Urban Legends: God Just Wants Me to be Happy

2 Timothy 4:1-8

Don’t Worry be Happy!
If it were only that easy. The Constitution tells us that the inalienable rights we have received from God include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Happiness is a difficult thing to nail down. What is it that makes you happy?
A degree, A special job or position, married, divorced, remarried. If I could just make a certain amount of money, loose weight, move to another city, buy a certain house, get a special car.
We all have these hopes and goals in life, but sometimes these things become more than goals and hopes they become the total focus of our lives. And it becomes even more of a problem when we make them the goal of our pursuit of God.

I came back to the Lord during the heyday of the so-called name-it-claim it gospel. One of the things we learned was that God wanted us to prosper. Prosperity was one of the blessings of serving God. It sounded so good.
On the positive side, it opened up a whole new positive slant to the message of the gospel. The Bible wasn’t just about sin, heaven and hell, it was about abundant life, prosperity and expecting good things.
On the negative side it tended to baptize greed, selfish ambition and covetousness.

Along with those notions came the idea that happiness was what God really wanted for us. God wanted us to be happy. Today you can see shelves of books dedicated to being happy, and many of them claim that is God’s main priority for you. But that becomes a very slippery slope. If God wants me to be happy, then I need to find out what makes me happy and do that. God will actually help those things come to pass. If I am not happy, then it must be God’s fault. Before long my happiness becomes god and God becomes my servant, because his job is to make me happy.

Let me be clear God does want good things for us. As a matter of fact, the Bible says:

[Mt 7:11 ESV ] If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

[Jas 1:17 ESV ] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

God also reminds us that our worship of happiness can seriously distort our view of God and Life. Let’s look at this passage of scripture.

[2 Ti 4:1-5 ESV ] I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

In our Western culture we have accumulated teachers who will tell us what we want to hear rather than what we need to hear. Our happiness is not God’s number one concern, at least in the way we mean happiness.
There are at least two instances when God doesn’t want you happy:

1. When it causes you to sin

[1 Pe 1:14-16 ESV ] As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

• Happiness is never the bottom line with God. The bottom line is always becoming like he is.
• We were created in the image of God, God knows us and knows what will make us happy. Our real happiness comes when we live the way he created us to live.
• The problem is that we live in a messed up world where we are taught to be self-centered to the core.
• Our self-centeredness teaches us that the very best state of affairs is when I am happy, in that scenario I become the focus of everything. If it pleases me its is ok, then that’s all that matters.
• That is called narcissism, falling in love with yourself.
• Jesus taught us just the opposite.
• What happens when your happiness conflicts with the happiness of someone else’s?

When your pursuit of happiness conflicts with God’s desires, choose God’s ways.2. God doesn’t want you happy when it is based on circumstances

[Ec 7:14 TNIV ] When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, you cannot discover anything about your future.

Hey, stuff happens. We have good days and bad days. When things are going great we are all excited and happy, but when things are falling apart we sink in despair.

People spend their entire lives, every waking moment looking for what will make them happy. In our pursuit of happiness, in the most blessed country on planet earth, many people are discontent and miserable.

God doesn’t want you happy when it is based on happenings. There’s a deeper gift that God gives us, and that’s a gift of joy and contentment that we can find in the life of the apostle Paul.
Let’s look at a verse that we are familiar with:
But before we read it, I want to remind you of the context in which this verse was written.
The apostle Paul was writing this from within a prison. He was locked up to another Roman soldier, and don’t forget this, he was waiting a decision that would decide whether he would be executed or whether he would live. So in other words, life wasn’t great for him at that moment.

[Php 4:11b-13 ESV ] … I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

He says: “I’ve been on both sides of it.” “I have learned the,” secret of being content.

He said, “I can do all things through Christ gives me strength.” Now, listen to what Paul is saying. “I’ve had it all, and I’ve lost it all. I’ve been healthy; I’ve been hurting. I’ve been blessed, and I’ve been cursed, but I have a secret that most people miss. I have a joy and a divine contentedness that is not based on my circumstances. It is based on something internal that no one can see, and that is that I can do everything. I can make it through this. I can make it while being locked up in prison. I can make it if they kill me.” How? “I can do it all through Christ who strengthens me. There is something internal that sustains me.
God wants you more than happy. He wants you to have a joy on the inside no matter what is going on outside.

