Finding Happiness

Well, good afternoon, everyone on this blazingly hot day today, but you knew the one that was complaining about the weather was the one that was going to give the sermon. So, we were joking about the announcements, but beautiful, beautiful outside though, and great to see a very full room today. But we’re going to start here. We’re going to back up and take you somewhere.

I like to go to this spot often. It’s called Giant Eagle. If you know what Giant Eagle is, it’s a grocery store that’s right next to headquarters. I use it in sermons a lot, and some of the singles heard this so they know why, but I use it in sermons a lot because I don’t get out much, and usually where I go is Giant Eagle. So, all of my stories... I’m going to get venturous one day and pop across town to Walmart and come up with some new ones, but one thing... and it doesn’t matter Walmart, Giant Eagle.

Any store you go into today, or anywhere you go, if someone’s over the age of about, I don’t know, twelve maybe, eleven somewhere in that range, what you see a lot of are people who are missing something. Almost every single person. Rarely is there an exception, and it seems once they hit a certain age, maybe around fifty, sixty, they get some of this back, or they go the opposite direction.

But where most people are, say twelve to sixty, are missing something. We, on the other hand, are not missing this something. You see it in people’s faces. Well, with a big social, a big weekend like this, we have an opportunity to do some of this something, build some of this something. And I won’t leave it in suspense for too long but what you see missing from most people is happiness. It’s happiness.

So, I thought I would start today with bringing a little bit of happiness. So, I’m going to tell you a few things that will make you laugh or smile, and you’ll see it builds up as we get into the message why it’s important. So, I’ll start with a question. Why are ducks good soldiers? Why are ducks good soldiers? Well, they always get there early because they wake up at the crack of dawn.

Another question. What happens to the light side of a light bulb when it runs out of electricity? Of course, it turns to the dark side. My son likes Star Wars jokes. That’s his joke, so I had to tell it. What did the scarecrow win for an award? Well, he was outstanding in his field. A little longer to get that one. I’m doing these for fun because they are fun. They’re silly in some cases, but really may make you smile. They make you laugh. They bring you a little bit of happiness. I’ll do a couple more, and I’ll maybe save a few throughout the sermon. Let’s see. Why are elevator jokes so good? Why are elevator jokes so good? Well, they tend to work on so many levels.

And finally, before you throw me off the stage.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas. You’ll get it. You’ll get it. Yes, it’ll come. Okay, I’ll save you from any more of those and maybe bring a couple back throughout the sermon, but they’re simple. They’re a joke. They make you smile. They bring a little bit of happiness because that’s our simple happiness little silly jokes, smiles, seeing people. You heard laughter in the announcements during the sermonette. You probably laughed and smiled when you saw people.

That’s a different kind of happiness. The happiness that we have is very much different. People can laugh at jokes like this. But most of the time when you ask individuals, if I going to Giant Eagle or any place you go, you ask them, what is happiness? And they’re going to be talking about success, money, emotional satisfaction, all sorts of reasons that are very much focused on the physical, and happiness is in a certain way focused on the physical, their goals, their desires, thoughts, their drive. To get, to be able to build, to have happiness tends to be very materialistic in the approach. Again, wealth and success and the pleasures that they have tend to be temporary.

So, let’s dig into this subject of happiness in our Bibles, and then learn how we can build it. And you’ll see it’s not exactly what you think it may be at first. So, let’s find a definition because it’s always good when you start building a subject from God’s word to be able to build it up, create something, you start with that definition. So, let’s go back to Proverbs sixteen verse twenty. First scripture here. Proverbs chapter sixteen, and verse twenty. Proverbs sixteen, twenty. You’re still turning, and I’ll get a drink. Sixteen, twenty. Verse twenty reads, “He that handles a matter wisely shall find good.” So, if we handle a matter wisely, we’ll find good. “And whoso trust in the Lord, happy is he.”

Okay, remember, we’re trying to find a definition. So, to get happiness, we can trust in the Lord. So, we have to trust in the Lord to be happy. The problem is that doesn’t define what happiness is. The word maybe will give us a little something. So, it’s ehsher, which is funny to me because it’s E-H-S-H-E-R how it’s spelled out. And anytime I see E-H separated, the Canadian in me comes out, and it’s not ehsher, it’s asher. Okay. Ehsher it is. Happiness is what the word means. So happy is he. So, the word in the Hebrew means happiness. So, nothing like defining a word with the word, that does not help us at all.

So, let’s try another spot where this word appears. Psalm one, the very first Psalm. Easy to find. I had so many more good jokes, just the... well, I’ll bring them out. First Psalm and verse one. Verse one reads, “Blessed is the man that walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But in his delight,” happiness, “Is the law of the Lord.” Okay? Still not very good. And continuing here, “And in his law does he meditate day and night. He’ll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water; he’ll bring forth fruit in his season.” Everything will be great.

But basically, what it’s saying is, his happiness is in the law of God. So, if he... in the first, remember in Proverbs, if he knows God, if he trusts in God, he’s happy, so if you know the law, he’s happy. Still not helping us to define what it means to be happy. Because you could probably think of synonyms in your mind related to happy. There’s one that probably immediately pops in your head when you think of anything biblical, you think of joy. But we’ll see, we’re not there yet, they’re different. Okay? So, that was the closest I could find anywhere in the Bible to define happy or give us any sort of definition.

Let’s go to the New Testament and we’re going to see we’re pretty much stuck in the New Testament as well. So how do we do something when we can’t even know exactly what it is? It’s a hard subject. Anytime you have to define emotions, they typically are difficult to be able to give a good, concise definition. Anger, what is anger? Okay. You think of that, and you think, okay, well it’s when you’re angry.

That’s immediately the first thing that pops in my mind when I say, what is anger? And I think, well, when someone’s not... well, they’re angry. Well, they’re not happy. Well, that’s not really angry, that’s just unhappy. It’s hard to define emotions. Usually, you define them in the negative, which means you have to say the opposite of what they are. So, Matthew chapter five. But we’ve seen here and a lot of other places, it associates happiness with blessings or contentment or the law of God or trusting in God. So, happiness looks like not so much something we can define but is the by-product of something else.

