Happiness: What It Is & How to Have It, Part 2: Putting Others’ Needs First

Hey everybody, you're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners.

If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at greg.harvest.org. Again, it's greg.harvest.org.

You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. Our culture says look out for number one, me first, give me some more. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the biblical alternative. Here comes Jesus who says, blessed are the merciful. But what is mercy? Mercy doesn't just say, oh, look at that poor person. Mercy says, I'm going to do something for that poor person. I'm going to feed that hungry person.

I'm going to be a friend to that lonely person. Mercy is basically pity plus action. During World War II, everyone sacrificed, meatless Tuesdays, rationed gasoline, sugar, meat, cooking oil, canned goods. Nowadays, we post pictures of our excesses on social media. Self-sacrifice begat the selfie.

It's been called corrosive narcissism. And culture has never been more unhappy. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the problem. We're not following the Lord's prescription for happiness.

Well, let's dig in. We're in Matthew Chapter 5. Matthew Chapter 5. And the title of my message is Happiness. What it is.

And how to have it. God tells us how to be happy right here in Scripture. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount, the point of entry is what we call the beatitudes. Another way to put it is the be happy attitudes.

If you have these attitudes, you can indeed be a happy person. Because each beatitude starts with the word blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the peacemakers.

And so forth. The word blessed is an interchangeable word with happiness. So you could just as easily take the word blessed out and put in the word happy. Happy are those that mourn over their sin. Happy are the peacemakers. Happy are the pure in heart. And so forth. So Jesus is really saying to us repeatedly this is how you can be a happy person.

So let's read them together. Matthew 5 starting in verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted the prophets that were before you. So let's review what we looked at last time in the initial beatitudes we took a look at. On number one if you are taking notes happy are the nobodies. Happy are the nobodies blessed are the poor in spirit.

Everybody wants to be a somebody. That'll make us happy or so we think. Jesus effectively says happy are the nobodies. Now when he says poor in spirit that has nothing to do with how much money you have in your bank account.

This is about your attitude toward God. It's poor in spirit. So another way to translate this is happy or blessed is the person who sees the real spiritual condition. And what is your real spiritual condition? You are spiritually destitute. You are spiritually impoverished. You are desperately in need of God. So if you want to be a happy person you got to know that about yourself.

I am a sinner in need of a savior. So that's the beginning. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Number two unhappy people are happy people. I know that sounds contradictory. Let me put it another way. Happy people are unhappy people.

Well how does that work? Well blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. The idea of mourning here is being sorry. Being sorry for my sin. So I mourn over my sin. So I see my condition before God as a sinner but it's not a hopeless situation because there stands a savior who died on the cross for me and shed his blood for every sin I've ever committed who's ready to pardon and forgive.

But I say Lord I'm a sinner and I'm sorry for my sin. So blessed are those that see themselves as they are. Blessed are those that mourn over that condition. Step number three happy are the humble. Happy are the humble or blessed are the meek. Seeing myself as I really am produces a vital spiritual quality meekness. I'm humbled by the fact that God has forgiven me of my sin.

So happy are the humble. Number four happy are the spiritually hungry. Verse six blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.

Listen healthy people are hungry people. No matter how much you love you ought to love more right. No matter how much you pray you always could pray more.

I'm always wanting more of Jesus. And number five happy people are merciful people. Verse seven blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. See as a person of mercy I understand and empathize with those that don't yet know the Lord because I used to be one of those people. I've seen myself as I really am poor in spirit. I've wept over my condition. I've been humbled. It's caused meekness in my life. I have a new appetite for spiritual things.

So I see somebody else that doesn't know the Lord yet. And I have mercy for them. By the way when Jesus gave these words Rome was in control of Israel. And the Romans did not value mercy. In fact a Roman philosopher said quote mercy was a disease of the soul end quote. See the Romans were all about strength. If you ever look at Roman artifacts especially statues of Roman leaders they're always muscular.

It's all about domination. Bludgeoning people into submission. The will of Rome. And so they saw something like mercy as a as a flaw not a virtue. In fact when a child was born in the Roman world the father had the right of something called patria protestus. Which meant if he wanted the newborn to live he held his thumb up. If he wanted the newborn to die his thumb would go down and the child would be immediately drowned. Can you imagine.

How barbaric. Oh is abortion that much different. Especially when people abort a child.

