What Makes You Happy (2) – Sowing

Welcome to CROLCC, we are so glad you are here worshiping with us. What makes you happy? It’s a topic we started and are going to tackle in the next few weeks. Do you remember our answer from last week? No thing. We said no thing would make you happy, because happy is more about a who than a what. You probably know that growing up but might have forgotten about it. You might have been tempted by commercials like I have that some things will make you happy. But ultimately, happiness has to do with people than things.

If you have been in church a while or growing up attending church on a regular basis, have you ever heard the phrase, “God doesn’t want you to be happy; he wants you to be holy”? Too often in church world we assume that happiness and holiness are mutually exclusive. We think we have to choose one or the other. We were made to believe we can’t be both. The New Testament does teach that God wants us to be holy. But holiness and happiness don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Actually, it’s quite the contrary.

Moving Forward

Life is difficult for everyone. We all face obstacles, suffer setbacks, and miss opportunities. Wise people don’t find happiness in their circumstances. Wise people recognize their dependence on God, and find happiness in that dependence.

Changing Your Mind

Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.
Matthew 7:24–26

Discussion Questions

1. Last week, you were challenged to turn your attention to Jesus as your source for happiness. How did it go?

2. How would you define the word holiness? How do you think your definition has influenced your relationship with God?

3. Read Matthew 5:1–10. Do you have trouble believing that happiness follows from the list of behaviors Jesus describes? Why or why not?

4. Read Matthew 7:24–26. To what extent have you built your life on dependence upon God? How do you think that has affected your happiness?

5. If happiness is powered by the law of the harvest, what do you need to “sow” in your life right now so that you can “reap” happiness in the future? How can this group support you?