Instead, he found strength in his new found faith in the grace of God.
His acceptance of his weakness actually enabled him to accept God’s loving strength to
overcome!
Many people think: Happy are the blase: for they never worry over their sins.
But Jesus Christ said: “Happy are those who long to be truly “good”, they will fully
realize their ambition.”
Robert Louis Stevenson made the comment, “to travel hopefully is a better thing than to
arrive.”
While this may be true, Those who seek God, not only travel hopefully--they arrive!
God can cleanse our hearts in an instant when we humble ourselves before Him, and ask
for forgiveness.
And as the Bible says in 1st Corinthians we who have put our trust and our lives into the
hands of God “refelct the Lord’s glory,” as we are being, “transformed into His likeness with
ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
What a wonderful jouney on which to travel.
And when we arrive... we will meet Jesus face to face dressed in white robes which have
been washed clean with His blood.
And as Revelation chapter 7 declares: “Never again will” we “hunger.”
“Never again will” we “thirst.”
“The sun will not beat upon” us “nor any scorching heat.”
“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be” our “sheperd; he will lead” us “to
springs of living water.”
“And God will wipe away every tear from” our “eyes.”
Many people think: Happy are the slave-drivers: for they get results.
But Jesus Christ said: “Happy are those who are ready to make allowances and to forgive:
they will know the love of God.”
Now this beatitude hardly seems as revolutionary as the others, but when we think about
the time in which it was spoken...it was pretty radical.
The Romans despised pity, and the Pharisees were extremely harsh in their
self-righteousness--they showed very little mercy.
But Jesus is incredibly merciful, Jesus is incredibly forgiving.
Just think of the woman who was about to be stoned, or all the sinners that Christ readily
healed.
And think of what Christ has done for us.
He has given all of us who are born again the ministry of reconciliation as the Bible says
in 2nd Corinthians: “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting
men’s sins against them.”
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.”
Therefore Jesus has told us: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
And in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus says, “If you forgive men when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father
will not forgive your sins.”
Many people think: happy are the knowledgeable people of the world: for they know
their way around.
But Jesus Chrsit said: “Happy are those who are real in their thoughts and feelings: in the
end they will know the ultimate Reality, God.”
No Christian, no matter how smart they might be, has the right to boast about anything
except the gospel which saved them.
To be truly happy, we must come to God in honesty. Confessing our sins, confessing our
infinitude, confessing our weakness--relying only on God’s strength.
For no one can be saved through their own wisdom.
As the Bible declares in 1st Corinthians: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.....Where is the
wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made
foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its own wisdom did not know him.
God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.”
Let’s be honest, if the Lord had formed an apostle search committee--as the world
would do--none of the twelve apostles would have even gotten an interview.
And you and I may dismiss ourselves as being less qualified to do a certain task than
someone else, but the Lord sees different qualities than people do...and thanks be to God for
that!
Many people think: Happy are the trouble-makers: for people have to take notice of
them.
But Jesus Christ said: “Happy are those who help others to live together: they will be
known to be doing God’s work.”
The emphasis on peace and peacemaking is frequent in the teachings of Jesus.
It’s fitting that the angels who hailed his birth sang of “peace on earth.”
Jesus told us to love our enemies, and to pray for those who dispitefully use us.
Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, Peace in the soul, and Peace among people.
Those who seek peace by loving their enemies are imitating what God does, and are
therefore God’s true sons and daughters.
And no greater happiness is there than this!
Christ’s fundamental work was to reconcile humans with God because as long as humans
are at odds with God, we are at odds with ourselves and our neighbors.
Therefore, as Christians we are to be peacemakers...because we are called to witness to
others so that they might turn to Christ, who himself changes people’s hearts and makes peace.
Most people want to be happy, but we cannot find the happiness we desire without
totally surrendering our lives to the will of God.
True happiness has nothing to do with money, it has nothing to do with prestige, or
power or anything that this world has to offer.
On the contrary, true happiness has everything to do with God. It is not based on
external circumstances...but it is derived from an inner peace which passes all
understanding....Peace that only Jesus can give.
God wants us to be happy. But His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our
thoughts....
Therefore, I ask you this morning....are you happy?