You know in the final months of pregnancy. This is just taking that to the next level. But imagine saying well I didn't want a girl. I wanted a boy. So thumbs down. Or I didn't want a boy. I wanted a girl.

Or I don't like the way that child looks. So mercy. This is an alien concept to the Roman mind. So here comes Jesus who says blessed are the merciful. But what is mercy.

It's very important that we know. In Matthew 6 3 the word for mercy is used concerning almsgiving. Almsgiving. It means to help a person in need and rescue the miserable.

Let me say that again. Mercy means to help a person in need. Mercy is a sense of pity plus a desire to relieve the suffering. See mercy doesn't just say oh look at that poor person. Mercy says I'm going to do something for that poor person. Oh look at that hungry person. Mercy says I'm going to feed that hungry person.

Oh look at that lonely person. Mercy says I'm going to be a friend to that lonely person. Mercy is basically pity plus action. Sometimes we'll have pity.

Oh I pity that person. Yeah but mercy is different than pity. Mercy is saying I'm going to do something to alleviate their suffering. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

Listen to this. The more righteous a person is the more merciful they will be. The more sinful a person is the more harsh and critical they will be.

This is a very important distinction. Because sometimes people in in the guise of spirituality be very condemning and very angry with non-believers or with anyone that does anything that disappoints them and they say that's spiritual. That's not spiritual. Godly people are merciful people. And if you're not a merciful person you don't understand what it means to be a godly person. Who is a greater example of mercy than Jesus? Extending mercy to the woman caught in the actual act of adultery. Extending mercy to the woman at the well married and divorced five times and living with the man at present. Extending mercy to the tax collector Zacchaeus who took advantage of people. Extending mercy to the thief on the cross next to him who was probably guilty of murder.

Mercy mercy mercy everywhere he went. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Coming back to one of those principles we discovered if you want to be a happy person be a forgiving person. If you want to be an unhappy person harbor grudges and be angry with people.

You say but Greg wait it's easy for you to stand up there and see that. People have hurt me. Yeah you know what people have hurt me too believe it or not.

I'm so adorable how could that be. We've all been hurt in life. But here's why you should forgive and here's why you should show mercy so you can live a happier life. It's on them. They did that. It's too bad they did that.

I wish they hadn't done that thing to you. But I'm gonna let it go. To not forgive is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.

Think about it. It's like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. Friend the rat's not gonna die.

You're gonna die. And when you don't forgive and you allow your life to be filled with bitterness and you're not a merciful person you're going to be a miserable person. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We love to hear stories of how lives have been changed through the teaching of God's word.

Like this one. Dear Pastor Greg back in the summer of 1986 and after graduating from college I was certain that I'd made the wrong choice for a major in a career. Though I was a believer I felt as if God had abandoned me. My first job out of school included an hour-long commute and a difficult work environment.

It was so disappointing that I cried on my first day home. While driving each morning I was drawn to your biblical teaching on the radio. There was something fresh and new to me in the way you shared the scriptures. Your broadcast gave me biblical truth and hope to get through each challenging day ahead.

I was grateful then and I'm grateful for your broadcast today. Thank you Pastor Greg. We appreciate hearing how Pastor Greg's teachings are reaching people and if you have a story to tell of how these studies have touched your life I hope you'll contact us today.

Send an email to greg at harvest dot org. That's greg at harvest dot o-r-g. Well in a moment Pastor Greg talks with an author and friend about a groundbreaking new book that helps us share our faith so stay tuned. Today Pastor Greg is guiding us in a study of the beatitudes. Those attitudes that lead to happiness directly from the Lord himself.

Let's continue. Number six, a happy person will be a holy person. A happy person will be a holy person. Now you know when we use the word holy it's often in a negative way. Oh they're so holier than thou and what does that mean? Well they're so uppity and well that's not a good trait but actually we should all want to be holy men and holy women. The bible says be holy as he is holy but we don't understand what that means. We think being holy means that we never raise our voice and we just we don't even occupy much space. We just sort of you know just take this much space and holy holy. You're just weird okay. That's not holiness.

That's weirdness. Maybe if I read spell holy it will help you understand what it means. Instead of spelling it h-o-l-y spell it w-h-o-l-l-y as in holy committed. H-o-l-l-y as in holy committed.

So if you're wholly committed to Christ you will be a holy person and blessed are these people who are pure in heart for they shall see God. What does it mean to be pure in heart? You know today we we speak of our heart as sort of our emotion. We'll say you know my mind says one thing and my heart tells me another.