God wants you to be blessed
Far from a happy life God wants you to lived a blessed life. Blessing is the distinctive joy which comes through participation in the divine kingdom [Little Kittle p. 548].

We tend to equate blessing with good things, but blessings could come through things that are not good. Take a look at Matthew 5

• The poor in spirit
• Those who mourn
• The meek.
• Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
• The pure in heart.
• Peacemakers
• The Persecuted

Why are they blessed because in spite of the external circumstances, they are participants in the Kingdom, and have a joy that it is beyond measure.

Instead of getting the higher paying job, you may be blessed by losing your job. Why?

• So you can learn to trust in Him like you never have before.
• So that you can finally pay attention to your kids that you have been neglecting when you were supposed to be doing something for them You were building a career, not a family
• So that your marriage that has been struggling because you have neglected it can flourish, because now, you’ve got to pay attention to it.

God could bless you with healthy kids, or you could be blessed with a child with incredibly special needs … and you may experience the love of God through that child in ways that you never, ever thought of before.

And, God could bless you with conflict-free living for quite some time, or God could bless you with conflict, and trouble, and persecution, and those who hate you because you love Him. And you are still blessed.

As much as I would like to tell you, “Come to God and everything will to be o-kay,” if I did that, I would be lying to you, because sometimes, that is just not true.

But, what I will tell you is this.

[Ps 37:4 ESV ] Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

The Hebrew word for delight here means to be made soft or pliable. It means to delight or enjoy. Here’s what we do not do. We do not go to God for Him to serve our desires to make us happy. We go to Him as His servant, and as we enjoy Him, as we delight in Him, He gives us His desires. And as His desires become our desires, then He loves to give us and fulfill the desires of our heart.

How do we get there?

[Mt 6:33 ESV ] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Seek first the kingdom of God; not happiness, not the things that we want, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added unto you.

And so, I’ve got good news for you. The good news is, God doesn’t always want you happy. He’s always got something much, much better for you than that. He wants you to be blessed.
Some of you are seeking happiness in ways you know are not right. You know what you are doing is wrong, but you continue in it, because it makes you feel good, or avoid difficult consequences. Your happiness has become a God.

Some of you are right now are miserable, because you have yet to find your joy in the kingdom. Instead of becoming soft and pliable in the hand of God, you are kicking and screaming like a two year old in Wal-mart! Understand that circumstances come and go, become soft and pliable, open yourself to what you can learn in your present circumstances and let God give you the desires of your heart.

We all go through tough times, we all want the tough times to end. We need to have the attitude, “I will be better for having gone through this.”

Urban Legends: If God Wants it to Happen it Will

Matthew 23:37-39

Jesus had come to his final week on earth. He was cheered as he entered the city. But then they tested and prodded him— attacking him on every level. It is obvious that the cheering only went so far.
I can imagine Jesus on the Mount of Olives looking over the city as he says those words. His heart is broken. He wanted to comfort them but they wouldn’t let him.
We are often like that aren’t we? God warns us of attitudes and behaviors that will cause us harm and we don’t listen. God speaks through His word and directly to our hearts, he nudges us and yet we will not listen and we go headlong into trouble— trouble he never intended for us.
There is a school of thought which has been with us since at least the 1500’s and is gaining in popularity, especially among college students. Those who hold these beliefs teach that everything that happens in the world was ordained by God. The basis for that assertion, they say comes from Scripture and as been stated definitively in the Westminster Confession:

God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass…. (3:1)

To me one of the most disturbing aspects of this doctrine is that God also chooses who will be saved and who will not. The choice is not based on God’s foreknowledge, but simply on God’s choice.

Here are some questions I have:
If God determines everything that happens:
- why are we here?
- what difference do our actions make?
- why should I pray?
- why do children starve to death?
- why are some young women brutally raped?
- why are so many children abused?
- why do so many people wind up in hell?
- why should we be held accountable for our sins?

In ministry you have ample opportunity to struggle with the implications of these ideas. I have stood at the grave side of young and old and asked the question, “Why?” I have asked that question about many things, and found no satisfying answers. In fact I have more than 10 books that deal with that subject.
I read and pondered, studied and prayed. I still do not have a definitive answer, but I do have some convictions that guide me through difficult times.

