What makes you happy? Jesus flips the world’s idea of happiness upside down in this episode, showing that real joy comes from God’s kingdom, not from comfort, popularity, or getting your own way.
If you’ve ever wondered why the Bible says the poor in spirit, the sad, the humble, the merciful, and even the persecuted are “happy,” this conversation helps make sense of it. Jesus’ words point to a deeper kind of happiness that lasts, because it comes from being right with God.
You’ll also hear practical encouragement for kids learning to follow Jesus in everyday life: how to repent, show mercy, think pure thoughts, make peace, and keep trusting God even when others are unkind.
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Hi, everyone. Dave here. Did you know that you can now purchase individual series of stories of a faithful god for kids? That's right. If you don't wanna become a club member, but you really wanna hear more about Exodus or Jonah or John's gospel, you can buy just those stories, or you can even pay a one off fee for the first 90 episodes.
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Just go to the family membership page at faithfulgod.net and have a browse. Good day, and welcome to stories of a faithful god for kids. Dave here. A big shout out to Rosemarie who left a five star review on Apple. Thanks heaps for that.
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I love hearing that you love the show, and it helps other people find the show as well. Also, a big shout out to Jesse who lives in Canberra, Australia, who sent me a picture of some pyramids. Have you been listening to the Exodus episodes, Jesse, where they get to leave Egypt? Thanks so much for getting in contact. It was great to hear from you.
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Now on with the show. Oh, it's the funniest thing. Last episode, we started by talking about happiness. And guess what? We're gonna talk about happiness again.
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But seriously now, did you know that God wants you to be happy? It's true. God actually wants you to be happy, and he's got the best ideas about what sort of person you should be to be happy. Seriously. Listen.
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Listen. Listen. Sort of people who are happy are people who are really, really needy. Like, they're really poor. Does that sound like that would make you happy?
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Let me read the next one. The people who are really happy are the people who are really, really sad. Oh, I'm sorry. This seems really strange. There's one more.
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Let me read what that one last one says. The people who are really happy, like mind blowingly happy. The people who'll sing about how happy they are are the people who are treated really badly by others. Excuse me for a minute. Hey.
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Who wrote this introduction? It doesn't make any sense. The sad people are happy. The people who are treated really badly are happy. It just doesn't make sense.
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Oh.
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Oh. Okay.
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Apparently, we have to listen to Jesus to find out what all this means. You know what that means. Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful god for kids. Okay. What's going on here?
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At the end of our last episode, Jesus had been doing some amazing things, healing sick people, sending demons away, telling people to repent because the kingdom of heaven is almost here, and huge crowds of people began following him. From all over, people walked, sometimes for days and days, to see and hear Jesus. But just because you're in a crowd that's near Jesus, it doesn't mean you're a true follower of Jesus. Well, Jesus goes up into a mountainous area and sits down to teach. The people he's going to teach are a much smaller group than the big crowds.
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These are his true followers, his disciples, the ones who really want to be in Jesus' kingdom. And as they sit down to listen to Jesus, he tells them what sort of people are happy. The things he tells them seem completely opposite to how most people think of happiness, like everything's been turned on its head or back to front. So in Matthew chapter five verse three, Jesus says, those people who know they have great spiritual needs are happy. If you have great spiritual needs, that means you're not good enough for God.
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You don't have enough in you to make you friends with God. And Jesus says those people are happy. In fact, he says the reason they're happy is because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Hang on. Hang on.
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Hang on. Can the kingdom of heaven, God's kingdom, the kingdom that has Jesus as its king, belong to people who aren't good enough for God? Well, actually, no one is good enough for God. We all sin. But not everyone believes that about themselves.
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Plenty of people think that God should be really happy with them and let them into his kingdom because they're really great. They ignore their sin. But the people who know they have great spiritual needs, who know that they can't offer anything to God to get into his kingdom, they're the ones who repent and come back to God and ask for forgiveness. And God does forgive them and welcomes them into his kingdom. In fact, we get to own the kingdom with him.
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How amazing is that? That would certainly make you happy. Next, Jesus says in verse four, those who are sad are now happy. Okay. That's just weird.
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Those who are sad are now happy. That's like saying those who are tall are now short, or those who are kids are grown ups. It doesn't seem to make sense unless you read what Jesus says next. He says, those who are sad now are happy. God will comfort them.
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You see, there's no better comforter than God. What sort
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of sadness is Jesus talking about? He could be talking about people who are sad because of their sin, sad that they've done the wrong thing. People who aren't sad about that ignore God. But people who are sad about it come to God, and he forgives them, welcomes them into his family, loves and cares for them. It's the best comfort in the world.
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Or perhaps Jesus is talking about a different kind of sadness. Perhaps he's talking about being sad when a follower of Jesus dies. That's really sad. But God will comfort his people by raising his people back to life. He'll take away the reason to be sad.
