Can we "live happily ever after"?

Without wasting time, a wedding was held, and such was their thanksgiving to God, and the abundance of happiness that poured from the groom and bride, that it was said that no one had ever seen a more perfect couple than that of the prince and his princess. In the years to come, a daughter was born to them, and they called her name Aurora, or in the English, Dawn. Soon after Dawn's birth, a son followed, and they called him Day, for his face was as fair as the sun.

And they lived happily ever after.

Sleeping Beauty, Charles Perrault,1696

It's the promise of every fairy tale, and the desire of every heart.

You've felt it, haven't you? In fact, at times it has seemed almost within your grasp. As you lie awake at night, it often peeks around the edges of your hopes. As you walk thru the day, you sense it whispering behind a second glance, a stimulating image, a tempting interaction, a Facebook photo, an "innocent" text.

We all want it. Desperately.

We all want to "live happily ever after". We all want our dreams to come true. We all long for true love, real romance, shame-less affection, guilt-less passion, heartbreak-less hope. 

We all want enduring affection.

But ... is it possible?

Yes! Absolutely, yes!

In fact, it is the resounding promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Think about it for a moment - why do we love fairy tales? It's really pretty simple. Fairy tales reach down and grab us at the center of our desires & longings. They portray images & describe worlds we all dream about ... 

• A courageous prince who rescues the fair maiden  
• A lovely princess who bestows grace and kindness on an ugly toad
• An evil dragon vanquished in flames, never to sow terror again
• A beast transformed by the love of a beauty
• And, yes, the ending ... "and they lived happily ever after"

It's the stuff of ... fairy tales. And real life!

Please don't miss this - in the true gospel of Jesus, all fairy tales come to life!

• Jesus, the prince of heaven, rescued His bride from sin and death at the cost of His own life (Romans 5.6)
• Jesus, thru His death on the cross, bestowed a kiss of grace on sinners, transforming them from rebellious beasts into sons and daughters of the King (Romans 8. 1, 14-17)
• Our greatest foes - sin, death & Satan - are defeated by Jesus (Col. 2.15; Heb. 2.14)
• And we will live happily ever after (Rev. 21. 1-7)

Enduring affection, true love, real romance, everlasting joy is not only possible. Its promised! It has been secured by the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God ... Ephesians 2. 4-8

Isn't that amazing? What you've always longed for you already have.

What you've always dreamed of getting is ... yours.

So ... why do we struggle? Why do we insist on settling for fairy tale promises when the offer of reality in Jesus sits in full view? Why do we sell our bodies, abuse our emotions, starve our spirits on what stimulates for the moment, rather than on what satisfies for eternity?

More on that next week.

But ... here's a hint. To grab onto the person of Jesus rather than the fairy tale of our dreams takes what is the secret ingredient of every fairy tale.

Courage.

And ... Jesus gives courage! 

Because of Jesus, you and I can "live happily ever after."

Right.

Now.