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Let us continue in worship by giving reverent attention to the reading of God's word. The Psalm number 31. I begin at verse 1. In thee, O Lord, do I seek refuge; let me never be put to shame.

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In thy righteousness deliver me. Incline thy ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be thou a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. Today thou art my rock and my fortress.

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For thy name's sake lead me and guide me. Take me out of the net which is hidden for me, for thou art my refuge. Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. Thou hatest those who pay regard to vain idols, but I trust in the Lord.

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I will rejoice and be glad for thy steadfast love, because thou hast seen my affliction. Thou hast taken heed of my adversity and hast not delivered me into the hand of the enemy. Thou hast set my feet in a broad place. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress.

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My eye is wasted from grief, my soul and my body also. All my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away. I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my

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acquaintances. Those who see me in the streets flee from me. I have passed out of mind like one who is dead. I have become like a broken vessel.

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Today I hear the whispering of many, terror on every side, as they scheme together against me as they plot to take my life. But I trust in thee, O Lord. I say, thou art my God.

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My times are in thy hands. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. Let thy face shine on thy servants. Save me in thy steadfast love.

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Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call on thee. Let the wicked be put to shame. Let them go dumbfounded to see O. Let the lying lips be dumb, which speak incidentally against the righteous in pride and contempt.

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O how abundant is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for those who fear thee, and wrought for those who take refuge in thee in the sight of the sons of men. In the covert of thy presence thou hidest them from the plots of men. Thou holdest them safe under thy shelter from the strife of tongues.

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Let us see the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was beset as in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, "I am driven far from thy sight." But thou didst hear my supplication when I cried to thee for help.

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Love the Lord, all you his saints. The Lord preserves the faithful, but abundantly requites him who acts haughtily. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord. May God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his words.

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Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. I think it's safe to say that everyone wants to be happy. At least everyone who has a healthy mind wants to be happy.

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Happiness is probably the most sought-after thing in all the world. We have known people who have worked for happiness, and prayed for happiness, and searched for happiness. We have even known people who have tried to buy happiness.

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What is more, God wants us to be happy. Did you ever hear about Moe Green? Moe Green weighed 400 pounds and was in very bad physical condition because he did no exercising whatever.

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He went to his doctor and his doctor said, "You must diet and exercise and begin immediately." So he cut back a few calories on his patient, and he instructed him to take a leisurely walk each day. And Moe Green began to do that, and when he reported back to the doctors in four weeks,

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he had lost 20 pounds. The doctor said, "You've done well. Now we're going to cut back a few more calories, and I want you to walk with more vigor, and I'll see you in six weeks."

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When Moe Green came back, he had lost 40 additional pounds, and when he walked into the waiting room, the nurse said, "Moe Green, is that you?" And he said, "Yes, I've dropped 60 pounds now, and I'm starting to feel better." Well, the doctor was pleased, and he said, "All right, I want you to begin jogging now,

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and we're going to cut back more on these calories because your body is getting accustomed to less and less caloric input. So go to it, and I'll see you in three months." And three months later, Moe Green came back, and as he was walking into the building, he

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passed an old friend. And the friend stopped and said, "Moe Green, is that you?" And he said, "Yes, it's me. I've lost 120 pounds, and I'm beginning to feel like a high school boy again."

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The doctor sent him out with the continuation of the same program, but he by this time was so pleased with his success that he joined a health club, and he began using all the weights and the muscle-building machines as well as his exercise program through jogging and also through counting the calories.

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He lost 180 pounds, and a young girl only half his age, seeing him, seeing the spring in his step, seeing how good-looking he was and how healthy he was, fell in love with him. And the two of them began to date, and they were going out on a picnic on one occasion,

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and he was to stop and get some hot dogs to take to the picnic. And his girlfriend was there in the car, he hopped out of the car, went across the street, got the hot dogs, turned around and ran back toward the car, and as he crossed the street, he was hit by a truck and killed instantly.

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And according to the story, when he got to heaven, he said, "Lord, why is it that when I weighed 400 pounds and was very much out of shape, you did not allow me to die? But after I go through all this exercise and all this jogging and all this limitation of diet, after I bring myself down to being healthier than I was when I was in high school, now,

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now you let me die. Why is that?" And the Lord looked at him and said, "Mo Green, is that you?" Well, it may be funny, but it's a lie.