Matthew chapter five, you should be there now in verse one. And this is the beatitudes. “And seeing the multitudes, he went up to the mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of God.” And then you continue on, four, “Blessed is he that mourns.” Verse six, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Verse nine, “Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are them that are persecuted.” So that blessed means happy. It’s translated happy, many times in the Bible. It’s the only word in the New Testament that’s translated happy or happiness or happier.

There are not a lot of instances of this word throughout the Bible, partly because happy as a word, happiness, variations of all the permutations, only came around about the twelve-hundreds AD, twelve-hundred, twelve-fifty AD, somewhere in there. So, it’s a relatively new word in the grand scheme of the Bible. I think thousands of years, it’s the New Testament era, a good thousand-plus years in, but it means, again, supremely blessed. You’ve heard that Makarios but that’s the only word translated happy in the New Testament.

And what gets fascinating is that starts to tie happiness with blessed. Because supremely blessed, again, it can be translated happy. So, we have successfully, what, fifteen minutes into this message now, been completely unable to define the subject of the message. So, when you can’t find it in the Bible, let’s go to dictionary.com because there’s the answer for everything. But since we couldn’t even determine if it was happy or blessed, we looked up both. So, let’s go look at both.

So blessed is blissfully happy, so you can say really happy. These are those moments you think back as a kid when your parents told you to look stuff up, and then you look stuff up and you’re like, It’s useless. It’s not helping me. But blissfully happy or contented. Contented. That’s an interesting variable to bring into this. Also, can mean bringing happiness and thankfulness. Okay, gratitude. Interesting. Divinely or happily favored. That’s how we’ll often think of the word blessed. If someone... if we say, oh, God blessed us, we think that we’ve been divinely favored. God’s given us something.

It’s true, but the meaning of the word, if someone blessed someone else, or if someone feels blessed, it’s very Protestant, so we never really say it, it has that feel to it, but it means in that context, being extremely happy. So, what does happy mean? It means delighted, finally, this is useful, pleased, glad, as over a particular thing. So, if we get delighted, pleased, or glad over a particular thing, that is happiness.

Also, could mean characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, again, that’s tied in, or joy. So characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy. So, you see, it starts to tie in that joy element. But again, we’re looking at around twelve-hundred-ish period for the word blessed, and around twelve… or I think thirteen-fifty, if it was AD, for the word happy. So relatively new words. And they both came into to usage about the same time, from Middle English, the same background for those two words.

So as much as we can see at this point, to be blessed appears to have happiness that comes from our relationship with God. So, to have happiness, there is an attachment, there’s a connection to our relationship with God. Let’s go back to Psalm one-forty-four. Near the end of the book of Psalms, one-forty-four. Just read one verse here, one-forty-four verse fifteen. Verse fifteen reads, “Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.”

That is such a powerful statement. So, you can make that an equal, that comma in there, happy is that people equals whose God is the Lord. It’s a simple statement, isn’t it? Well, of course, our God is the Lord. Well, that’s not a simple statement for everyone else in the world. That’s why you don’t see happiness out there. You don’t see generally people being happy, excited, glad, as it says. People don’t show joy because they don’t know who God is.

They can have moments of happiness. That’s never black and white. People can have excitement. They can have joy. They can have all these emotions that you and I feel. God put them in everyone. So, it’s not like, well, I’m converted. So now suddenly I got joy. No, you can have joy when you’re young. You remember if you’re a parent, when your child was born, or you see various things, there’s joy that you can experience humanly, just like there can be human wisdom. But things start to change when you know who the Lord is, who God is because we have a connection now to be able to access something we could not access before.

We have to have the right God though, and we have to have all that goes with that. Let’s go back to Deuteronomy thirty-three. Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three. Let’s start in verse twenty-seven. Deuteronomy thirty-three, verse twenty-seven. Verse twenty-seven reads, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before you; and he shall destroy them. Israel then shall dwell safely alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon the land of corn and wine; and his heaven shall drop down dew. Happy are you, O Israel: who is like unto you, O people, saved by the Lord?”

You have to have the right God to be able to fulfill something as simple as, “Happy are you, O Israel: who is like you,” God asks. No one is like us, spiritual Israel. No one understands what you and I understand. And you’ll see, happiness is not just something that we take for granted or we have a moment. It’s different than joy. We have to have joy. Continuing on, “The shield of your help, and who’s the sword of your excellency! and your enemies have been found liars unto you; and you shall tread upon their high places.” God backs us up and we are happy. It’s a source of it. Again, hard to define, but it’s easy to find the breadcrumbs in the Bible that help us get there.

And then we’ll see often... also later how we can build it. Let’s go to Proverbs chapter three. Proverbs chapter three and verse thirteen. This whole first beginning is trying to define it. Try to figure out what it is. Understand what happiness is so we can start to build on that foundation. Proverbs chapter three and verse thirteen. “Happy is the man that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding.” So, if we find... you have to be looking to find. So, if we’re looking and we find wisdom, it makes you happy. Be able to do the right thing, make the right decisions, and the man that gets understanding.

So, when we dive into the word of God, a byproduct of that because we know the law, we trust in God, we know the correct to God, a byproduct of that is going to be, we are going to be happy. Okay. That’s a broad definition. And that requires me to tell you a few more of these jokes. Why do melons have weddings? Well, because they cantaloupe.

I really liked that one. Nothing says dad joke being a dad when you’re sitting at your computer alone in your office giggling.

Never said I was, I’m saying that would be very dad-like joke. Singing in the shower is fun until you get soap in your mouth; then it becomes a soap opera.

It makes me feel better when you moan. Oh, one more here. I wondered why the Frisbee kept getting bigger and bigger. Then it hit me.

