Sessions Include:

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #1
 Holy / Isaiah 40.25 - 31 

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #2
Lost / Luke 15 

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #3
Salvation / Romans 3.20 - 28

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #4
Faith / Hebrews 11.1 - 6

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #5
Sanctified / 1 Corinthians 6.9 - 20

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #6
Heaven / Revelation 21.1 – 8; 22.1 - 7

Resurrection / Lesson #1
1 Corinthians 15.1 - 11

Resurrection / Lesson #2
1 Corinthians 15.20 - 58

Pastor John Ortberg writes, “The salvation of your soul is not just about where you go when you die. The word salvation means healing or deliverance at the deepest level of who we are in the care of God through the presence of Jesus. Sooner or later, your world will fall apart. What will matter then is the soul you have constructed.”2 Life is full of horrible tragedies. The world is filled with brokenness and pain. Churches promising constant situational happiness are floating a false dream and distorting the purposes of Jesus. But salvation means “the soul you have constructed” rests on something more solid than your current circumstances. This resting place is grounds for gladness, solid grounds for both feeling and expressing joy. The Bible calls this “happiness.”

There are those who peddle situational happiness, promising immediate and superficial rewards for the right performance of religious or spiritual duties. Happiness is much too serious business for me to fall in with that crowd. There will be hardships, there will be trials, there will be tears and there is no way to avoid them. Nobody should promise us otherwise. But in them all, if we are with Christ there is nevertheless a promise that we will be happy even in the trials.

True happiness is not built on situational foundations. Any who have had the privilege to travel on missions know this. My wife, Abigail, and I have led five short-term mission trips to Kenya over the last dozen years, and we love to be there ourselves. But more than that we love to share the experience with others. It’s amazing what that experience can do to shape a Christian disciple. One thing we hear time and again from people we bring to Kenya is: “I just can’t believe how happy the people are! I can’t believe the strength of their faith, and I can’t believe their profound happiness.”

The surprise stems from their deep-seated assumptions of the source of happiness. The kids in the communities we serve there have nothing by way of possessions. No luxuries, not even all their basic needs. Their futures are uncertain and carry little promise of success, as the average American conceives of success. But they know the Lord in deep and rich ways. When we fly to Africa from the suburbs and observe these kids, we have a rotten tendency to think they have no business being happy. But they are. They are deeply, profoundly happy in the Lord. They live out a rich faith in Jesus Christ surrounded by a community of joy providing love and encouragement, hope and laughter. They live out a thicker happiness than the materialistic American consumer will ever know.

We can be happy—foundationally happy, deep in our core—if our happiness is rooted in the right source. Tears may come, and waves of emotion may wrack our spirit, but we will remember a deep foundation of joy and carry the hope that our strength in happiness will return. So we remain calm and settled even as the tears well up. This is the thicker happiness we seek.

Tim McConnell and John Ortberg, Happy Church: Pursuing Radical Joy as the People of God (Westmont, IL: IVP Books, 2016).

We have just released a new Bible study on: Holy Vocabulary

These lessons are available on Amazon, as well as a part of my Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription Service. Like Netflix for Bible Lessons, one low subscription gives you access to all our lessons--thousands of them. For a medium-sized church, lessons are as little as $10 per teacher per year.