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But the fact of the matter is, God knows every one of us. The Scriptures teach us that he knows us by our first names. The Scriptures teach us that he even knows the number of hairs that are on our heads. And his will for each and every one of us is that we might be happy.

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Now there are many texts which I might adduce to support this thesis, but let me take one that you might not have thought of before. Scholars from the conservative end of things to the liberal end, and of all different denominations, agree that the Sermon on the Mount, which takes up Matthew chapters 4, 5, and 6, is

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not just one sermon that Jesus preached on one occasion. Rather it is a collection made by the early Church of things that Jesus had said in many different sermons. They gathered them together in order to compass them about with this single sermonic framework.

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And isn't it interesting that when they gathered together what they considered to be most essential, most central to the preaching of Jesus, the thing they put first is what Jesus had to say about happiness. For the Sermon on the Mount begins with nine prescriptions for happiness.

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When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, there was a flash of flame and a clap of thunder, and he offered the Ten Commandments. When Jesus came down from the Sermon on the Mount, he had a smile, and he offered nine keys to delightful living.

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I ask you this morning to look with me at the first key, the first principle, which I call the "dependent dynamic." Jesus said, "Blessed," it would be better translated in our language, "happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

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Now, a lot of people, as soon as they hear that word "poor," are put off. That shocks some folks. Poverty has never been popular, long ago or today. But what Jesus is talking about here has no particular economic significance.

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The Bible never sees either riches or poverty as the secret to happiness. We all know that wealth can give us some comfort, some happiness in life. But we also know people who do not have much of this world's goods and yet are very happy, and we know rich people who are filled with despair and suffering and anxiety and deplore

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life itself. It's interesting to notice that the suicide rate is higher among the rich than it is among the poor. So wealth does not automatically give happiness.

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The Church used to think that, though. There was a time a thousand years ago when the Church believed that those who had riches were blessed by God because of their goodness. And so the Church itself sought to gather as much of this world's goods as it could,

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and it tried to sell people a ticket to salvation. And of course, the more money you had, the more tickets you could buy. Your salvation was all that more assured. But then after this went on for some time, in about the twelfth century, there was a

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reaction against it. That reaction was the growth of the monastic movement. Finally, following the example of people like Francis of Assisi, the Church began not to honor the rich but the poor, to say that the most glorious thing in life is to be in poverty.

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Poverty equaled special spirituality, and there are some even to this day who believe that the essence of faith is to be pure in poverty, in obedience, and in chastity. But the fact is, the Bible never teaches that money or poverty gives any special grace from God.

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Jesus isn't talking about money at all here. Jesus says, "Happy are the poor in spirit." In other words, he doesn't care whether you eat lobster or macaroni. He cares more about what is eating you.

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What is the state of our faith? How do we really see ourselves? Do we live in the shell of the arrogance of our own success? Or do we practice poverty but do it in such a prideful way that it militates against us?

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Jesus says the key, the first key to happiness, is to take a look at yourself and to recognize your need for God. I mentioned a moment ago that he was saying this both to people who eat lobster and those who eat macaroni.

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That reminds me of the worst cook that I ever knew. I used to say that this lady was a very religious cook because everything she put on the table was a burnt offering. She was the only woman I knew that could burn jello.

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And it was said, though I never saw this myself, that her meatballs glowed in the dark. The dish of which she was most proud was prunes stuffed with liver. They didn't taste very good, but they kept you on the move. Now I mention that because, you see, the saddest thing about this lady was that she thought

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she was an excellent cook, and therefore no one could improve upon the catastrophes which she created. Now Jesus says if you want to be happy, you've got to get away from any self-satisfied arrogance. You've got to recognize your need for God and then exercise that need.

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And it's in recognition and in exercising that recognition, crying out to God, that you develop poverty of spirit. You see yourself as you truly are, and when you see yourself as you truly are, then you're on the pathway to happiness.

