Finding True Happiness in Relationship with Jesus

Could it be, maybe, that instead of new drugs that make our brain work a little bit differently, new snacks, new toys, new experience, that the actual answer to what makes you happy was given in a speech by a Jewish carpenter 2,000 years ago? A speech about a kingdom, a kingdom unlike anything anyone was considering, a completely upside-down kingdom, a way to live that's completely contrary to the thing that you're constantly being told about every single day. [00:43:33] (44 seconds)  #KingdomUpsideDown

We don't even have this vision of what this world could be. We're like, ooh, mud pies, yes, and we're super happy with this, and this is what everybody's giving you, and you're happy with it, and he's saying, yep, because your vision isn't big enough. I've got this whole other way of seeing life, and I want to show you a way to be happy, and it's upside down, and it's opposite day, and it's just plain crazy. [00:44:42] (23 seconds)  #ExpandYourVision

There's nothing here that sounds right. I'm giving up my rights, my time, my treasure on earth, my money, my clothes, my eye, my arm. How can this possibly make us happy? And this is what I want to do. I want to show you this over the next several weeks. I want you to see, especially in this introduction to this sermon that's labeled the Beatitudes, I want you to see this. Okay? I want you to see what makes you happy. No question mark. [00:47:25] (28 seconds)  #SacrificialJoy

Every week, I want to paint a picture of this world that Jesus envisions. I want you to leave here with a larger imagination, a bigger vision of what the world could be like if we really heard what it is Jesus is calling us to, and we really lived it. What would it look like if we were actually dependent on God and gentle and crying for righteousness and filled with mercy and pure and peacemakers? Can you imagine your place of business if we were like that? Can you imagine your dinner table, your Facebook feed, your church? [00:47:53] (47 seconds)  #LivingTheBeatitudes

But that really wasn't it, because you found out pretty early that the kids still seem to gravitate to the house where the who is, right? Where the relationships were, where people loved you, even if they had no what's to give you. If you've ever been to a mission trip and realized there's no what's here, they've got no what's, and yet they're happy, because they've got who's. There's relationships all around them. There's something there. [00:50:42] (33 seconds)  #SpecificWhoMatters

Relationships are the key to all of this. We're not going to be asking for our what's when we lay dying, are we? How many of you ladies are going to be like, just bring me my shoes? I just need my shoes, my handbags, bring them. That was for my wife. No, of course, and she knows, of course not, right? It's about relationships. It's about who's. Happiness is more about a who than a what. [00:51:40] (31 seconds)  #JesusTheKingdomBearer

This one, this new Israel is going to die on the cross for the sins of the world and then he's going to resurrect and I know that's not like like oh yeah we kind of knew the end of that story thanks Jace but we need to keep preaching this to ourselves every day. [00:55:02] (24 seconds)  #FocusOnJesus

This who, this Jesus, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, he fulfilled everything that happened back then, he's the culmination of all this, is going to give us a what. The who is going to give us a what, and this what is a vision of the kingdom, a new way to live that's going to blow them completely away. [00:58:52] (19 seconds)  #SeeingJesusAnew

I do not pretend for a moment that a 30-minute monologue is going to take care of that or that if you walk an aisle in 10 minutes it's going to take care of it like now I don't have to deal this anymore I don't have to take medicine no no that's not what I'm trying to say this is what I know though the answer to sadness and purposelessness and loneliness is found ultimately in this man Jesus and the who this one who died and rose. [01:00:58] (38 seconds)

We live in a world that's just Christian. It's just who we are. But I don't know how much it's changed who we are. Lord, this week, I just want you to see the who. I want you to see Jesus high, lofty, seated on the throne, lifted up. I need you to see him in a new light, one who fulfills the law and the prophets. And then I want you to imagine this call to happiness. This man who sees the crowds, went up on the mountainside to speak to them. And gave them a new way of living. And with that, himself. That's what this is about. This call to happiness is about a man. It's about a presence. It's about his presence with you. And friends, in his presence, there is fullness of joy. [01:02:48] (61 seconds)