You know what’s funny with any of these, besides you still rolling giggles, but that was... it’s pretty quick. That’s what happiness is. You’ll see when we’re going to say what it’s not. I’m going to show you next. That temporary moment of that laughter. Laughter is not happiness, just like laughter is tied to it, but laughter is not happiness. It’s a part of your reaction. Part of your happiness is your laughter. Same as happiness is not joy. Happiness is not joy. They overlap. You’ll find they tie together in many ways. Again, just like laughter is not happiness. But boy, they often go together, don’t they? When something’s funny, it makes you happy, but you could have things that make you happy but don’t make you laugh but they tie together. But joy is different.

Joy you could say... and we’ll build it out a little bit here so we know and understand, and it’s crucial that we break the two apart as much as we can to be able to know working on them independently is important. We need both. Joy is like a deep, calm, enduring state of well-being. If you want to write that down, you can. It’s a deep, calm, enduring state of well-being that’s rooted in the fact and having God’s spirit. Happiness on the other hand, is often dependent on external circumstances.

You generally don’t start laughing if no one’s around and no one’s told a joke, or you’ve not read a joke or you’re alone in your room unless you maybe have a thought or an idea. But really, that’s still an external circumstance and it’s temporary. So, joy, we’ll prove this, is a deep, calm, and enduring state of well-being attached to having God’s spirit. Whereas happiness is often dependent on something external, and it tends to be temporary. But joy is a funny one because it keeps on going and going, in the face of trials and difficulties.

Go to James one. James chapter one. The word happy could have been used here, but it wasn’t. James chapter one and verse one. James one, one, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings.” Verse two, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse or various temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience,” as it continues, explains it, but my brethren count it all joy, not happiness because happiness is temporary. The joy we get from God’s spirit is not.

That’s the difference between the two of them. You can count it all Joy. Joy is a fruit of the spirit. It’s a gift God gives you and I. It’s different than what someone can experience when they hear a funny joke or they see something sweet or whatever the case may be that brings that gladness, happiness. Go to Galatians five. Let’s show you here. You know this verse, but it’s important to see. Galatians chapter five and verse twenty-two, memory verse. Verse twenty-two, “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.”

Verse twenty-three, “Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Again, the second one there, love then joy. God gives that to us when we have his spirit. It’s amazing. Every single one of those things. Think about it. Love, can you experience love without being converted? Agape love, no. Love of God, no. But you can experience love. Can you experience joy? Yes, you can experience a form of joy. Peace, you can have peace. Not everyone is rolling around killing each other.

Longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. All of those things you can do, I can do if we don’t have God’s spirit. But God says, no. There is a level that I expect from a Christian. There’s a level of that fruit getting it to a level that you don’t understand. Just like the wisdom of God is not the wisdom of man, the joy of God, the love of God, the longsuffering of God is not the same as the equivalent versions that men have. Similar, but not the same. That’s why, again, in James it says, count it all joy. It doesn’t say happiness.

It could have used the word blessed, which can be translated happiness. It’s literally the only word in the New Testament. So, it had to be... it could say, count it all... count it to be blessed or happy that you fall into various temptations. But no, that’s not because it requires God’s spirit in us to be able to have what sustains us through a trial, to be able to have joy into trial. Go to First Kings chapter one. Separate these two a little bit more. I found the same... both variations that are most commonly used for joy in the Old Testament, I found a passage that has both. That’s efficient.

First Kings chapter one and verse forty. Verse forty reads, “And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.” There are many other off or not often-used words. It’ll be one or three times it’s used, but most of the time you see rejoiced or joy, it’s one of these two words, and it means to... that word rejoice means to brighten up. That is be blithe or Gleesome.

I love when they give you words that you have to then go look up. It’s like your parents telling you all over again from the Strong. Blithe or Gleesome. And the other one for joy is blithesomeness, that’s quite the word or glee. So, to be glee, to be blissful, to be happy, to be joyous. And that’s about it. That’s how God describes them. Let’s go back to the New Testament. Again, we’re just setting the... still setting some foundation here because everyone wants to be happy. That’s a given.

You get the few folks who just are happy to be depressed, I guess, but everyone wants happiness. But even when I joke, I say they’re happy to be depressed, it’s kind of, their happiness is to be depressed. It’s a broken brain, but it’s their happiness. So, everyone, no matter what or how they’re getting there, everyone wants happiness. They just can’t find it, as you see when you see people, they don’t have that look, that shine, that light in their eyes.

John chapter sixteen. Probably already there, I am not. John chapter sixteen and verse twenty. Verse twenty reads, “Verily, verily...” or truly, truly, “I say unto you, that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned to joy.” Just the New Testament equivalent of what we just did in the Old Testament, so nothing changed. Those words are still very, very similar. The word rejoice there means to be full of cheer.

And then you get an interesting side of it. Remember, this is rejoice and joy. Those are what we’re trying to look at. We’re separating them from happy. That is, rejoice, to be calmly happy. Calmly happy, or well off, or well off. Calmly happy. That’s very different than you’re laughing because of terrible jokes, or you see something else, and you burst with... have happiness in you. Usually, happiness is not calm. Joy is very unique because God’s spirit. Remember, that’s why it’s in a trial. You can be calmly happy in a trial or calmly joyful... calmly happy, which means joy in a trial because of God’s spirit that allows you to get through that trial. You’re calm. Content.

The other one for joy is cheerfulness. That is, this is amazing, two different words. They’re not even really that close to each other, but cheerfulness. That is, calm delight. That’s almost always when you see the word joy in the New Testament, it relate... it refers to having calm delight. Cheerfulness. But again, both are attached to being calm. That’s what joy is. That’s what separates joy from happiness. Happiness again is temporary and is tied to specific events and joy is this consistent, calm state that doesn’t change when our life is high or when our life is low. God just gives us joy. So, it’s different and it’s important to separate them because you, like probably what I was too before I studied into it, is I would just attach the two. I would say, oh, if I’m joy, joyful people or happy people, they’re connected, but they’re two different things we have to work on.

