_______________________________________________________________________

It was one of those dumb songs that somebody wrote and because of it got rich overnight. For whatever reason, I can still easily recall some of the words:

He then whistled a dumb little tune that I can still remember also and then every once in a while he would stop whistling and would throw in a: "Don't worry, be happy now!" The song sold simply because for a few brief moments, it made people smile. People want in life first and foremost to be happy.

I am not familiar with the religious leanings of the guy that wrote that song, but at least the part that I have quoted you is somewhat a scriptural idea. Jesus had many themes that He constantly over the course of three years tried to reiterate and instill in His disciples. One such teaching was to love one another. Another was to beware the false teachings of the Pharisees. Another theme that Jesus often repeated was that of the need of a lifestyle of constant forgiveness. And yet another was the title of our message and the theme of that dumb little song that we just sang. I don't know if Jesus could whistle or not, but I do know that He preached the principle of "don't worry; be happy" to His disciples.

Sure Jesus worded it a bit differently -- "rejoice and be glad" or "that your joy may be full" or "rejoice in the day and leap for joy" or "have my joy fulfilled in yourselves" -- those are actual words of Christ from His daily teachings to His disciples -- but the meaning is the same. What He was trying to say was, "don't worry, be happy." He told His disciples in our text:

It is clear that although He didn't own a house and a bed and had no place to really call home, yet Jesus was truly happy! And He longed for His disciples and followers to be as truly happy and worry free as He was.

It was a theme that the original apostles eventually received and learned. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter quoted a scripture saying:

And let us never forget that when Phillip preached to Samaria and they heard the message of Jesus' name baptism and the power of repentance, it says:

When Paul and his missionary companions were tossed out of a city for preaching the Gospel of Christ, the Bible says that they were not despondent but rather:

They were filled with the Holy Spirit AND with joy -- there is a double baptism there! When they received the Holy Spirit, the disciples had received a joy and it was one that they were constantly filled with along with the Holy Spirit and it was the baptism of joy! It is scriptural that the people of God ought to be the happiest people on the face of the planet. If anybody has a reason to be happy it is those who have been forgiven and washed and cleansed and filled with God's Spirit. Need I remind you of the fruit of the Spirit:

Did you catch that second one!? You can tell someone who is continually filled and overflowing with the Spirit because of their great "joy!?" Because they have a smile on their face with a genuine happiness! And that last part "against such things there is no law" means that there is no limit to how much of these things that you can have in God! You can have all of the love you want and need. You can be faithful until you are overflowing with faithfulness and you can never be too faithful. If that is true, then it must be true that you can be overflowing with bountiful happiness and joy! God has no law against it! But He does have a law for it; it is a command not just a suggestion:

And if you are counting that is one of twelve times in the book of Philippians where Paul told the church to "rejoice." And if I remember correctly, the Apostle was writing from a Roman jail cell at the time! Or perhaps I need to quote part of another verse that we don't quote as much but is just as true. I'm talking about the verse where Jesus told His disciples:

We know the one about "if you love me, keep my commandments" and that is needed. But while you are checking your "obedience meter" check your "joy meter" also!

There's that part of scripture where if you must memorize many verses with minimal effort, would be the place to start. I'm talking about the 5th chapter of 1 Thessalonians because it has verses that we quote all the time partly because they are important and partly because they are easy to remember: "pray without ceasing;" "quench not the Spirit;" "abstain from all appearance of evil." But I need to remind somebody that the entire passage begins with the first command:

Rejoice always! Or, in the SRV (Sibley Revised Version), "don't worry; be happy!" It turns out that it is more than a song but it is also a scriptural commandment! The Bible says:

All this is true and yet I've known some people that looked like they had been filled with the Holy Spirit and then filled with prune juice shortly afterwards! We need a rebaptism of Godly joy in our life!