The Choices
In theology there have been basically two ways of looking at the problem. Now this explanation is very simplistic, but it will you and idea of how to approach the problem.

1. God is sovereign over every aspect of creation and determines everything that happens. Nothing happens without his divine decree or permission. Before God ever created anything he determined everything that happened.

2. God has sovereignly chosen to allow his creatures to have free will and is prepared to redemptively deal with the consequences of that freedom.

To be honest there are passages of scripture that support each of those two options, that is why the debate still continues. I have come to trust the second proposition and here’s why.

Scripture indicates some things God wanted to happen that didn’t.
- Adam and Eve to continue to fellowship with him, and grow as persons. That is why he warned them of the tree
- God wanted people to fill the earth, but instead they built the Tower of Bable
- God wanted Israel to trust him and depend on him but they wouldn’t and constantly went a stray
- God wanted Israel to repent at the preaching of the prophets and they refused to
- God wanted Judah to surrender to Babylon and quietly go into exile but they didn’t
- The Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”
- All people to be saved, but they are not (2 Ti 2:4)

Scripture assumes that we have freedom of choice and therefore the possibility that we will do other than what God wants
- God tells Adam and Eve not to eat of the of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
- Cain was warned not to let sin overpower him. God said, “If you do well you will be accepted, if you don’t sin lies at the door.
- Israel was given the law, there was a expectation of obedience
- Joshua told Israel they had a choice, they should choose God.
- The Prophets continually told people, “Change what you are doing.”
- Jesus called for choices to be made, he told people to repent and believe the gospel.
- Paul called for choices to be made. He told people to put off the new man, put on the new man.
- In Revelation, Jesus told many of the churches to stop doing what they were doing and do things God’s way.

Our devotional life shows free will:
- We pray because we don’t think things are already determined
- We believe that our choices make a difference, so we learn more to make better choices

It is clear from both scripture and experience that there are many things God wants to happen that don’t and many things God doesn’t want to happen that do.

So what does all of this mean?
1. God has entrusted us with the gift of free will
2. Our choices are real, not just illusions
3. We are not powerless pawns, puppets in the hand of God
4. We can choose to yield to God’s grace or resist it
5. Much of our future is determined by our choices not by a divine plan
6. As we cooperate with God any situation can be redeemed

So what do we do?
1. We realize our place and our dignity and value
2. We realize the power of our choices and the power of God’s grace in our lives
3. We choose to yield to the power of God for God’s purposes

• We can be the spouses, parents and students and employees we need to be
• We are not doomed to failure by the events of our past
• Through God’s grace we have the power to make the choices we need to make
• Our lives can be different!

Our lives are not completely planned out. They are not set in stone. God does not predetermine every action. We are not victims of fate.
God has endowed us with the tremendous gift of free will and with that gift comes great responsibility. We are not puppets we are sons and daughter of God, created “a little lower than the angels” [Psalm 8].

We live in a world that is filled with ambiguities and questions. At times are prone to give in to apathy and cynicism. We may never know all the circumstances that lead any particular event. But we do know the intent of our heavenly Father.

God tells us “Don’t give in and give up, but step up.” Choose to yield to his Spirit, and draw upon his grace. There are many things God wants done, many of them will not be accomplished without you. Work with him to do his will on earth.

The most devastating aspect of this doctrine is that it says God chooses who will be saved and who will not. Your salvation this morning is dependent on two things. God drawing you and your response. Your destiny is not set in stone. If you walk out of here this morning without a relationship with God it will be your choice.

Urban Legends: More than you can bear

1 Corinthians 10:6-13

Usually you hear this phrase uttered when someone recounts the troubles they have experienced. “Well, you know, God won’t put more on you than you can bear.” The problem is that it is quoted as if it is scripture.

Why include this one? This Urban Legend leads us to passive resignation in the face of life’s difficulties and makes us victims of the whims of a capricious God.

The Context
The verse is actually a misquotation of 1 Cor 10:13
In context this Paul is warning the Corinthians not to engage in idolatry or immorality. Some of the Corinthians had come to believe their participation in baptism and Holy Communion allowed them to dabble in sin and be free from any consequences. Paul reminds them to resist sin on every occasion. He draws a lesson from the history of the Exodus to demonstrate the problems with that assumption.

