The Gospel and the Happiness Paradox

You may like to check out this article by John Ortberg (author of 'If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get out of the Boat'; source of all good sermon illustrations) talking about 'The Gospel and the Happiness Paradox'.

Discipleship or obedience is not something we have to cajole people into by obligation or gratitude ("after all, Jesus died for you; the least you can do is deny yourself happiness for a while on earth"), it is simply the process of learning to enter into the good, with-God life. The gospel becomes social as well as personal—not because individuals don't matter, but because to be "saved" means (among other things) to be delivered from the chronic selfishness that contributes to the world's hurt and to my misery.