One preacher said, "some churches begin at 10 o'clock sharp and end at 12 o'clock dull." The house of God where His Spirit moves ought to be a happy place with genuine smiles and exuberant joy, not a morgue! I've been criticized as running a church service "without enough solemn reverence." I believe that there is a time and a place for everything and that there is a time to weep, but if that is true, then there is also a time to laugh! Usually those that were criticizing the happiness of our services were criticizing our praise, but let me remind you that the critics of praise are also the critics of joy. When the Pharisees showed up at Jesus' triumphal entry and criticized the "Hosannas" and the emotional outburst of praise and worship given Jesus by His disciples, it was right after the Bible says:

They rejoiced and praised God hand in hand for all the mighty things that God had already done! If I would think about everything that God has done for me already, and I would begin to ponder what great things God has done in the past, then I have reason in just that to rejoice and be glad for the rest of my days! If He were to never do anything else for me, I would have a reason to wear a smile because of the mighty works that I've already seen!

Let me give you another reason to praise God. The Psalmist said:

In other words, "God is on the throne -- get happy!" The scripture says that the Queen of Sheba told King Solomon:

Happy were those who were under the reign and rule of the King of Israel! And the Queen could tell that it was not a fake happiness and forced smiles around her, but genuine joy that she was seeing! If that was true about King Solomon, then how much more should it be true about King Jesus!? Truly a "greater than Solomon is here" in this place and the scriptures says:

We are His people and therefore we have a reason to rejoice! We've got a reason to praise God but it should go beyond a Sunday service experience -- we've got a reason to put a smile on our face in the morning because we have been forgiven! We are children of the king! We are in His presence and He is in control of our life! I've given you tons of scripture, but I remind you of a couple more:

If you have had your name written in the book of Life, then you have a reason to smile and rejoice and be glad today! I'm hitting you with scripture after scripture because I'm wanting somebody to get the revelation that you should be happy in God! The excuse, "I was born this way" doesn't work because you were supposed to be re born another way! The excuse, "bad things happened to me in my child hood" should be supplanted by "good things have happened to me in Jesus since!" The excuse of "it's my personality" doesn't compare to the fact that you are supposed to have found the mind of Christ! We need to pray the prayer of David:

The night you got the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you were ecstatic and excited! What happened!? God restore that joy again! Baptize us with joy and the Holy Spirit all over again and again! I'm not talking about putting up a front, but of a genuine happiness that exudes from every fiber of our being. God intends for His people to be happy!

_______________________________________________________________________

The problem that we have most, though, is that our joy doesn't last. We can be rebaptized with joy in a service like this and in just a few days be back to where our lip is dragging the ground and where we are doubting God's promises again and back to our old, negative self. And the reason for that is that we can respond and understand and have down pat the last part of that song: be happy! But we don't have the first part down, yet: "don't worry!" Worry is what steals the joy of God from our lives.

I used to have people tell me all the time that I was the "smiling-est" and most happy person that they had ever seen. My wife reminded me of that a few days ago and told me that "nobody tells you that anymore since you've become a pastor." Ouch! But you know, she was right and the reason is that I've subtly let sin creep into my life and steal that joy of God. Yes, I said it: sin -- but before you start throwing stones, you should know you are eaten up with the same fault also; I'm talking about the sin of worrying!

If I am shocking you with such words, then you should know that you are not the first to be shocked by such sayings. When Jesus preached the same thing to the crowd in the Sermon on the Mount, they were shocked too! We read our text from that sermon, but let's fast forward toward the end and remind ourselves of what Jesus said:

Now that teaching is just as important as Jesus' teaching elsewhere to be born again of the water and of the Spirit, but we don't emphasize it as much. Worry is a sign of doubt in God. It is having little faith. It is telling God that we are not truly believing that He is going to take care of all our needs. It is destructive in that it steals our joy. It violates the commandments of scripture, therefore it is sin. And yet we all do it and never feel convicted of it and yet wonder why we can't stay genuinely happy! The God who baptized you with the Holy Spirit and took away your sins, is the same God that tonight wants to take away your habit of worrying and to baptize you with true joy! The song has more truth in it than we first realized: If you want to be able to "be happy," you've first got to learn to trust in Him and "don't worry!" It's not a positive thinking scam, but rather a scriptural principle: don't worry, and then you'll be happy!

