Episode 123146: 2/1/26 Counterfeit Happiness

I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry

for the one who gave everything to feed you.

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up at ascensionpress.com/sunday, or by texting Sunday 2-3-3-7-7-7-7-7. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you. And with your spirit, reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

"Where'd I see you over?" Chapter 5 verses 1 through 12. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down his disciples came to him, he began to teach them, saying, "Blessed are the poor and spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the weak, for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Blessed are you, when they insult you and persecute you, and under every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

May you have a seat. So I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Catch Me If You Can. It's with Leonardo DiCaprio, he's in it, but it's a story. It's a story, it's a true story of a young man named Frank Abignail. And Frank Abignail actually ran away from home when he was 16.

You kind of see this in the movie. But to survive he had no plenty of money and no resources to survive. He just conned people. He just pretended to be someone he wasn't. And so in the movie they say this.

But if you're ever seen interviews with Frank Abignail, he talks about this. How he had gotten a Pan Am pilots uniform. And then he just posed as a Pan Am pilot to flew literally around the world multiple times as a pretending to be a pilot. He also pretended to be a doctor where he was supervising interns.

And whenever there was a problem, you can see this in the movie as well. Whenever there was a problem, he was just deferred to these medical students or these interns and they would take care of it. He was a lawyer. And now he pretty smart guy.

He actually passed Louisiana bar. But along this way was he posing as a pilot as a doctor as a lawyer. He also cashed millions of dollars in counterfeit checks. And that was one of the things he just did. He didn't break into banks.

He didn't break into homes. He didn't break into stores. He didn't force his way in. He just looked the part. But he was living the life of a counterfeit.

And he was using counterfeit checks. Which reminds me of the California gold rush. California gold rush. There were stories during the California gold rush. Approx prospectors would go out there.

And they would think that they struck at rich. They found these yellow flakes. And they would do everything. They would sell everything they had. They would quit their jobs.

They would probably already moved out to California. They'd reorganized their entire lives to buy this land. Only to find out that those flakes were think called pirate. But we call it fools gold. In fact, there were some scammers who, in the 1800s,

what they would do is they would get a bunch of this pirate. And they would kind of spread it along the land. And they would con people into buying the land. These people, again, they would sell all they had to buy this land. Not knowing that it wasn't actually gold.

They'd just called fools gold because you're fool if you would do that. They called it a fool's gold because you're a fool if you would exchange real money, like real currency for counterfeit, for not real gold. And you wonder who would do that? Even not, not if you just didn't know.

But who would do that if you knew who would spend something that has real value? On something that is counterfeit.

And I think the answer is every one of us.

“Because that's what we do with our lives.”

It doesn't have to be a counterfeit check from Frank Abigail. It doesn't have to be fools gold in the gold rush. But many of us will spend what has real value chasing after counterfeit happiness.

For the next six Sundays, we'll only have a couple more before length. But the next six Sundays, we dive deeply into the summer on the mountain.

Here we heard in the Beatitudes is this first part of the sermon.

People have said this, they said the summer on the mountain. If the summer on the mountain is the heart of Jesus is teaching, the Beatitudes are the heart of the summer on the mountain. And so what is this?

“Well, Jesus says blessed are they blessed are they?”

I've heard this described. When Jesus is blessed, he doesn't just mean like holy or set apart. Like we know that word to be blessed is be set apart of consecrated. He actually uses the word Greek word Macario, which is happy. But Jesus is saying, "No, you're happy when you're weak.

You're happy when you're born.

You're happy when you have purity of heart."

And this is really important for us. Because we probably have all bought into this notion of counterfeit happiness. And Jesus says, "Okay, this is what real happiness looks like." So the four counterfits, this goes way back to ancient thought. The four main counterfits of happiness, things that we believe will bring us happiness,

are their wealth, power, pleasure, and fame. These are the four things that these are the four counterfeit happiness is.

“We think that if we have wealth, power, pleasure, or fame, that those things will make me happy.”

So we think, "Okay, wealth. If I have enough, I'll be happy." We have power. If I'm control, I'll be happy. Or pleasure. If I minimize pain and maximize feeling good, I'll be happy or fame. If enough people know my name, then I'll be happy. And here's the problem with it.

The problem with counterfeit happiness is those four things actually all do make us happy. Like they all actually work. Yeah, money. I mean, that makes happy. You have power, control. You get to make difference. You have influence. That can make us happy. To have pleasure. Of course, that makes us happy. And that fame. Of course, those things make us happy.

