THE MAIN IDEA
Happy Christians bring glory to Christ. If we are happy to receive the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, our passage shows us three things that we will be happy in.

We will be:

HAPPY IN WITNESS
Merchant marines from Israel and Damascus sailed to Ophir on a trade mission. Ophir is next door to the kingdom of Sheba (Yemen, today) across a narrow strait. And so the queen of Sheba heard the reports about Solomon’s wisdom and wealth, but they did not just share a report about Solomon. The sailors were happy to share the good news about everything God had done for His covenant people (1 Kings 10:1). It has always been God’s plan for His people to spread the good news of His glory to the ends of the earth. And our Lord has called us to be His witnesses here in the South Bay, in California, in the US, and to the ends of the earth. That is why we go on all of our mission trips, why we go out on our monthly evangelism excursions, and why we have implemented house church ministry here in Canvas. And it is because GCC and Canvas and our house churches have been happy in our witness of Christ Jesus that God has blessed us so much.

HAPPY IN THE WORD
The queen of Sheba mentions how happy the people must be to sit under Solomon’s wisdom (verse 8). The wisdom of God comes from the word of God. Are we happy for every opportunity to hear the word of God? Every message coming from the word of God has something good to offer. Are we happy for every opportunity to read the word of God? This simple act of regularly reading the Bible may be one of the most important spiritual disciplines that anyone could develop. Are we happy for every opportunity to study the word of God? We cannot know Jesus without being in the word. We cannot have a relationship with our Lord Jesus without being in the word. And if we are happy in the word, we will be blessed (Psalm 1:1-2).

HAPPY IN WORSHIP
The queen of Sheba was a foreigner who worshiped other gods. But she was so overwhelmed by what she witnessed that she herself broke out in worshiping God (verse 9)! She praised God for His covenant faithfulness, for keeping His covenant promises to His people Israel by placing Solomon, the son of David, on the throne. And Jesus Himself rejoiced that she was saved, especially since she came “from the ends of the earth.” Because it has always been God’s plan to fill the earth with His glory in Jesus’s name through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-loving, God-worshiping communities and families, the church (Matthew 12:42). But Jesus also said that “now something greater than Solomon is here”—meaning Himself, the Son of David who is to sit on the throne as Lord of the universe for all eternity. Through Jesus Christ we have the fulfillment of all of God’s covenant promises given in Scripture! And that good news ought to make us believers happy, indeed—the forgiveness of all of our sins, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of eternal life. The queen of Sheba was overjoyed because of God’s covenant faithfulness to Solomon and to Israel, and she broke out in worship. And that’s what worship is—the natural response of a people who are happy for the gift of eternal life that they have been given.

DISCUSSION QUESTION
Are you happy? If so, what is it that makes you happy. If not, why not? Is happiness more of an objective reality or more of a perspective one has?