Happy ???

If You’re Happy

There’s a great kids song, popular for decades, that says, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” I sang it as a kid. My kids sang it, and my grandkids are now singing it. Whatever you think of the song – it has that magic ingredient called staying power. It has been sung on kids TV programs, in schools, and in churches. It is non-political, non-cultural, non-religious, non-just-about-everything. In short it is the ‘perfect’ song for the politically correct era in which we now live. It is a cheerful, happy action-packed, perfect party song for little kids – and they love it today as much as we did 60 or more years ago. Maybe some of you can go back even further with it?

We sing it very occasionally in church and everyone really gets into it and claps and stamps and jumps – in short everyone loves it and we all end up laughing. During the sermon, we frequently laugh or even applaud. We shout ‘Amen’, ‘Bring it on’. ‘Preach it brother’, and many other things to encourage the preacher – well you do in the States but over here we are somewhat more reserved. After the meeting is over, we congregate around the coffee and biscuits and once more we laugh and joke and continue to have a good time.

Then what happens? A large percentage of all church-goers, here in the UK and over there in the USA and probably elsewhere in the world, immediately they leave church, adopt their Sunday serious face – aka miserable face – and inspect the non-church-going world as if it has just crawled out from under a stone. That is what gives us all such a bad reputation. That is what puts people off the church. That is what offends the Lord and causes Him to grieve over us.

What is the matter with us that this humongous religious spirit, that’s what it is, rules the way we think we should behave. Do we think Jesus never laughed in public? Do we think He condemned those who enjoyed themselves? What about the wedding at Cana? He turned water into wine – do you think He didn’t dance with everyone else? Do you think He didn’t join in the traditional songs with everyone else? What do you think He did – sit in the corner all straight faced saying, ‘I must be only about my Father’s business’?

God’s Word is FULL of references to our JOY in Him.

Psalm 51:12 “Restore unto me the JOY of my salvation.”

2 Samuel 6:14 “David . . . . . DANCED before the LORD with all his might,”

Psalm 95:1 “Oh come, let us SING to the LORD! Let us SHOUT JOYfully to the Rock of our salvation.”

1 Thessalonians 2:19, “For what is our hope, or JOY, or crown of REJOICING?”

Philemon 1:20 “Yes, brother, let me have JOY from you in the Lord.”

(EMPHASIS all mine)

I know many Christians who are as happy outside the church as they are inside it and it shows in everything they do. Their faces shine with the joy of the Lord. They get on with their neighbours. They are friends with them and they can talk to them about Jesus. They witness to our Lord with their lives, and they do so with great JOY.

Yet how many more – many, many, many more – give a different witness after they leave church and sometimes even in church? How we must hurt the Holy Spirit when we do this. How He must grieve over our miserable witnessing. Acts 1:8 “You shall be witnesses . . . .” – happy witnesses not miserable ones.

Psalm 21:13 “Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will SING and PRAISE your might”

Psalm 28:7 “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for JOY and I will give thanks to him in SONG.”

Psalm 118:14 “The LORD is my strength and my SONG; he has become my salvation.”

(EMPHASIS all mine – again :-)

Come on Church – let your cup overflow with the joy of the Lord and let us show the world a happy face. You might even find yourself happier too?

As the Nike advert always says, “JUST DO IT”!!!