And then make us happy. This, they make us happy long enough for us to spend everything on them. And then when they cost us all we have, we realize, I was happy. But all I actually had was counterfeit happiness. This is the reason, this is the reason why Jesus. So okay, at the heart of his great teaching is the Beatitudes.

This is the heart of it. Why? Because all our hearts, your hearts are mine. We're made for more. Our hearts are actually long for happiness.

So here's what Jesus is doing in the Gospel today. He's saying this to a people who want happiness.

But are really, really bad at spotting counterfeit happiness. Jesus says, okay, happy, happier the poor and spirit. Happy are those who mourn. What Jesus is doing is he is tearing down idols. What he's doing, he's uncovering the lies. Ultimately, Jesus is doing, he's exposing the counterfits.

And so let's go through them quick. So wealth. What is the counterfeit lie? Counterfeit happiness of wealth. It's I'll be happy when I have enough. I'll be happy if I have enough. And why? Because if I have enough, then I'll be taking care of. If I have enough, then I won't need anymore.

“If I have enough, then I can stop worrying. How many times is that us?”

If I have enough, I can stop worrying, which is obvious. Finance is a real. I mean, it's got eat. So we know that money actually makes a difference. But the counterfeit, the lie, is this that self-sufficiency equals safety. If I have enough, I'll be self-sufficient. And self-sufficiency equals security.

But that's a lie. It's a counterfeit. Why? Because in the course of my life, working in it parishes and working in a campus and just all over the place, I've had the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life. Like people who literally have nothing and have no prospect of ever getting anything. To people who have more wealth than any human being

could reasonably be expected to spend in their entire life. But if discovered this and meeting all these people from all these different walks of life, we recognize that, and then how much you have, tragedy doesn't care. Hamilton, death doesn't discriminate. This idea that wealth can insulate a person from the pains of life, it does not.

So I think I've protected myself. If I have enough, I'll be happy. To that person, Jesus says, "Actually, happy are the poor in spirit." Then Jesus says, "Do happy are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness?" To be poor in spirit, in the actual original language. That means to be humble.

It means that it means to be desperate. Happy are you who are desperate. Happy are you who are needy.

To hunger and thirst is like, "No, happy are you who are starving for more,

“who are starving actually for holiness."”

Jesus says, "You're happy, why? Because you are awake." Because you're happy, because you're aware of your need. One of the things that wealth can do to a person can prove the sleep. They actually wealthy people, when I have enough, I don't need anything. When I no longer experience a wake up in the morning and think, "Oh my goodness,

I need something or someone more than me. I am not alive, I am asleep." And Jesus says, "Happy are you." I don't want to need. And he's like, "No, happy are you when you know the truth.

You need God." Even happier are you when you know the truth. Not only do you need God, you have God. So put away that counterfeit happiness of wealth. I'll also put away the counterfeit happiness of power.

Power says this, "I'll be happy if I'm in control." Like, "I'll be happy if I'm strong enough that nothing can hurt me. I'll be happy if I have the power that I can do whatever I want." The counterfeit happiness of power is this declaration. I have to win.

And when I win, I'll be happy. Ever friend who works out in New York. She's an executive assistant for an investment firm and her boss. Her boss, the reason she speaks to her boss at the end of the last year, you got a bonus.

And his bonus was literally in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That was his bonus for the year. She's like, "I saw it. It was a crazy, hundreds of millions of dollars."

“And I was, "I think you're living as you invest people's money."”

If you've got a couple hundred million dollars, like quit your job,

because she describes how he never goes home.

He's always working, he's always on the go. He always has to move. He always, he's like a slave to the office. And I remember thinking, "Man, you have all the wealth you possibly needed." And I didn't realize, for him, I'm a guest as this.

Happiness is not about wealth. He's got wealth. For him happiness is about power. It's about importance. It's about status.

But influence, I don't just have wealth. I have this power. I'm needed. I'm great. I'm the best at this thing.

How many of us think? If I was just the best at that thing, I'd be happy. That was the best in the world. Then I'd be happy. That's the question.

Would you, actually? Think of someone who was the best in the world at something. Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest of all time. Now people are debate about this. I have no nothing about basketball, but I do know social media.

And I've watched a lot of TikToks on this. And people who argue Michael Jordan is the best basketball player of all time. His stats are massive.

He had this incredible drive.

His amazing work ethic. There are stories about how badly he had to be the best. When he retired from the bulls, they retired his jersey. Number 23. But when he started playing again, he got a new number.