Does God put things on us?
Some say God does or allows everything that comes into our lives. However that does not take into account acts of free agents. It doesn’t take into account our decisions and actions, the decisions and actions of others or the decisions and actions of the enemy.
It also doesn’t take into account the normal method of Jesus as God in the flesh.

Jesus said:

[Jn 10:30 ESV ] I and the Father are one.”
[Jn 10:37 ESV ] If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
[Jn 14:9 ESV ] Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Jesus is God made flesh, the perfect expression of God’s thought, character and will. God has defined himself in Jesus. Jesus fully expressed God’s desire for us in love and redemption. Many people attribute actions and attitudes to God that are no where revealed in the life of Jesus.

If Jesus were to correspond to some people’s image of God, he would go around condemning people, and putting all manner of sickness on people. But he doesn’t.

Notice the story in Luke 13:
In this story the normal thing to infer was that those killed were somehow guilty of grievous sin. Jesus disagrees, then reminds those present that a worse fate awaits those refuse to repent.

In effect Jesus says life happens. Because of all the variables involved in the situations of life it is impossible to reduce any incident down to a simple cause/effect relationship. Simple explanations betray a simple mind.

All people go through difficulties in life, As Paul says:

[1 Co 10:13 ESV ] No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

It is not some cosmic breakdown because you have problems in your life…everybody has problems! We have small problems and big problems. Even natural disasters are common, a common part of the world we live in. Some of our notions about this are really pre-Christian superstition.

God does sometimes intervene and keep tragedy from happening. But that intervention is by grace. Grace is unmerited favor, which means we can not earn it. Prayer doesn’t force God to do anything, prayer petitions God. God’s intervention can not be reduced to simple steps to get him to do our biding.

In this world where life happens, God promises to walk with us through it.

[Is 43:2 ESV ] When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

God grants us his grace and his grace comes in many forms: healing, wisdom, endurance, friends, financial blessing.

[2 Co 12:7-10 ESV ] So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Some people claim that difficulties in our lives are actually our cross to bear. But they are not. Our sick family members are not a cross to bear. The results of our bad decisions are not our cross to bear. The inconveniences of life are not our cross to bear — it is simply life!!!

Paul reminds us that we are to endure hardship:

[2 Ti 2:3 NCV ] Share in the troubles we have like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

Soldiers endure whatever comes for the sake of the mission. Our mission is to glorify God no matter what

[2 Co 6:3-10 ESV ] We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

And so we live life and endure the hardships that come for the sake of Jesus Christ. God is not the one who is always loading difficulties on our backs, he is the one who carries us through them.

So what do we with difficulties, how do we face burdens like a disciple?
1. Fix your eyes on Jesus – The one who ran this race before us and endured things we cannot begin to understand
2. Remember God is with you – Scripture reminds us that if we seek to live righteously we will suffer persecution. We are never alone even though no one else may understand
3. Yield to Redemptive Power – No matter what we are in or how we got there, God is working for our good.

[Ro 8:28 NCV ] We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him.

• In our experience we may doubt that, but we should never let our experience define God, let God define himself

4. Let go of the “Why” question – It is almost impossible to answer the question any way. It will keep you from drawing on God’s redemptive power

5. Live in hope, knowing it will all be worth it – Hope is the anchor of our soul in a world that often contradicts what we know about God

[Ro 5:2-5 ESV ] Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

• Hope anchors our soul when we cannot see tomorrow

When we say God won’t put more on you that you can bear, we live paralyzed lives. We passively resign in the face of life’s difficulties becoming perpetual victims.
But when we embrace who Jesus is and understand the hope we have in Him we become victors no matter what comes at us in life.

Urban Legends: There are many ways to God

Acts 4:8-12
What are Urban Legends?
Urban Legend is the name given to some of the stories that get circulated, mostly on the Internet. Some of the stories are true, many are false and some are a mixture of true and false. Most people , however believe the stories are true. One of the current Urban Legends surrounds the minting of the new dollar coin. Early pictures showed a picture of George Washington on the obverse and the Statue of Liberty on the reverse. But no where on the face of the coin do you read the words, “In God We Trust.” Some people got mad and started an email campaign telling people about how the government was removing the national motto from our coins. If they had bothered to read the whole article they would have know that the National mottos, “In God We Trust,” and “E Pluribus Unum” along with the date were incised on the edge of the coin.