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Psalm 57 puts it this way. God says, "I dwell with him who is of a contrite and humble heart." Well, how does one build this dynamic dependence upon God? Well, the first thing you have to do is stop lying to yourself, which is very tough.

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We all know, you've heard it many times, there is no gain without pain. If you want to be physically fit like Mo Green, you have to exercise and you have to eat the right things. If you want to get a good grade in school, you must lay aside indolence and take up industry

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instead. A woman once said to Paderewski, the great Polish pianist, "I'd give my life to be able to play as you play." And he looked at her and said, "Madam, that is exactly what it cost me."

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We need to rid ourselves of the idea that what we're about here is something easy, and we need to begin with the recognition that we've got to confront ourselves as we truly are in terms of our greatest and most fundamental needs. All of us have needs of one kind or another.

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E. Stanley Jones, the noted missionary, used to hold religious conferences, and at the beginning of the conference he would ask everyone in attendance to write down on a card their greatest need. And almost invariably someone would say, "What if you don't have any needs?"

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To which Jones would respond, "If you think you don't have a need to write about it, then write that down, because that is your greatest need." We are all confronting needs in our lives, no matter what our station or place, and we need to ask for help, to be willing to say, "God, take over and do what has to be done."

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This is the dependence dynamic. Look at the great heroes of the faith. Moses is called by God, and Moses replies, "I am not worthy." And God makes him one of the greatest leaders of men.

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Gideon is called to military service by God, and Gideon says, "But I can't do it. I am the lowest of the low." And God makes him victorious. Isaiah is confronted with the call to be a prophet, and he says, "Woe is me, for I am

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undone!" But God enables him to write the most beautiful prophecy in all of the Old Testament. When Mary met the angel of the Annunciation, the scriptures say she was very troubled, but God went on to give to her the highest honor that has ever been given to any woman.

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When Jesus came to Peter and called him to leadership, Peter responded, "Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man." And yet Jesus made him the chief of the twelve. Paul described himself as the chief of sinners, but the Holy Spirit made him the Christian

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of all Christians. Look even at the example of our Lord Jesus himself. He said, "I can do nothing of myself, but the Father who dwells in heaven, he does the works."

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In other words, Jesus is demonstrating to us in his own life that the secret is to be dependent upon God. We can't do it on our own, but with God all things are possible. I know there are some people who say, "Well, that kind of dependence is very admirable

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and I wish I could summon it up in my life, but I just don't think I would be able to do it." And whenever I hear someone talk like that, I think of elephants. Did you ever notice how in the circus the elephant is restrained by just a very, very

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small chain that goes around one foot and a small wooden peg driven down into the earth? Now that elephant that weighs two and a half tons could very easily pull that stake out of the earth or shatter that chain into bits, but it never does so. Why?

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You see, when the animal is first caught, that chain is made of very heavy steel links and it is fastened to a great stone wall, and no matter how that elephant tries to pull, it cannot pull away. And so it comes to believe that no matter what it does, it's not going to be able to

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break that grip. And as soon as the elephant gets that idea, it stops trying. And so they can take off the heavy chain and take away the wall and just put a light chain, a reminder if you will, and a small wooden stake in the earth, and the elephant will

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not make any effort to pull itself free. Well, we must not be like those elephants. We must not fool ourselves and we must not let ourselves be fooled by the world. God's grace is sufficient for every good purpose in our lives.

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That's the reason God says to us, "Whosoever will, let him or her come." And let those who say that they cannot develop a dependence upon God, by God's grace moving through them, let them who say that get out of the way of those who are doing it. For God stands ready to work the wonder of dependence in us if we will just be open enough

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and honest enough to let him do that. And when you become dependent upon God like that, you're on the way to dynamic dependence, which is fundamental to real happiness. I was coming down in the elevator in the Union League Club in Chicago, and there was a couple

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on there, husband and wife, I could tell by the way they were fighting. And he was standing in one corner of the elevator and she was standing in the other corner of the elevator. And when I got on, they continued the argument.