_______________________________________________________________________

The problem is that we begin to immediately find excuse as to why we cannot remain happy. We immediately label some negative situation and say we cannot be happy because of that and we don't realize that to have such an attitude is to put more faith in the negative situation and trust in its ability to steal your joy, than to trust in God's ability to keep it! God never said "be happy because you are not going to have any problems" but rather you should be happy because you are going to have problems." Listen to this:

Clearly, then, to be truly happy with a Godly happiness, we must have a change in the way that we think! Rather than cause to slip into the sin of worrying about things that we cannot control, we should allow negative situations that arise in our life to bring about Godly rejoicing. But to do that is definitely going to require an attitude change!

And so we go back to our text and to the opening statements of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and to what is known as the "Beatitudes." These are the statements of Jesus that all begin with the word "blessed" and the Greek word for "blessed" here literally means "immortal happiness" or "a happiness that never dies." Because of this, there are more than a few English translations that instead of saying "blessed" read "happy" here.

So when Jesus said "blessed are the meek" He was really saying something closer in meaning to "always happy are the meek!" The "Beatitudes" reveal the attitude needed to be happy always in life! Follow with me if you will and learn to be happy:

Matt 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus is not speaking of a financial situations here because true happiness is not tied to financial prosperity. You can have a million dollars and be depressed and not have two nickels to rub together and yet have a genuine smile on your face. Jesus was talking about an attitude of being "poor in spirit." What He meant was that if you want to be genuinely happy, then you must never forget your need of Him and how inadequate you are without Him!

Show me somebody who thinks that they've got it all together and I'll show you a rollercoaster Christian, smiling one day and worried the next. But show me someone who is painfully aware of how sinful and debased their nature is and yet comes to God with such an attitude and trust in Him to make them righteous and trust in His ways for guidance because they know the depravity of their own devices, and I'll show you someone who will become happy because such an attitude will inherit all of the kingdom of heaven and everything that God has for them! If you want to receive from God, then don't come with the attitude that you don't really need Him or need His guidance! Rather those who approach Him with a constant attitude of "I need Him" will be happy and blessed! Happy are the poor in spirit.

Mourning here speaks of calamity in your life and yet Jesus says that the proper attitude is happiness in such a case! There is a time and space for grief and I understand that, but ultimately when troubles hit your life, there are two ways to respond: get mad about it and blame God. Or be happy in it and trust God. Catch this now: either one you choose does not change the fact that genuine trouble has hit your life. Neither choice changes the fact that you are going through something. But the decision does affect your happiness and joy! If you will trust God, then you know that eventually you will be comforted and eventually circumstances will change. If you get mad at God you have no such hope! So the Christian can be happy when they mourn because they know that truly "weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning!" Even while they are "going through" rather than dwell on the present and respond accordingly, they look to the promise of what is coming and they smile! Happy are they that do such things!

True happiness requires Godly meekness. Not trying to build yourself up to others. Not trying to make your elevation happen on your own works or your own merit. Not trying to impress others with your vast abilities. But rather just being faithful to God and His Word and letting Him bless you and Him reward you and Him brag on you and Him promote you.

Those who are self-promoters are never truly happy, because if you give yourself the elevation then you are always afraid that another in like manner will come take it from you. But when God elevates you, then no man can remove you from that place! You'll never be truly happy working for the approval of men and trying to build yourself up to them. Try pleasing God and stop worrying about the rest of them. If you are pleasing God, you will please also those men and women who are following God and who cares about the rest! Let God elevate you and promote you and live for that! Godly meekness is required if you are to be truly happy!

To be completely happy we must hunger and thirst only for righteousness. We must control what we crave. Show me a Christian who is always desiring what they are forbidden not to do, and you find a Christian most unhappy! The problem is not in God's word, but in what we view and allow ourselves to begin to desire! If living for God is not fun anymore, check what you are hungering after and thirsting for! Only hungering and thirsting for righteousness brings true happiness and a lasting joy that never dies!