So in this series I want to explore some of the Urban Legends we as God’s people sometimes believe. The first is, There are many paths to God.

A listener responded to a religious radio talk show host with the following comment: “They may not believe in Jesus, but they love God and serve God with all of their hearts. They love God. You love God. How can you say one is wrong and the other is right?” We live in an age of religious pluralism.

Maybe you have seen the bumper sticker which spells out the word COEXIST with the symbols of several of the worlds religions. Each religion should work for the betterment of human kind. Each religion should cooperate in humanitarian concerns. But sometimes it means they are all equal paths to God and no one religion is more right than another. I can not agree with that and here is why.

The Nature of Truth
A proposition is true if and only if it corresponds to the way things are. For something to be true it must correspond to reality. The principle of non-contradiction says that a statement can not be true and false at the same time. It can not be true that all unmarried men are bachelors and that married men are bachelors. One of them can be true but not both of them. Contradictory claims can’t be simultaneously true.

If you believe that absolute truth exists, then if one thing is true the opposite can not equally be true. If we know the grass to be green, it cannot be red, yellow, black or blue.
With that in mind…

Many people believe that all religions teach the same things, it simply is not true. Oh there may be some similarity in surface aspects like the “Golden Rule” but there are major differences as well. For example:

• Christianity believes that Jesus is the Messiah and equal to God, Judaism does not. Both can be wrong, but both can not be right.
• Buddhism believes in reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul, Christianity does not.
• Hinduism is pantheistic, everything is part of God, Christianity teaches that God is separate from creation.
• Islam believes that God is strict, aloof unpredictable and responsible for both good and evil acts, Christianity teaches that God is good, merciful, faithful and not the author of evil.
• Hinduism teaches that the world is an illusion, Christianity teaches that the universe was created by God and the real habitation for all living things.
• New age practitioners believe that we are all god. Christianity believes that there in only one God.

To say that all religions are equally true you would have to either deny the existence of absolute truth or believe all truth is relative.

The most amazing thing about those that believe all truth is relative is that they claim to know a truth which trumps all truth — their’s, of course, is absolute.Each of these practitioners of the various religions believe theirs is true. And for their’s to be true ours must be wrong unless truth doesn’t really mean anything.

I have shared my faith with people who sometimes say things like this: “I know you mean well, but I just don’t see it like that. I think I live a pretty good life so I don’t really need to believe in God.”
This person in effect has said, “Look I don’t believe that a person has to believe in God.” That person is saying in effect, “I am the highest authority and the arbiter of all truth. I am my own god. Believing in God is just one of many options.”

What Jesus said
It is not Christians that are narrow minded, bigoted, and exclusive. Jesus is the one who made this thing exclusive.

[Jn 5:23 ESV ] that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

[Jn 5:26-27 ESV ] For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

[Mt 24:4-5 ESV ] And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.

[Jn 10:30 ESV ] I and the Father are one.”

[Jn 14:6 ESV ] Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So the question everyone must deal with is “What will you do with Jesus?”
C.S. Lewis has put forth the classic statement on Jesus
You can not say that Jesus is a great moral teacher. Either he is a liar (he knew he was wrong) a lunatic (he did not know he was wrong) or he is Lord.

No Other Name
The text for this sermon reminds us of something very important. The only way to be saved is through the name of Jesus. It is obvious that unbelievers try to find salvation in other names, but there are even some Christians who do the same. Salvation is defined as deliverance, reconciliation, healing, wholeness, atonement.

Many are seeking these things in other names:
Entertainment, wealth, pornography, material goods, status, fantasy, power, sports, relationships, alcohol, over-eating, shopping, sex, doing good deeds, drugs, church.
How do you know if you have fallen into these? Here is a good test.
When you feel the pain of your life, when you are at you lowest and feel lost and alone, frustrated, empty, what do you turn to in those times? That is what you consider your savior.

But, Acts 4:12 says, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

The only way of salvation starts with repentance: confessing that you have sought deliverance, reconciliation, healing, wholeness, atonement in other names.

It continues with faith: trusting that Jesus is the only way of salvation and relying on him.

The evidence of faith is: obedience, prayer
worship, sharing, growing, serving, giving, connecting, living

The essence of the Gospel is this: you cannot save yourself, God has to do it, that’s why he sent Jesus