What does it even mean really? Well my my heart is just causing me to want to do this and and I don't know if I should do it or not. Well you know sometimes people say I'm just listening to my heart. Well be careful because the Bible says the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things who can know it. So when the Hebrews talked about the heart they did not mean the heart obviously beating in your chest and they didn't even mean the mere emotional center for the Jew.

The heart when we talked about the heart we're talking about the emotional center but also the intellectual center. So when we read to be pure in heart it means we're to be pure in our inner core. People of purity. But we wonder is it even possible to be pure today? Just like we would dismiss the word holy we would dismiss the word pure even as an insult. Oh well look at her she's just as pure as the driven snow.

Well that's a good thing isn't it? The only thing we like pure is our drinking water. I want it pure. By the way how do we survive without drinking water all those years? Do you know I grew up as a kid and I never had a bottle of drinking water.

I drank water out of rusty faucets and the funkiest water you've ever had and somehow I survived to this age but now we all have our bottled water and we always have to have the bottled water and some bottled waters are better than other bottled waters. You know how it is. We want it pure and but the thing is blessed are the pure in heart. To be pure in heart can also be translated to be single in heart. So what it means is they have a single focus in life. You're a focused person focused on your relationship with God.

Number seven. A happy person will be a peacemaker. Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the sons of God.

Now this is one beatitude pretty much everyone can applaud. Yes blessed are the peacemakers. Let's work for peace.

Let's march for peace. Well this isn't really talking about world peace. Though we all want world peace and the fact is our planet has been plagued by war since our very beginning. In the past four thousand years there have been less than 300 without a major war somewhere. It seems as though peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everyone stops to reload right. Think about how closely World War II followed World War I. And these wars just continue on and on. Albert Einstein made this statement about atomic warfare as they would call it then. And I quote, it is not a physical problem but an ethical one which terrifies us as not the explosive force of the atomic bomb but the power of the wickedness of the human heart and its explosive power for evil. End quote.

How right Einstein was. Because he is merely reflecting what the Bible says in James 4 when it says where do you think these appalling wars and quarrels come from? They come from yourselves because you want your own way. You fight for it deep inside of yourself. You lust for what you don't have and you are willing to kill to get it.

You want what is in yours and you risk violence to get your hands on it. So yes we are people that are in constant conflict. So what does it mean when Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers? What it means primarily in context is blessed is the man or woman who has seen themself as they really are a sinner without a savior. A person who has become humble and meek. A person who hungers and thirsts after righteousness. A person who has a single focus on God. And a person who wants others to come into the same relationship with God. Because we are bringing the message of the prince of peace. Know this. Peacemakers are often troublemakers.

Here is how it works. Here is your family. Bunch of nonbelievers. You get together. Every Thanksgiving. Christmas. Whatever it is. Drink. Smoke. Party. Tell dirty jokes. It is your family.

Yeah. Then one day you go along and wreck everything and you become a Christian. And you just ruined it all. Someone said you have wrecked our family. Why don't you have to go and become a Jesus freak. Now when we want to eat we are standing around waiting for you to say could we pray.

Really. Oh you just ruined everything. We kind of had it all together as a family and now you have brought this division in our family.

And you say yeah that has happened to me. This doesn't make sense. Listen to the words of Jesus. It clarifies everything. Jesus says in Matthew 10 34, Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are those of his own household.

You are saying Greg you have really lost me now. What does this mean. This is the division that brings unity.

Here is what has happened. Your family was in a dark place. You just turned the light on and everyone noticed it.

And a lot of them don't like it. But you just hang in there and you keep following the Lord and pretty soon another family member comes to Christ. And now another one comes to Christ. And before you know it you are a Christian family.

Because Christ is intervened. That is a good thing. But there is that initial friction that comes before you have the peace. Blessed are the peacemakers.

That is what it really means. You are spreading the gospel of peace. Blessed are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of the gospel of peace. We are seeing how the Lord's prescription for happiness differs from the world's. Pastor Greg Laurie is leading our study of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. It is part of a series here on A New Beginning called Salt and Light. So did you miss any of Pastor Greg's message today? Interruptions do happen. To catch up you can hear the whole presentation again by going to harvest.org.

Just look for the message titled, Happiness, What It Is and How to Have It, Part 2. You know Pastor Greg I'm a sucker for crime shows. You know especially where they solve real life crime stories. Especially cold cases. And we happen to have a real life retired cold case detective with us today.