You cannot be happy and have a critical spirit at the same time, they just cannot coexist! Hurting people hurt people. Unhappy people try to criticize others to make them unhappy. The Pharisees were known for many things, but not for their joy and happiness. Do you know why? Because they criticized and judged everybody else and such an attitude robs a person of true joy!

Let me be around someone for a few days and without them ever saying a word bad about somebody, I can tell you if they talk about other people and criticize and judge all the time. I can tell by reading their joy level! Those Christians who may have been baptized with the Holy Spirit but since act like they received pickle juice up their nose with a hose, are the ones with critical spirits, watching and naming and calling out the faults of others and do so to try to cover their own faults. God deliver us from a nit-picking, fault-finding spirit! You must be delivered from such things if we are to truly be happy!

This is akin to the previous verse. To be truly happy, you must be "pure in heart." Not pure on the outside only as the Pharisees are, but genuine on the inside. Hypocrites -- who profess to be one thing and yet secretly lead another life -- can never be truly happy. Hypocrisy steals Godly joy! Trying to live a double life means that you are trying to serve two masters and, as Jesus said, you will eventually love one and hate the other.

If you are pure on the inside, then the outside will truly reflect that, but outward purity does not cover inward decadence. I've known Christians that looked holy and pure on the outside but inwardly were full of bitterness, sin, and unforgiveness. Such people are never truly happy and never can be. Only when Jesus is Lord of All in your life can you find Godly peace and contentment! Only when you make up in your mind to serve Him solely with everything within you does the true joy of God last!

A peacemaker is someone who strives to rectify divisions and to bring people into harmony with one another as much as the gossip and the troublemaker works to separate them. There are those whose disposition is to go into a situation and only make it worse and they will never be endowed with lasting happiness because then both sides turn on them and hate them!

Think of this scenario, one that has probably been acted out in other churches far, far away from here. :) You hear that somebody is mad at somebody else. You hear this from somebody else and you have a choice. You are at this point either a peacemaker or a troublemaker. The troublemaker gives their opinion as to why they are mad at each other and then repeats it to somebody else. The peacemaker, on the other hand, down plays the division and stays out of it. The peacemaker says, "well, let us pray for their unity and getting whatever is wrong, right" and then leaves well enough alone. Word gets back to all parties involved of what the troublemaker said and then the two people are united by their disdain and hatred of the troublemaker! But the peacemaker has done well to not ignite the situation further. Which are you?

Listen to this preacher: you've got enough things in your own life to take care of without having to add everybody else's issues to it! Some people get so involved in other's affairs that they actually get aggravated and upset over other people's lives! Live your own life and worry about what you do and leave the other between them and God. A busy body will never be happy because everybody is not going to do everything like you think that they should, because it is their life not yours! Two quick scriptures for such people:

If you are to be truly happy, you must stop busy bodying into every body else's house!

If you are to be truly happy, you must learn to respond to persecution in the right way. When people revile you and persecute for living for God and when you suffer because you are doing right, here is the correct response: "rejoice and be glad!" That seems foreign to us but here is the reason given by Jesus: "for your reward is great in heaven!" The more persecution that you endure here and make it through, simply multiplies your reward on the other side of eternity. Heaven will more than make up for anything suffered here on earth, because God will make it so! Peter wrote:

And so it may sound strange, but here are three scriptural reasons to rejoice when you are persecuted and reviled and made fun of for your commitment to Christ:

1. The persecution makes your coming reward in heaven even greater than it had been!

2. It proves your faith as genuine because if you can still serve God with persecution against you, you must genuinely believe Him and take Him at His Word!

3. It makes you more like Jesus Christ.

If we share with His sufferings, then we will also share with His glory when He comes! Therefore no matter what state of mind you are in, "don't worry; be happy!" God, baptize us again with the joy of our salvation! And let it never end!