DO YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY?

It would be safe to say most of the people in our world are engaged in a lifelong quest for happiness. For some, happiness is seen simply as survival – because that’s what life has boiled down to. But for those of us in the west, happiness would be right up there as one of the major things we’re looking for. Sometimes happiness is seen as simply removing the things that are currently making us unhappy. Sometimes happiness is seen as achieving the next big item on our “list” of things we need to do before we die (i.e., the bucket list). The problem is the elusiveness of happiness – and everyone selling a service or a thing that promises happiness. What we sometimes don’t realize is that those who are telling us that their stuff, their thing, their service will make us happy – have a conflict of interests. If we bite – they make money! It sometimes comes as a surprise to people in the Jesus tradition – that God hardwired us for happiness. That He wants us to be happy! That’s what’s so surprising about Jesus opening to this message; it’s about happiness or blessedness – but the how doesn’t seem to fit with the what. The source of happiness is not stuff or position or pleasure. To boil it down, it’s shalom. Peace. And for our purposes today, there are two things we need to pursue to find it; gratitude – and the natural expression of gratitude; generosity. *Go to LAUNCH SERMON PLAYER for Vimeo Podcast and PDF File