The greater the sinner you feel yourself to be, the greater potential you have to be happy! Yes, it’s counter-intuitive but true! From the story of the woman with an alabaster jar of oil.

Luke 7:36-50 (Thanksgiving Message)

To Be Happy in Jesus (11/29/15 – Thanksgiving Message)

ATTN: I hope you’ve had great Thanksgiving. We will be having a thanksgiving feast shortly after service, but before that I wanted to share a short message. The goal of every message that Pastor Eldie and I preach is for your joy. That is what the Bible tells us to do and therefore, we do our best to yield maximum happiest to come to your life. And this is the best way I know how: I need to tell you that you are a sinner. The more deeply you feel yourself to be a sinner, the more potential you will have to be happy. I know the world says exactly the opposite – to be happy, you have to have everything you want – fame, money, health – but we know plenty of people who have all that and are so miserable that they are either strung up on drugs or committed suicide. Think of a millionaire who was born into a millionaire’s home and throughout his whole life, had everything that a millionaire would have and he just bought yet another house on Sunset Blvd (ho hum) versus an inmate who thought for sure he would be executed and totally deserved it by killing an innocent person and has given up on his own life, but is miraculously given a second chance and the freedom. Let me tell you that even though he has no million dollars in the bank and no house on sunset Blvd, he is a much happier man. Therefore, one essential element to true, lasting happiness is knowing that we are sinners in the deepest sense, and then knowing that we are forgiven in Jesus Christ, that’s where happiest comes from. It’s like pulling back a sling shot, the further you can pull it back, the further the object will be projected. The more keenly we recognize ourselves to be sinners and yet forgiven, the more happiness and joy we will feel.

So, to raise happy and healthy children, the thing to do would not be to give him/ her everything she wants – we will raise the most hellish and miserable children – self-centered, entitled, spoiled, but to let her know that she deserved the worst, and then introducing Christ to her who died to not only save her from hell but also save her into heaven where she will own everything. This is how black slaves were able to retain their joy while living torturous lives as slaves. This is how so many Christians over the years who suffered so much atrocities in life were some of the happiest people on earth.

I want to back up this up from the Bible by introducing to you one of the happiest persons recorded in the Bible.

Luke 7:36-50. Most of you know have heard of this story. This woman was so filled with love and gratitude for Jesus that she didn’t think twice about pouring this expensive perfume – valued to be 1 year’s wage – on Jesus’ feet to honor him and appreciate him. Only a person who is thoroughly happy and pleased with someone else can do this. Have you seen a grandma or a grandpa spending so extravagantly on his/her grandchild b/c they are so enamored by them? They may be scrooges when it comes to spending on themselves but when it comes to grandchildren, they lose their heads! Why? Because they are so happy and in love with them, nothing is to be spared.

So was this woman. She was so appreciative and happy that nothing was too valuable to give to Jesus. But why? What made her so happy and so grateful? Her sins were forgiven. V. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much.

She wasn’t given an enormous inheritance. She wasn’t healed of some incurable disease. But she was forgiven. And for that, she was so happy and grateful. Your sins are forgiven and my sins are forgiven. And yet, why aren’t we happy? Why aren’t we as grateful as her? Because we do not realize the enormity of our sins. We do not realize that we were debtors. Jesus uses the illustration of being in debt – how she had a great debt that she couldn’t pay and she was forgiven of that debt and that’s why she is so happy, but the Pharisee doesn’t think he has much debt to pay since he was a religious person and thus not as bad a sinner as this woman and therefore, he doesn’t have as much gratitude or happiness when he hears that his debt had been paid. Imagine if you were told, your food bill was paid at the restaurant versus, your remaining mortgage had been paid! Which would make you happier?

So, the key to happiness and gratitude is to see ourselves as sinners deserving of hell. Then, to know that we are forgiven of that sin. I asked the Lord how I could make this a reality – because our happiness depends on our feeling in our bones the evilness of our sins – “the more keenly we feel ourselves to be sinners and know we are forgiven, the happier we will be!” – But how do I make you feel yourselves to be sinners when most of us think, “I’m really not bad a sinner. I know people who are much worse than me!” or “It’s no big deal because just about everyone I know does the same thing…” I decided to describe physically what Jesus had to go through on the cross to save you and me from our sins. This is how serious our “little” sins are.

This is by a medical doctor named Dr. Keith Maxwell:

In order to be able to drive spikes through the Lord’s hands, they had to drive them through at the wrists. There, there’s a very strong ligament, called the traverse carpal ligament, that’s strong enough to support the body weight. The Romans figured out that if they came about where the crease in the wrist is and drove the spike through this area, they would miss the radial artery (the artery people cut when they try to kill themselves by cutting their wrist – right where the doctor takes your pulse), and they would also miss what we call the ulnar artery over on the little finger side. What they would do though, is drive the nail right through the biggest nerve in the hand, called the median nerve. If any of you have ever had carpal tunnel syndrome, you know how uncomfortable any inflammation or irritation to that median nerve can be.

When the median nerve is transected, it gives about the sensation of having an electric cattle prod stuck to your wrist and a constant electrical shock going through your hand, and causes the fingers to claw. In essence, the Romans devised a way they could drive a spike through a man’s hand and not lose one drop of blood, while maximizing the amount of pain and suffering that man would endure.”

The Romans did the same thing with the feet. They calculated where they could drive a spike through both a man’s feet and not cause blood loss that would cause the victim to bleed to death. The spike would have been placed between the first and second metatarsal bones, missing the dorals pedis artery. There again, they drove the spike through the feet with no blood loss. The spike misses the artery, but does hit the plantar nerves, thereby causing that same horrible shock sensation.

Let’s talk now about Jesus hanging on the cross. When hanging by their arms, as a crucifixion victim’s body weight sags down, their diaphragm functions like a billows. As the diaphragm drops into the abdomen it pulls in air, so someone hanging on the cross had no difficulty whatsoever pulling air into their lungs. The tough part for people hanging on the cross was breathing out. In order for a crucifixion victim to exhale, they would have to pull up against the spikes with their hands, and push up against the spikes with their feet…

Every time he took a breath, that tattered, lacerated and riddled back was drug and scraped across the splinters and the rough knobs and spikes protruding from the cross. Each time he breathed out, each time he uttered a word, he would have to pull up with his arms and push up with his legs.

That is Jesus the most holy and pure Son of God for you and me.

How big must our debt have been for Jesus to have gone through that for us? My prayer is that you will recognize yourself as the big sinner, so that you will recognize Jesus as the Greater Savior and find your utter joy and happiness in Him!