And as much as I'd like to sit here and hear some stories of cases he's worked on, he's here to talk about a more important case. Isn't that right? Yeah that's right. It's a brand new book from my friend J. Warner Wallace. And the J stands for Jim, right?

It does, yes it does. J. Warner Wallace and his new book is called, Person of Interest, subtitled, Why Jesus Still Matters in a World That Rejects the Bible. You know I think this book is really unique Jim because you are basically looking at the impact of Jesus on culture in general. There are actually people walking around that will say Jesus Christ never existed. This is all a man-made myth. Of course that's such a ridiculous statement but what would you say to someone that would say well all we have is the biblical account.

You can't trust that. So why should we even believe that a man named Jesus ever even walked this earth? Okay so I'm with you just for a point of argument like we're in trial.

Yeah. Just for sake of argument let's just toss out the biblical manuscript. Okay.

If you don't trust that he ever existed you can't trust what the Bible says about Jesus. Okay fine. Let's just take it out.

Is there a way to make the case for Jesus even if every single Bible in the history of Bibles had all been destroyed? Well it turns out there is. It's kind of like when you make a case in a cold case where you've got maybe a husband who kills his wife and then he gets rid of her body and we take a missing person's report he says oh she ran off and so then years later we decided this doesn't seem she never came back but something is up. Let's open it as a homicide. So now we're working as a homicide.

Okay. But we've got no crime scene. He moved.

He cleaned the place up. We got no physical evidence at all. How do we make that kind of a case to a jury?

Well here's how we do it. I always tell the jury on the day of the murder a bomb went off. Something explosive happened but there was a long fuse that burned up to that explosion and there was all kinds of shrapnel afterwards. We're going to make this case to you from simply the fuse and the fallout. All the stuff that led up to this day and all the stuff that followed. If all you did was look at the history of humanity everything that leads up to the appearance of this explosive moment that breaks the BC into AD or if you want you know before the common era into the common era whatever you want to term it. Something explosive happens right there that changes history.

So let's just examine the fuse. Let's examine the fallout and here's what you're going to discover is that yes there's only one cause for that turn in history and his name was Jesus of Nazareth and you can reconstruct the story of Jesus without any reference to any biblical manuscript just from the fallout of history in the arts, in music, in literature, in science, in education. As a matter of fact let me give you an example of this. If all you did was go and visit the top 15 universities in the world today here's what you discover they are all founded by Christians. The top 15 all founded by Christians. Now they may not be Christian anymore right but they were founded by Christians and hospitals and relief organizations and all the songs. Well guess what if you just took a look at the buildings you don't know no bibles now just the buildings the buildings of these campuses of those top 15 schools you're going to discover they're covered in verses.

They're covered in artwork of Jesus. You could reconstruct the story of Jesus just from the buildings of the top 15 universities in the world. So unless you're willing to destroy all of the top 15 universities you're going to be stuck with the story of Jesus even if you didn't have a new testament. How about a nation called the United States of America?

What is the role of Jesus Christ in the bible itself in the establishing of our country? Oh again here's what's great even people who would say I'm not a religious person I'm not a pastor let's say. How about this do you realize there's always this fraction between science and faith right? Yeah.

Like you can't do both. Yeah. Well really go back and look at the thing called the scientific revolution and all of the fathers of all the scientific disciplines here's what you're going to discover the vast majority were Christians who also wrote about Jesus and their private writings and all you had was the private writings of the top scientists in the history of science.

Yes. You could reconstruct the story of Jesus unless you want to get rid of all those people too from history you're still stuck with the story of Jesus. It's like taking a drink from a fire hydrant here talking to Jim all this explosive information is contained in this book that we are offering to you it's called person of interest by Jay Warner Wallace why Jesus still matters in a world that rejects the bible and we'll send you this book for your gift of any size because we want to put quality resources into your hands and we also want to give you an opportunity to support us as we teach the word of God and proclaim the gospel all around this planet so if you'd like your own copy Dave's going to give you the contact information and we'll send you person of interest. Yeah that's right it's brand new in fact we have advanced copies you won't find it anywhere else just yet so thanks for sending an investment so that this daily study can continue and let us thank you with a copy of person of interest by Jay Warner Wallace you can write us at a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300 we can take your call anytime 24 7 again at 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org well next time more insights to draw you closer to the Lord and remember to hear an encore of today's study just go online to harvest.org Thanks for listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a Harvest Partner at harvest.org