A Different Kind of Happiness: Discovering the Joy That Comes from Sacrificial Love

by Larry Crabb

“anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).

“of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4

Ezek. 36:27)?

First,

The sinful urge comes from a place within Tony that he experiences as a deeper place than his redeemed soul

second

Sin delivers a pleasure that Jesus never provides

“I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me” (Rom. 7:21–23).

“Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” (v. 24).

“Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 25).

“If you want to be my disciple . . . don’t begin until you count the cost” (Luke 14:26, 28).

Are there depths of surrender I have yet to experience?

Luke 14:25–33.

One,

Two,

t...

I’m thirsty

I want God and the greatest good He makes available to me more than I want anything else.

“inward being” (Ps. 51:6

“When can I go and stand before him?” (Ps. 42:2),

The desire for God’s greatest good lies deep within me, whether at any given moment I feel it or not.

Why does Jesus insist on a cost I cannot pay in order to enjoy what I most long to receive?

“dwells within me” (Rom. 7:20 ESV).

“have no sin” (1 John 1:8 ESV),

“not living in the truth” (v. 8).

I thirst for what will only come to cost-counting disciples and that I can’t, I won’t, pay the required cost—leaves

“Is anyone thirsty?” (Isa. 55:1).

“Come and drink—even if you have no money!” (v. 1).

“Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food” (v. 2).

the impossible becomes possible when I follow Jesus on the narrow road

“Repent of your sins.”

“And turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”—the

Matt. 4:17).

“the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (7:14 ESV).

“the crowd burst into applause. . . . This was the best teaching they had ever heard” (vv. 28–29 MSG).

“The Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God” (John 16:27).

Matthew 11:7–30.

“Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!” (Matt. 11:26).

“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (v. 27).

Am I childlike enough to continue traveling on the only road—the narrow one—where the story of Jesus reveals both the stupidity and the arrogance of the story I prefer to tell, the one that I so easily believe has a better plot? As the narrow road squeezes out of me what I’ve long believed I cannot live without, will brokenness over my foolish narcissism release a cry for mercy from my soul? Or will I grumble and complain, and tenaciously hang on to whatever remains that seems essential to my well-being?

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. . . . Let me teach you . . . and you will find rest for your souls . . . and the burden I give you is light” (Matt. 11:28–30).

the way is hard that leads to life” (7:14 ESV).

“the new way of the Spirit” (Rom. 7:6

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26 ESV)

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (v. 27

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (9:23

“Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (14:33

“who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment” (1 Tim. 6:17).

“are plans for good and not for disaster, to give [me] a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11).

one,