God Wants You to be Happy

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So I'm excited we're launching it, and we're going to be going through basically cultural myths that we in the West, in America specifically, have developed. Things that we believe that God has said, but he never said. He never said it. It's not anywhere in the scriptures. And it can also bring about some distortions in our lives if we believe that that's the case. So here I'm going to tell you what we're going to do. So next week, we're going to be looking at the one saying that might be the most popular. Everybody thinks it's in the Bible. They actually think it's in the Bible, but it's not. And that is that God will never give you more than you can handle. Have you heard that one a few times? Yeah. God never said that. Never said that. Week three, we're going to probably do one of the more important ones of this whole series as well. And that's where people will say, and you probably heard it, and they think God's really about this, that it doesn't matter what you do as long as you don't hurt anybody. Ever hear somebody talk that way? I'm sorry. God never said that either. And then the fourth week, maybe even the most important of all, and that is where we're going to hear that phrase, it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere. God never said that either. Today is probably the most popular, as you saw that video before. It's the one that people basically have as the default. That is that God just wants you to be happy. OK, God just wants you to be happy. Now, happiness is in the Bible. There's a lot of passages that talk about this. There's a lot of things that are going on. But before we get into this, I want to read a scripture lesson, Psalm 37, and then I'll have a prayer. OK, fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade away like grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act. He will bring out your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Let's pray. Lord God, this day, we want to hear your truth and your word, even if it kind of goes against the grain of what we'd like. Give us ears that are open to what you really have to say to us, what more you want than simply our happiness. We pray, Lord God, that you'd fill this hour, this time that we are together with your personal presence, that you would really make a difference in our lives. We thank you for the many churches in our community, Lord, that are serving you and following you. Gospel-centered churches all throughout this area. There is only one church, Lord, your people in many different expressions here in Estero and Fort Myers, Benita Springs, this whole area. We thank you, Lord. There's one universal church throughout this world and that we're just a part of that. So bless them, Lord. Bless them and have us all grow closer to you. May your kingdom come and your will be done in Jesus name. Amen. OK, so we're going to talk about this. Right. God only wants you to be happy and whenever you're happy, God's happy. Right. And he only wants good things to happen in your life. And that's what it's all about. Now, I can even quote scripture for this and find a passage and I want you to read it along with me. OK, this is from Psalm ninety seven verse twelve. May all who are godly. Can you say it with me? May all who are godly be. Guess what? What's the next word? Can you. Yes. So let's say it all. All who are godly be happy. It's time to dance. Come on. You can do it. Want to make sure you're happy in church. All right. Well, yeah. Yeah, I know. That's pretty scary, isn't it? But I got you to laugh. Yeah. Don't worry. Be happy. That's all we want. So this is one of the big cultural mistakes, I think, that we make in the West. That that we believe that God just wants us to be happy. And then all of a sudden, all sorts of other things come along. OK, we kind of start going down this rabbit hole of misbeliefs when we start out with all God really wants me to be is happy. And I'm going to kind of show you what this theology of happiness can lead to. OK, so the first thing that happens is if God just wants me to be happy. Then whatever makes me happy must be right. And whatever makes me unhappy must be wrong. I think Sheryl Crow sang a song that said that if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad. OK, well, number two, once you start down that path of anything that makes me happy must be God's will. And anything that makes me unhappy is not God's will. And that's wrong. And this is right. Then the next phrase is the fact that we start to begin to see that discomfort, delay, risk, suffering. Anything that just gets in the way of m...