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He said, "I wish just once you could get dressed for something as quickly as I do." And she said, "Well, I could get dressed for something in half the time that you do, if I was willing to look like you look." Well, sometimes Christians in their dependence upon God will look to the world as if they're

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being foolish. But my friends, it is not foolish to be a fool for Christ's sake. It is not foolish to depend upon God, to be God-dependent. Those are the kind of people who end up looking best.

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Look at the psalm that I read just a moment ago in your hearing, Psalm 31. Here's a man in real difficulty. Listen to some of the words he uses to describe himself. He says he is chased.

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He says he is scorned. He says he is forgotten. He says he is gossiped about. He says he is lied about.

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He says he is plotted against. And then after the catalog of all these saddening things, he goes on to assert the dependence dynamic. And he concludes by saying, "God is my refuge.

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He is my fortress and my rock. He is my leader. He is my light. He is the source of abundant goodness in my life.

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He is my wonderful lover. He is my preserver." You see, out of that comes courage, and out of courage comes confidence, and out of confidence comes joy, and out of joy comes happiness.

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I'm not suggesting this morning that dependence upon God makes all problems go away. But the dynamite of dependence upon God does enable one to meet every problem and to in God's own way beat it. As far as I can remember, I've only been in two fistfights in my life, one I won and one

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I lost. Let me take just a moment to tell you about the one I lost. Down in the next block there was a youngster my age, ten or eleven, named Neil, and he had a big front porch.

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And sometimes in the summertime we would go down, all the kids in the neighborhood, and sit there on the porch and play games like Parcheesi and Monopoly and Empires, those kinds of board games. And I remember one rainy summer afternoon when we were doing that, all playing a game

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there on Neil's porch, and Neil's father was home. I don't know why. Perhaps he was on vacation, something of that kind. In any case, Neil cheated, and I called him on it.

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And when I called him on it, he immediately said, "Well, let's fight about it." Now I was bigger than Neil, and I was also stronger than Neil. But the fact is I have always despised and abhorred violence. But I didn't see any way out of this except for one thing.

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Neil's father was there on the porch, and I knew that if we'd get into a fight, Neil's father would do the same thing as my father. He'd break us up right away. So we started to fight.

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And what did Neil's father do? He got up and he came over and he said, "Hit him with your right. Hit him with your left. He's too fat.

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Go around the other side." He razzed me, he ridiculed me, my nose was bloodied, my lip was cut, and all the time he was telling his son how to beat the stuffing out of me and ridiculing me. And I had no dad there to counsel me and to encourage me and to empower me and to comfort

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me, and I was whipped. But I learned something very important that rainy summer afternoon. It's a lot easier to fight and win when your father is beside you. And that is the reason that Jesus makes this the first of the keys to real happiness.

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He said, "Blessed are those, happy are those, who don't try to go it alone, but who rely on the father beside them." In 1965, a marathon race was being run in San Francisco. Now, a marathon, I'm sure many of you know, is 26 miles, 385 yards long.

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One of those participating in the race was a man named Pete Struthers. And Pete completed the race in just under five hours. Well, you say to me, "There's nothing very remarkable about that." I call attention to one that took five hours to complete the race.

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Well, I do it for this reason. Pete Struthers had no feet. He went the entire race walking on rubber pads on the stumps of where his legs used to be.

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And when the race was over, someone asked him how he had gone so far, where he found the courage and the commitment to do what he did. And Pete Struthers replied, "When you know you can't depend on yourself, when you can't even lean back," and he couldn't, of course, because of his stumps, "when you can't even

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lean back, then you lean on God." And that is the secret. The winners, the real winners in the marathon of life don't lean back and don't primarily lean on themselves.

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They lean on God. That's dynamic dependence. Jesus says, "Happy are those who lean on God, for they will be the royalty of heaven." Pray with me.

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Our Father, we do not seek happiness for our own selves and for our own selves alone. We seek joy and happiness and delight in our lives, that we might be living testimonies of what it is to rely upon you, so that others seeing us might come to know the same light that illumines us, the same secret that empowers us, the same dynamic dependence which we would

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have upon you. Send to us enough self-honesty and enough true courage to admit to you our needs, to yield ourselves to you, and to discover as you stand beside us that we can never really be whipped.

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We pray our prayer in the name of Jesus, who said, "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." Amen.

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