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Or maybe Jesus is talking about when you're sad about all the yuck things in the world, the fighting and the anger and
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the meanness, the way people ignore God. When Jesus comes again, he will make everything better and comfort his people forever. The sad ones will be happy.
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The next type of people Jesus says are happy are humble people. Humble means you don't treat yourself as the most important. You treat other people as really important. Jesus actually is the most important. But he didn't go around saying to everyone,
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oh, I'm much too important for you. You all need to bow and scrape in front of me, but I'm not having anything to do with you because I'm far too important.
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No. He went around serving and caring for other people. He's humble. People
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think humble people don't do very well in life. Everyone else can take stuff from them, but they never get anything from anyone because they're too busy caring for other people. That's not what Jesus says, though. He says in verse five, those who are humble are happy. The earth will belong to them.
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Like, the whole earth? Yes. Because when Jesus comes again, he'll bring a new creation, a new earth, and the people who'll have it are those who want to follow and trust and live like Jesus. The humble ones. It's so different to how the world thinks of humble people.
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Then Jesus says in verse seven, those who give mercy to others are happy. Mercy will be given to them. Mercy is when you forgive people and care for them even when they don't deserve it. Lots of people think it's really weak and silly to be merciful, but God is merciful to everyone who repents and asks for forgiveness. And you can't call God weak.
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He created the whole world. No one's stronger than him. The people who repent and ask God for mercy will want to be merciful like God. If not, they're just faking repentance. They'll show their repentance by being merciful, and God will have
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mercy on them. They'll also want
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to have clean thoughts. Think about things that are good. Think about things that God loves, not really bad things. That's why Jesus says in verse eight, those who are pure in their thinking are happy. They will be with God.
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People think they can be happy by thinking about whatever they want, no matter how bad it is, but they're not the ones who get to be with God. And nothing makes people happy more than being with God. People also try to be happy by making other people sad, by fighting with their words or bodies. They think, I have to take happiness from other people so I can be happy even if it doesn't help them. But that's not what Jesus says.
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Jesus says that the happy people are those who try to make peace with people, even with their enemies. We were God's enemies, but God made peace with us through Jesus. In fact, we're so at peace with God, he's actually invited us into his family. And so if we're his people, we should be peacemakers as well, just like him. The last sort of people Jesus says are happy are those who are treated really, really badly.
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Not those who are treated really badly for just any reason. No. Those who are treated really badly for living God's way, for trying to be merciful and a peacemaker and a follower of the Lord
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Jesus. Did you know that people might treat you badly because you're a follower of Jesus? Because you try and do the right thing. And the more you do it, the more people might treat you like that. Not everyone will, but some people will.
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And Jesus says the people who have that happen to them are happy. It doesn't make sense, does it? Usually, people try to be happy by fitting in with what everyone else wants to do, to not annoy anyone. If someone wants you to do something wrong, you just do it because then they won't be upset with you. You'll be happier.
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But Jesus says that's not what's gonna make you happy. If people start treating you badly because you're trying to do what's right, you know what that means. It means you're like one of the great prophets from the Old Testament. You're like Elijah who Jezebel tried to kill just because he showed that you should only worship God. Or you're like Daniel who got thrown to the lions just because he would only worship God.
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Or you're like David, who Saul tried to kill. All these great people who trusted God were treated really badly because they trusted God. Jesus says in verse 10, those who are treated badly for doing good are happy. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. People will say bad things about you and hurt you.
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They will lie and say all kinds of evil things about you because you follow me. But when they do these things to you, you are happy. Rejoice and be glad. You have a great reward waiting for you in heaven. People did the same evil things to the prophets who lived before you.
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In other words, even though people might not give you anything for being good on earth,
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god sees what you do. He's happy, and you'll be with him forever. Does that mean you have to
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do things perfectly to get into heaven?
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Not at all. Because one of
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the good things god wants us to do is repent when we sin. He doesn't expect us to be perfect. He wants us to come back to him and keep asking for his help to do better. You know, people are gonna tell you all sorts of ways for you to be happy. People think that they can be really happy without God, but true happiness, real lasting happiness, happiness that never disappoints, can only come from God.
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So live for him and find the happiness that only he can give.
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As Jesus speaks to his disciples, he's about to tell them more about how to live for him. But that's a story for next time.
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Thanks for listening, everyone. A couple of months ago, I did a new setup of my website so that I could get club membership going. As I did that, the page to access coloring sheets disappeared. I'm really sorry. But don't panic.
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You can still access coloring sheets for each new episode. All you need to do is go to faithfulgod.net and click on the episode you want. You'll go to the episode page where you can download the coloring sheet. And, of course, if you want to hear more stories of a faithful god for kids, join the club at faithfulgod.net. Keep trusting Jesus.
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Bye for now.