Friday, August 8, 2014

August 9, 2014

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the sons of God"  Matthew 5:9

One of the things that first attracted me to Barbara was her happy nature. I am a happy person and I enjoy being around happy people, so that grabbed my attention. After having been in a long-term relationship with an unhappy person her nature was very appealing.

I knew that if we were going to grow into a serious relationship making her happy would be a key factor and given the fact that she was already a happy lady made that seem more doable. At the risk of being too honest, I will admit that I was more interested in the happiness she could give me than I was the happiness I would be required to afford her.

After several years of marriage it finally dawned on me that if I wanted to be happy it was important to make her happy. That was a significant day in the Snyder household! After 27 year years together we are happy, happy, happy!

It has been a long time since I first trusted Jesus for salvation but I have no doubt that I came to faith with the idea that God could make me happy. I have a feeling I am not the only one who began following Christ with that selfish motivation.

When I decided on the name "Happiness Happens" for this series of sermons on the Beatitudes I was banking on people's interest in finding happiness to possibly capture some attention. But the subtitle I added, "But not like you think it does" should have been a clue about whose happiness I was referring to.

The "blessed" in the each Beatitude means, happy in the sense of having God's approval or the joy that comes from knowing God is pleased with you. So, Jesus taught eight ways to win God's favor on your life. Implied in these verses is that if you make God happy you will be happy.

For the believer, that is precisely how happiness happens. You find happiness by making God happy.

Becoming fully aware of how spiritually corrupt and morally bankrupt you are in the sight of a Holy God makes Him happy!

Having a broken heart because of your sinfulness makes God happy!

Humbly surrendering to His sovereign will for your life and committing to trust Him makes Him happy!

Realizing your spiritual emptiness and craving to be filled with His righteousness makes Him happy!

Being grateful for His mercy on your life and extending that mercy to others makes God happy!

Calling upon God through the blood of Jesus to make you spiritually and morally pure makes Him happy!

Those who find spiritual peace in God and reconcile men to God and to one another is a man who makes God happy!

You will find happiness when the passion of your life is to make God happy by building His Beatitudes into your daily living.

Happiness happens, but it happens by making Him happy!

Will you commit to His happiness today?