Number 45. And there was, at one point, there were playing this game. I remember hearing this story. Playing this game. And one of the players was kind of, kind of.

It looked like he was, he thought he was shutting down Michael Jordan. And one of the things he said, kind of after his breath and runny said, after the game, he says, hey, it looks like 45 is no 23. Michael Jordan, here's about this. The next day comes up.

Gets a, you know, double head or whatever we call it. Where he played the team team again, series series. And, and he doesn't, he's during the warm-ups. He has his warm-ups on. Like he doesn't take off his warm-ups until the start of the game.

Tell tip off. He takes it off. He's burning number 23. And he just demolished the other team. But at the very end of the game, he had two free throws.

Sunk one, and then missed the other. He missed the other on purpose. At the end of the game, his total points were 45. Like this kind of, that kind of drive. That kind of, like, need to have revenge.

That kind of need to be the best.

That kind of, that need to be the most important.

Most powerful, most influential, most significant. That served him really, really well for basketball. But so many reports are that right now, in his life, that same drive, that same mentality, that same thing that made him happy, was a kind of an happiness, that same thing.

Apparently, for him, makes living joy incredibly, incredibly difficult. So Jesus says to him, "And to us, happy are you, or a meek, happy are you, who are merciful." So what's make this? Make this is strength, but strength under God's power.

Under God's control. Strength, placed at God's service.

“That's what it is to be meek, is to say, "I'm not using this power.”

I'm not using this strength for myself. I'm using this strength in the Lord's service."

I don't have to crush my enemies.

That actually can extend to them grace. And if we do that, if we put our strength at God's service, and put vengeance or wrath or revenge aside, Jesus says, "Then you're really happy." So if wealth and power pleasure, I'll be happy.

The lie says, "I'll be happy if I minimize pain and maximize pleasure. I'll be happy if I feel good." So how do we do that? We just, we know ourselves. We distract ourselves.

We say, "I'm just not going to think about that." There's a song by Cia. You guys know this song? Shandelier. So it's this song.

At one point, it's kind of a party anthem. It has this massive Cia wrote this song as short of for Rihanna, actually originally. But she's writing it more and more. She's like, "No, no, I have to be the one that sing this song."

“And I remember thinking about this song, Shandelier,”

I'm going to swing from the Shandelier. One, two, three, one, two, three drink. It's one of the refrains in this whole thing. It seems like it's all about maximizing pleasure. And Cia actually wrote it like that on purpose.

Because we pay attention to the lyrics. She's hiding the pain of life behind this soaring ballad.

So I never realized this until Sara Barelli, Sara Barelli is also a singer.

She did this cover, was stripped down, just her voice and a little guitar. And just to hear Sara Barelli's version of this, it's so low and so haunting where all you hear now is the pain. All you hear now is here is someone who is living this life of what looks like complete pleasure, but feels like desperation.

Wake up the next morning. I've got to numb the pain. I've got to minimize the pain. Here's one of the things to realize. If my goal is to minimize pain and maximize pleasure,

we realize this. Emotions cannot be selectively numbed. I hear heart cannot be selectively numbed. If we suppress pain and grief and fear, we're also simultaneously going to suppress joy and gratitude and happiness.

Like the same nervous system that feels grief is the one that feels joy. So we put on armor. That armor is substances or it's distractions. We're just emotional withdrawal, we fill our lives with all these things.

And that armor then becomes a shield against love, and against relationships, against connection, against happiness. So those of us who have embraced counterfeit happiness in pleasure, Jesus says, "Actually, happy are you who mourn." Jesus is saying, "Avoiding pain doesn't heal it."

He's saying that pain and grief and loss. Those are a part of life, and if I avoid them, I'm actually avoiding living. Happy are you who mourn. He also says, "Happy are the pure of heart."

That's what I say is, don't use people. That someone has pure of heart can see clearly. They can see the value, the dignity of a real, another person, that they're not meant that no one in the world is meant to be used for my pleasure or my own means.

“And this is one of the things that we realized, the truth is,”

we're made to worship God to love people and use things. We want to many of us do. Many of us, we love things, we use people, and we ignore God. And yet, Jesus will say this, "You're happy. If you let God meet you in your sorrow.

You're happy when you see the image of God in each person. Last, counterfeit happiness is fame." And that lies, says this, "I'll be happy if I'm seen." I know this is a risk right now. There was a big song in 1993.

I throw back massive by the County Cross. It was called Mr. Jones. And at one point in the song, Mr. Jones, which I just love because my older brother and I react. It was a long story. Anyways, road trip, it's amazing.