As Christians, we have to work on so many different elements, and if we don’t separate the elements that are similar, it makes it more difficult to be able to focus. If you’re troubleshooting anything, IT background that I have, if you’re troubleshooting anything, you have to separate the variables and sometimes the variables look very similar. But if you don’t separate them, it’s hard to be able to determine what caused the issue.

And for us Christians, we have to separate what elements of our character we have to build so we can more effectively build them. So, joy is not happiness. And the next here, if you want to be happy, you have to build a foundation for it and the foundation for happiness is contentment. So, contentment is the foundation of happiness. And you were content with me telling no more jokes, but I’m up here and you’re down there.

So why did the coach go to the bank? To get his quarterback. Each time it’s just going off a cliff.

Started with some really good ones and then... Why do dads take an extra pair of socks when they’re golfing? Just in case they get a hole-in-one. I didn’t even find that one funny.

So, contentment. The contentment is the foundation to be able to be happy, because if we’re not content, if we’re always looking at other people’s things, what other people have, what other people can do, if we’re always wishing we were someone else, or having the benefits of the things that someone else has, it could be a job, it could be their car, their house, their family, their circumstances, we’re never happy in our own skin. We’ll never be happy in what we currently have.

It doesn’t mean we don’t build ourselves. The whole sermon here is about building our happiness. But to start, we have to have the foundation to be completely content. Knowing God can provide. Let’s look at some verses on this. First Timothy chapter six. I enjoy these simple scriptures that say a lot, but really just speak at face value and tell us what we have to do.

First Timothy chapter six. In verse six, it reads, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it a certain we will carry nothing out.”

There is no plainer, more humanizing statement than that. It doesn’t matter how successful, rich, educated, experienced we are, we brought nothing into this world, and we’re going to take nothing out except for character. Verse eight, “And having food and raiment,” food and clothing. Nothing else is listed here. “Let us therewith be content.” God gives us a lot more than food and raiment. We have a lot more in our lives from relationships to people, to jobs, to the blessings that we get way beyond food and clothing.

But if you think about it this way, food and clothing is the thing that I should be content with. It doesn’t even put a roof over my head, so I’m sleeping under the stars, and I should be content. So, I’ve got clothing and I’ve got food which, you know what that means? I’m not going to die. It’s essentially what it is because no matter where you are in the world, if you’re somewhere where it gets hot all the time, if you don’t have clothing, you’re going to die. If you’re somewhere where it’s cold and you don’t have clothing, you’re going to die.

So if you don’t have food, again, you’re going to die.

So God’s saying, if I give you enough so you don’t die, be content. That’s all you need. You don’t need more than that. We don’t need to pile everything else on, but He does. He says start there. Go to Philippians chapter four. I look at this clock up here and I look and I think, oh, wow, my time. It’s eleven, forty-three. I’m going to face that down.

I have a funny feeling it was a timer, not necessarily the time. Philippians chapter four and verse ten. Verse ten reads, “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last, your care of me has flourished again, wherewith, you also were careful, but lacked opportunity.”

They wanted to help Paul, but they just didn’t have the opportunity. “Not that I speak in respect of want,” Paul’s saying, No, I don’t expect this. I don’t want you to do any of this. “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, wherewith to be content.” Just simple verses. They’re just adding to what this contentment means. Because again, I’m not going to be happy if I am not content.

We have to grow, we have to develop, I say that over and over again. But what God has given us, has given you, me, how little or how much is enough. If we don’t anchor ourselves on that, we’re never going to be happy. We could actually have joy, but we won’t be happy because you get joy from God’s spirit. So if you’ve got God’s spirit, you’ve got joy. It doesn’t matter... It matters how much and how much we build it and work it and grow the fruit but by default, if God puts his spirit in you, you have the fruits of his spirit. All of those elements, you have, greater or lesser degrees.

So you can have joy, but if you’re not content, you cannot have happiness. That’s why it’s the foundation. Hebrews chapter thirteen. One more verse here. Last chapter of Hebrews. Start in verse one. Hebrews thirteen, verse one reads, “Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

Okay, where are we going with this? I wanted to get a little set up on it because we often jump right to the verse, not thinking about all the setups. So it’s talking about entertaining angels, having brotherly love, marriage. Verse five, “Lest your conversation or conduct be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for He said, I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you.”

You know what contentment is? Contentment is an act of faith because God says, I’m never going to leave you. I’m not going to let you die. I’ll give you clothing. I’ll give you food, you will survive. It could get really bad if you don’t have a house or various other elements. Think how things could get bad. You don’t have a job or a car, but God says, I’ll keep you alive.

So to be content with how much... we may have so much, and we do, or in some parts of the world, especially if you’re outside of Israel, may have so little, but God says that wherever your circumstances are, whatever I’ve chosen to give you wherewith, be content. Because He won’t leave us alone. So that’s your foundation. That’s what we have to build on. And if you want to be content, you need one other thing and that’s gratitude.

We’re going far afield, aren’t we here? We’ll get back to happiness. It’s over here, it’s sitting on the shelf but we can’t build up our happiness until we put the right thing on the bottom of it so we can actually build and sustain happiness, because happiness... If I tell you a joke, that happiness is fleeting. It’s, funny or groany, still happiness, as that joke takes and then it disappears. That’s very much the human level of happiness.

Most of the times we have things... it’s almost instantaneous but if we build it on a foundation that’s Godly, that’s scriptural, that’s spiritual, our happiness starts to be more sustainable. Because there are some people you know that tend to be just happy people. They just tend to be happy. I like to think I’m one of those happier people and it’s always been kind of that way and not always. It’s something I had to work on and see the positive thing, we’ll talk more about building happiness later, but you know those kind of people. Those people had to work at it. They had to build it to be able to sustain that happiness, or it’s as temporary as a joke. It’s just gone.

But if we work at it, we can have a happiness level that stays sustained and it will change how you look at everything. But again, be grateful. If you’re content to be content be grateful every day. I have time, let’s go to First Thessalonians and read it. Chapter five. First Thessalonians chapter five. Like simple verses, I love verses that are very dogmatic and don’t give you any wiggle room. As human beings, we love wiggle room, don’t we? Especially when it comes to Christianity. Any sort of wiggle room we have allows us to maybe shade what we do as Christians.

Let’s just play a little bit with what’s right, what’s wrong. Oh, we’re getting the gray area. But sometimes God just gives you a scripture, and many times in the Bible, that it has no wiggle room. First Thessalonians five, eighteen. Verse eighteen reads, “In everything give thanks.” Okay, that’s all you have to read. In everything give thanks. But it continues, “For this is the will of God...” Wow. That takes it up a notch, doesn’t it? “For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,” and me. So, God’s will for us, what he wants us to do, His will for us is that we give thanks in everything.

And if we’re grateful for what we have, if all I have is the shirt on my back and I’m sleeping under a tent somewhere, and I’m thankful to God that I have the tent and the can of beans or whatever the circumstances may be, it’s very easy to be content because you’re grateful. Gratitude leads to contentment which builds that foundation for us to be able to build happiness. Okay. Continuing here. Said this before but will drive the point a little bit home. Happiness is not a permanent emotion. Happiness is not permanent... You can have happier people.

But happiness is not a permanent emotion. If you are permanently happy, you’re crazy. They call you manic. You know the manic side of manic-depressive where they swing to either ditch, the manic side of that is people who are always happy to an extreme level of happy, to that... and you’ve seen them. It’s sad in the world with so much mental illness that we see in the world today. But you’ve seen those sort of people. I remember, I think I’ve said this in a sermon or something recently so forgive me. But I remember there was this person.

I was still in Toronto at the time and I would walk by the Eaton Center, which I think they still call it that. But right where the Eaton Square is, so basically the Times Square of Toronto. And he always had a plaque on talking about God of some sort. And he was always smiling so much that it felt terrifying. Like, his muscles look like they should be torn because it was like a hurt smile. And if you talk with him, he was very manic. So happiness is not something that we are all the time. And it shouldn’t be because there are no emotions that we should be all the time.

None of them, none of our emotions should be the one that’s always driving the ship. Because you’re going to have anger. You’re going to have sadness. You’re going to have all these different things. Let’s go back to Ecclesiastes three. You can have more of something, but it’s not all of what you have as our emotional bank, if you will. Chapter three of Ecclesiastes, start in verse one. We read this recently. Mr. Pack did in the sermon. So, verse one reads, “To everything there is a season,” everything. It’s just like that, in everything give thanks.

“...and a time and a purpose under heaven.” So there’s a season, there’s a time, there’s a purpose for everything. “Time to be born, time to die. Plant up, pluck up.” Verse three, “A time to kill, time to heal.” Verse four, can read the whole chapter. We don’t have time to read the whole thing. But verse four reads, “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” There are times when the appropriate response, the appropriate emotion is to mourn. If someone dies or if you’re at someone’s funeral, you don’t walk up if you’re giving... say maybe you’re saying a couple words about the person who died, you don’t walk up to the front and tell dad jokes.

That’s cringey, just saying. You think, oh wow, imagine if something like that happened. It’d be horrible, because it’s not the appropriate time for that to happen. There’s a time to dance, and that time is not when you’re standing in a parking lot with people around. People will, what’s going on with that person? It seems obvious to us because we know there are different times when different things are appropriate. Just like happiness. There are times when it’s not appropriate to be happy because there’s a time to mourn and there’s a time to do all these things.

So happiness is not a permanent emotion. It shouldn’t be. What it is, like everything else we can learn about being a Christian, it’s something we can build. You can think of a light switch being turning on and off. Those jokes are a little bit like that, aren’t they? You laugh and we turn them off and they fade in your mind. They’re not something that really touched you emotionally, like a deep happiness so it really puts a memory in your mind. Imagine, most of you don’t remember most of those jokes I said. Because they were funny and they fade.

They’re temporary. But if we build spiritual happiness, what we’re doing is we’re building a bank that allows it to sustain. It’s now not a light bulb that flips on and off. It’s now a light bulb that has a dimmer on it so it can be bright and then dim, dim, dim, and brightens back up, dim, dim, dim. So you always have some level of it because you’ll see there are things we can do to build our happiness that allow it to maintain at a level that’s somewhat always there. Just like if we have the love of God, it should, in what we’re doing, should always be there, but it’s not necessarily driving every single conversation we have.

Or let’s talk today, let’s talk about the love of God. No, it’s not how we live. We have to live all elements of Christianity. Each, again, has their own time. Let’s go to Psalm thirty. Same concept but said a slightly different way. Psalm chapter thirty, verse five. Psalm thirty and verse five. “For his anger endures but for a moment.” Have you ever met anyone, there’s probably someone out there who’s always the extremes that prove the rule, but have you ever met someone who is only angry? Constantly, nonstop. They never have lulls, they never smile, they never laugh.

They’re constantly angry. No. Because, for his anger endures but a moment. It’s talking about God but it applies to human beings as well. “In his favor is life,” continuing. “Weeping may endure for a night,” have a tough day, tears flow at night, but you eventually fall asleep, and then, “but joy comes in the morning.” We have our ups and downs. Don’t shy away from the emotions that God gave you. Ladies, it’s easier for you. You’re more naturally inclined to be able to handle your emotions. Guys, we tend to pocket them, don’t we? We have two or three of them that we get a good handle on.

And then the other ones only come out when we’re watching Hallmark movies with our wife or home alone. I’m not saying I tear up at a Hallmark movie alone. I’m saying there are men who may do that. But we need all of our emotions, don’t we? Every single one of them. And then we have to work at them, but again, today, we’re really focused on happiness. And one way to ensure that we don’t become addicted to the happiness side of it is don’t fall down the path of adrenaline junkies, of just trying to like, always push ourselves, always do things that are basically unrealistic and unhealthy.