At one point Adam Duritz, the lead singer for County Cross, he says this line, he says, "When everyone loves you,

you can never be lonely."

The last time he sings it, he says, "But when everyone loves me, that's about as happy as I can be." That's counterfeit happiness when it comes to fame. When everyone loves me, that's about as happy as I can be.

Being known and admired. That, I was in this image of fence. When that gets in my head, I grew up with movies and songs that are all about, like, "I'm going to be somebody someday." I want to see my name up and lights, or this kind of,

I can't wait till everyone knows my name. Yet, there was this Harris poll back in the day. They pulled 3,000 kids in the US, UK, and China.

“I think there were ages, something like 8 to 12 years old.”

And they asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. The number one answer was a YouTube star or a vlogger.

Basically, I want to have like internet fame.

“I don't have visibility. But I think it's interesting.”

Later on, the Pew Research Group, they did the same, asked the same question, but of teenagers. And only 6% of teenagers said they wanted to be famous. In fact, 80% of teenagers in the US said that fame wasn't important to them.

What I think is a good sign, that the sense of like they realized fame is hollow. And yet, every one of us, we still want to be well thought of. We still, every one of us,

we still care what other people think. So, this thing called vanity, right? This vice of vanity. What is that? Vanity is the inordinate preoccupation

with other people think of me. So, it's keep in mind. It's good to care what other people think of you. If you don't care what other people think of you, you're probably a jerk.

But vanity is the inordinate preoccupation with what other people think of me. Another way to ask the question is, have you ever, and you know you have that, if you've ever found yourself,

not saying what you knew was true, because of what someone might think. We found yourself not doing what you knew was right because of what someone else might think. Or vice versa.

If you find yourself doing what you knew wasn't right, because of what someone else thought. Or you found yourself saying what you knew wasn't true because of what someone else would think. For the sake of what?

For the sake of counterfeit happiness in fame. But Jesus says what? He says, "Blessed of the peacemakers." "Blessed of those who don't seek applause, but seek reconciliation."

So this blessed are those persecutors for the sake of righteousness. We're the people persecutors for the sake of my name. Those who choose faithfulness over approval. So here we have this. We have these four counterfits.

Wealth, power, pleasure, and fame. Counterfeit happiness. You know, it's like the last thing. The U.S. Secret Service.

“I don't know if you know this about the U.S. Secret Service.”

They protect the president, right? They were actually formed right after the Civil War, not to protect the president. The U.S. Secret Service was originally formed because after the Civil War,

they say that almost one-third of all currency

in the U.S. states was counterfeit. And so they had to train a group of people to be able to spot counterfeits. So here's what they did. At first what they would do is they would bring all these different kind of counterfeit bills,

all these counterfeit coins, and have them see the counterfeits and see what all the different ways someone could counterfeit a bill or a coin. But there's many, many ways, per person counterfeit bills or coins.

So what they did instead was they had them study, not the counterfeit. They had them study the real thing. They actually had them study the real bills. Like, what does that paper look like?

Feel like, what's that ink look like? What's that ink do? And when they studied the real bill, when they studied the genuine article,

“it was then that they could actually accurately spot the counterfeit.”

And this is the last thing. The Beatitudes here today is like a book, how to be happy by Jesus.

Some title eight steps to living the life you've always wanted.

But that's actually not what he's doing. And giving the Beatitudes, Jesus isn't giving a plan. He's painting a portrait. And when he says,

"Happy are the meat." He's describing himself. He says, "Happy are the pure of heart." He's describing himself. When he says, "Happy are those who mourn."

He's describing his own heart. His own face. And so again, he's not providing a plan. He's painting a portrait. And so like the Secret Service,

we can spot fool's gold. We can spot fake, we can spot the counterfits by studying the real thing. So here's the mutation. This week.

To just open your heart, open your mind, open the gospels. And just study the portrait of Jesus. And you can see. Painting the portrait of a heart

that knows it needs God. So the painting, the portrait of someone who has eyes that can weep without despair. Someone who has hands that don't clutch at control.

See, a portrait of a soul that longs for holiness. And a posture, has a posture of mercy. Has a single clear gaze that sees things rightly. See, a portrait of someone who has feet that walk toward reconciliation

and the back strong enough to bear misunderstanding. The invitation this week. Watch Jesus in the gospels. Examine the portrait of Jesus in the gospels to see the real thing.

And know what he looks like. And not give everything away for counterfeit happiness.