Because our focus becomes wrong. We have to let happiness come and then fade. Come and then fade. And again, what we’re trying to do is make it fade more slowly and be able to last longer. Okay. So how do we cultivate happiness in our life? But first, how do fruits go on vacation, or where do fruits go on vacation? Paris. Get it? You see, it’ll come. The really bad ones take a lot longer to realize how funny they are. Okay. So I made a pencil with two erasers, but I found out it was pointless. See? They come to you later. The ones you don’t laugh at now, you will tonight.

You won’t be mourning. You’ll be like, “Oh, I get it now.” You’ll be happy to know I don’t think I have any more jokes. So how do you cultivate happiness in your daily life? Well, for one, where are you on the scale? Anything you do, we have to measure where we are. If someone tells us, well, we need to add an extra cup of flour to that, you have to measure it. We can shake it in there. Oh, it’s about a cup. No, you measure. So, you have to do that. I can’t tell you how. Compare yourself to other people around you. You’re probably going to find, naturally, just by your default position, are going to be more or less happy.

One of the two. You’re going to see it, and your best way to do it is you compare it to others because there are some people you’ll know that generally tend to be happy. They may be because they’re working on it, and that’s what we’ll get to, but you have to find that first level to understand, okay, where am I? Am I naturally someone who smiles, who’s warm, who’s happy, who’s glad? Is that my response when I see people? Am I the one trying to make the person who looks miserable smile? Is that my default position? May or may not be.

It doesn’t really matter. But you need to find out. I need to find out in the same way, where am I on that scale, and then we build from it. If you’ve never constructed a doghouse before, you don’t go build a two-story doghouse. You first get your little cardboard and you start where you work small, you work your way up. More experience means you can do more. So find out where you are and then you start to put first step. Put positive things in your mind. All emotions come from our minds, from our hearts. If we don’t fill our minds with positive things, just like if we’re not content with what we have, we’re never going to find happiness.

If we give ourselves negative entertainment, negative games, negative attitudes, if we watch things that are too violent, that are immoral, there’s a long list of things that we could fill our minds with, especially in this age with the internet being as accessible and everything being available as it is. But it starts with, what are we putting in our minds? Let’s go to Philippians four. You know the passage, like many of these today are all that surprising, but tie them together. Philippians chapter four. It’s about what we put in our heads, put in our minds, what we think about.

Philippians chapter four and verse seven. Verse seven reads, “And the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren,” this wraps up Philippians here right near the end. He says, “Finally brethren,” I’m going to summarize all that I’ve told you, “…whatsoever things are true...” And jump to the end.

So, I’m going to make this a little easier. So, jump to the end of verse eight. And it says, “...think on these things.” This is some King James, it drives me crazy. So, “…whatsoever things are true…” what am I doing with them? Now, “Finally brethren,” I’m going to change the wording. “Finally brethren, think on these things.” Okay, let’s put a colon. “Whatsoever things are true; whatsoever things are honest,” these are broad, broad examples. But if you think about what you watch on TV, think about what you read, all of the elements of things we put into our mind.

All of us have some of those guilty pleasures, you could say, that are a little on the grayer side. Not sinful or wrong but you know it’s a little bit on the edge of what maybe your parents would have said were acceptable when they were younger. Put it that way. And being able to watch something that’s entertaining, Star Wars, with my son. It’s a matter of how much you do. How much do you put into your mind? What are we doing all the time? Are they mostly “…whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest…? Things that are just, “pure, lovely, of good rapport.”

If there be any virtue, any praise. Again, think on these things, “Those things,” it says in verse nine, “which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the peace of God will be in you.” If we put the vast majority of what we put into our mind, again, I’m excluding things that are just flat-out sin, of course. Like we’re not going to go out and eat a ham sandwich because, you know what? I’ll just have a ham sandwich now and again, I’m not going to eat it very often. No, God says those are unclean. But sometimes, you know what? You break down and you have some ice cream.

Is it good for you? Should you have it all the time? No. But in moderation all things. Entertainment is going to be the same way. There’s things that are right outside the scope of what is allowed as a Christian, but the vast majority of the time, we should be eating vegetables. We should be being entertained with wholesome, righteous food. That helps us be happier. It’s where we’re programmed to. Again. Every word of God is pure. Everything in the Bible is part about teaching and instructing and building us up. So if it says to think on these things, those are the things God designed us to absorb to get the elicit, the response of happiness.

So they have to come together. So, think on those things. So, the first thing we do to build our happiness is put the right things into our mind. There’s another technique, go to Romans eight. This one you can turn into almost like a game. Romans chapter eight and verse twenty-seven. Verse twenty-seven of Romans eight reads, “And he that searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit,” knows what is the mind of the Spirit, “because he makes intercessions for the saints according to the will of God.” Verse twenty-eight, “And we know that all things work together for good.”

You’ve heard that said in the Church, probably for years since you’ve been attending. “All things work together for good,” it continues on with some qualifiers, “to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose,” look at this ultimate purpose later. But if we love God and we’re called according to his purpose. So for Christians, is what it’s saying, all things work together for good. So what’s the concept of saying this in a slightly different way? Are you able to, am I able to, are we able to, even in difficult situations, find the silver lining?

Find the silver lining. Sometimes it is not easy. If the trial is tough, if the trial is difficult, if the situation is hard, if the person that you’re dealing with is problematic, if the situation, what you got yourself in, whatever it is, it’s just trying on you, it’s hard. But said another way, count it all joy no matter what the circumstances are when we fall into trials. So God says, no, if you’re going to count it all joy, you better get good at finding the silver lining on things. Seeing the best. There’s always that glass half full where, again, personality types play into this somewhat, some people tend to be a little bit more pessimistic.

As Christians, we should be growing out of pessimism because we ultimately can be the most optimistic human beings on earth because we get to see the solution to all of man’s problems. So as a Christian, our default position should be incredibly optimistic because we see this, that, and the other person, all those sad, upset people that don’t have happiness, we can look at them and say, you can be God. So it’s like, our default position should be optimistic, but sometimes it’s hard to look and say, okay, my tire broke down. My car broke down.

I need to replace my tire, or I’m having a problem with someone at my job. You may not be in the situation to find the silver lining, but as God opens the doors to be able to resolve those situations and the chance for us to work through them, we can analyze and say, oh, you know what? That worked out really well in the end because I had to research how to change a tire, and I’d never changed a tire before, so I had to pull my phone out on the side of the road and watch a YouTube video about how to change a tire, and I managed to change the tire, and I got home and didn’t die. Which, I should have had faith because God said he won’t let me die.

But it sometimes takes a little analysis after the fact unless you start practicing it. And then turn it into a game. You can turn it into a game with your family. It’s even more fun if you have help with it, because no matter what, there’s going to be someone in your household that’s either a little more or a little less, or I guess someone, depending who you are, will be a little more optimistic than you are, tend to be better at finding the silver lining. And if you’re not someone who does it as well, they’re annoying to you. But guess what? God says that’s more Christian.

So, if they’re annoying to us, then we have to be able to get better at it ourselves. Turn it into a game. If you have a spouse or a child and something bad happens to the child, ask them, what’s the silver lining? They’re not going to want to tell you because they’re crying or whatever it is, but you’re instilling in them just like in your own mind, that habit of when something happens in our lives, we see the positive in it. We see, we’re able to look and say, oh, that’s good. I was playing the game in my head for the social. Because right up until the point where God started to part the Red Sea, and we’re going to have nice weather tomorrow, except too hot, that we were going to have rain.

So I thought, you know what? That’s easier on the ladies. The kitchen’s a little bit simpler. It makes it easier for the setup crew, they don’t have to carry as much stuff over. Oh, that’s fine. Did I want to be outside? Of course, I do. Does it mean the stuff that it was a silver lining, means now the ladies have to bring stuff up there and the kitchen’s more difficult? Yes, but we also get to be outside. We get to enjoy the sunshine. We get to play the games we wanted to play. You can always find the negative on something, but as a Christian, we have to practice finding the positive.

So put the right things in our brain and find the silver lining. This is one we can do a lot this weekend. It’s another way to, again, build and sustain that happiness. Serve others. Simple concept. It’s really not that hard to do. It’s hard to maintain the drive and the will to keep doing it. One-off serving is easy. If someone asks you to open a door for them, sure. If someone asks you to be the doorman, okay, things change. Now if I’m serving, it’s a lot more of a commitment, I’m now the doorman. It’s an easy task but they can get more complicated.

Galatians six, we’ll go there. Chapter six of Galatians, verse eight, start reading. Galatians six, eight, “For he that sows to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption,” you focus on the flesh, so that’s what you’ll reap, “but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not be weary in well doing.” Well doing is easy to do if we don’t have to do it very often, right? So simple to be nice sometimes, or so easy to hold the door open once. But God says, “Let us not be weary in well doing.” That means we’re sustaining it.

We’re doing it over a period of time. We keep doing it. “For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” We got to keep doing it. Got to keep serving. Got to keep growing. Got to keep developing in that way. No matter where we are, how big our congregations, how small they are, we meet alone, we reach out to people online, we stay in contact, we fellowship, we do all of those things, that’s serving. God calls communicating a sacrifice, that’s serving. So how does that build our happiness though, you may be thinking? But because...

Have you ever served someone, did something for someone, and you see their reaction? I guarantee you, I’ll say it now so I’m not going to ruin it, but if I didn’t say this, so pretend like I’m not saying it, but I’m going to say it to prove my point, the moment someone asks someone else at services if I can take your plate, just a split second, isn’t it? Think how you feel in that moment that they’ve taken your plate. Think how you feel as the person who took the plate when you see the reaction the person has. There is that moment of happiness because you or I chose to serve.

Chose to do something to help someone else. The gratitude that they return back to you brings you happiness. Again, I beat this horse. You can’t live, can’t improve, can’t grow in Christianity alone. Being together with other of God’s people is fundamental for us to be able to do it. You heard a lot about fellowship in the sermonette. This is a weekend we get a chance to do that. We get to be able to help each other, encourage each other, uplift each other, talk, learn about things. If someone’s struggling with something, it may not be the time to laugh, and they feel better that they’ve talked with you.

If you have a friend, they say, I just got to get it off my chest. Okay, I feel a lot better. So if you were the person on the receiving side that let the person speak, how do you feel that they said, thanks, I feel a lot better? You feel kind of happy, don’t you? It’s not funny. It’s not telling jokes. But your emotional response by fellowshipping, listening, and caring about that other person is going to be happiness. If they’re still struggling, happiness may not be the emotion. You may weep with those who weep. But when someone feels better because of something you did, physical, conversation, communication, whatever it is, you feel happy.

Happiness is kind of subtle, isn’t it? It’s hard to define because it’s often an instant response. It’s often short-lived. But again, as we build it, it’s something we can become more natural for us. Let’s go to Ecclesiastes chapter four. Ecclesiastes chapter four and verse nine. Four, nine. Verse nine reads, “Two are better than one.” I read this at the singles event. “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. But if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that’s alone. For when he falls, he has no one else to help him up.”

You read that verse, and if you kind of just let the emotion of it happen, you kind of feel sad for that person, don’t you? They’re alone. They have no one else to help them up. But to be the person who helps someone up kind of gives you the opposite of it, doesn’t it? To have someone to be with you, husband, wife, friend, to help lift you up, well, that’s going to build your happiness. That’s how our brains work. It’s different than joy. But again, it’s that instant feeling. Happiness is such a short-lived thing. We’re always kind of chasing happiness in a certain way.

We can make it more of who we are. But that actual response is why you got to be careful with adrenaline and adrenaline junkies, because you start to chase the adrenaline. But happiness can become fundamental as who we are as Christians. If we, again, we’re optimistic, we fellowship, we serve. We put the right things into our mind. And we build relationships. Because that’s what Ecclesiastes is saying, isn’t it? It’s saying build relationships. Spouse, husband, and wife. Doesn’t say that in the verse, but friends build relationships.

We should be getting to the point as Christians that we can look at and have a pretty good idea of what’s going on in the lives of those around us. The bigger your congregation, the harder it is. But you should be able to go up to anyone in the congregation, know what they’re doing, what their life is in a general sense, because you or I or they have actively tried to build that relationship, to build information about each other, to feel more connected with others, working together, having fun, being able to, again, fellowship and serve. That all comes down to those relationships.

Really, Christianity in some ways, strong Christianity, not leaving God’s way of life is really about all those connections you have to God’s Church. If you have one person you know and that person quits the Church, that’s your only string holding you, isn’t it? The truth, and all the... yes, I’m talking relationships. But if you have connections and contacts and your fingers are involved in serving in the congregation and people around the world, to know that we’re part of something so important, we have so much more connection than if we’re the one that falls and is alone.

So to be happier, build good relationships. Let’s go to Galatians. We’re here over Galatians five. Let’s go to Acts twenty. I’m going to change a gear there. Acts twenty and verse... start in verse thirty-four. Acts chapter twenty and verse thirty-four. “Yes, you yourselves know that these hands administered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.” Paul did things for himself. Remember he made tents, didn’t ask for money. Verse thirty-five, “I have showed you all things how that so laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than it is to receive.”

That’s the ultimate outpouring of... to be godly. Remember, Mr. Armstrong called it this is the give way of life. Get is personal, is internal, is not what God would have us do. He wants us to give, that’s what he’s doing. He gave his son. He wants us to live this way of life. He wants us to give. He wants it to be more blessed. Remember, that can be happy. It’s more happy to give than to receive. Same word. Okay. Finally, here, this is a big one, and this kind of ties back to almost our first point. Our purpose in life should bring us happiness. Our purpose in life should bring us happiness.

All of you should be defining your ultimate purpose in life. The same as me. Some of us may not be, and I say to those who have a different purpose in life, may that purpose find you happiness. I don’t really put a high bar on that because God says, you need to know the right God to have true happiness. You need to obey the laws of God to have true happiness. You need to trust in the Lord, so therefore you need to know him to have true happiness. But if your ultimate purpose is not to be in the family and kingdom of God, may it bring you happiness, because that’s what we’re designed to do.

We’re designed to be happy. That’s why people are trying so hard to do things to make them happy, wealth and this and that. Because God put it in us to be happy. He wanted us to be that way. That’s why one of the fruits of his Spirit is joy. You can think of a fruit of his Spirit. He’s made up of Spirit. So if we get some of that Spirit and one of the characteristics of that Spirit is joy, that means God is joy. Just like he is love. It says God is love. That’s one of the elements of the fruit of the Spirit. If he’s got joy, God is joy. And he designed us to be like him and therefore designed us to want to be happy.

Go to Psalm one thirty-eight, a couple more passages. We’ll start to wrap up here. Psalm one thirty-eight, start in verse six of Psalm one thirty-eight. “Though the Lord be high, yet has he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knows afar off.” Verse seven, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me, you shall stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand shall save me.” Verse eight, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” That is a neat statement. Because you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, all of us individually, you all, I do too, have different things about ourselves that concern us, don’t we?

Areas where we’re weaker, where we’re not as strong, or areas that we have to grow or work on. All of us are going to have different things. There may be some overlap, but generally speaking, the characteristics that we’re working on, the character traits we have to be as we become more like God, he says, don’t worry, have faith. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me, you. “Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever. Forsake not the work of your own hands,” as in me, you. That’s what it’s talking about. We are the work of God’s hands.

He says He will perfect the things in us that concern us. He’ll show them to us. He’ll help us grow. He’ll develop us because he has a purpose in us. He’s not going to give up. Only way we can fail is if we give up. The only way we can ensure we can’t have eternal happiness, eternal joy is if we give up. Let’s go to Ephesians chapter two, our final passage. Brethren, we have a purpose. Our life has a meaning, a direction, a destination. I love the saying that life is about the journey, not the destination. It’s something that... it’s another one of those things I keep in my head that makes situations happier.

Because sometimes you think, okay, life’s a little bumpy right now. No, it’s about the journey. It’s not the destination. I want to get to the kingdom of God, and ultimately that is your destination. But if we focus on our experiences and what we do, and the things we get to have now and experience, and go through, and struggle with, and triumph over, that gets us... can make us excited. We’re on that road to the ultimate fulfillment of what our destination should be. Verse four, we’ll start. Ephesians two. “But God who is rich in mercy and for his great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins has he quickened us together with Christ, by grace you’re saved, and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

Verse eight, “For by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves, it’s a gift of God,” just like joy or any of the fruit of the spirit but ultimately the greatest gift is salvation. “Not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” Brethren, God will not leave you stranded. That said, he says, be content if we’re alive. So things won’t always be easy. Things will not always be sunshine and roses. Things won’t be as wonderful as it will be as we fellowship and talk over dinner tonight. But if we build happiness in ourselves, if we work on it and see the silver linings, and put the right things in our mind, and all of the other elements we discussed today, happiness will become more common in our thinking. It’ll be easier. It’ll be more sustained.

And I need to ask, what did the drummer call his twin daughters? And a one, and a two. And finally, I ordered a chicken and egg online. Chicken and an egg online? I’ll let you know. Wait for it. It gets funnier. Yes, get it? Which one gets there first? Okay. If a lot of you laughed on that, that means you didn’t get it at all. That was a good one. Let’s make our happiness longer than these little jokes. Let’s build it up in us. Let’s use the social to be able to harness it and build, and take advantage of the time that we have together. But ultimately, brethren, let’s focus on and let’s build happiness every single day.