A Few Keys To Happiness

Introduction

Well, you’re both wrong. That’s a statement that’s often made, sometimes in glee, when two people are discussing or debating an issue. For many times when people are discussing or debating an issue and they’re on separate sides of that issue, they get entrenched in their side, and so often is the case kind of overstate their case. And some more reasoned person comes in in the midst of that debate and says, You’re both wrong. Here’s such a scenario. Someone might say of their religious leanings, well, God just wants me to be happy. And what they most likely mean by that is that all God’s concerned is in my joy, my bliss, my happiness. And I, by the way, I get to define my happiness and what makes me happy.

And so basically what they’re saying is, I get to do whatever I want to do. And God’s okay with it.

God’s not concerned with your happiness, your joy, your bliss. All God wants you to do is to conform, to obey his commandment. And hopefully, in the midst of this debate, some reasoned person would swoop in and say, Well, you know, you’re both wrong.

God does want you to be happy. But he wants you to be happy through the pathway of holiness, because those two can coexist. That we can be obedient to the will of God and submit our will to his will and do what he says in the pathway of holiness and be happy at the same time. In fact, the scriptures would have us to know that the true pathway to happiness, to true abiding joy, is through conforming to the will of God. It is true that God is concerned with your happiness, and he wants you to be happy. In fact, notice these statistics. If my counting is right and I’m counting based upon the new King James translation of the scripture, that the word joy is found 192 times in our Bibles.

Rejoice is found 208 times. Happy 27 times, blessed or blessed 329 times, and glad is found 106 times. And if my trusty iPhone calculator is accurate, that totals out to be 862 times in Scripture. God uses the word joy, rejoice, happy, blessed, and glad. 862 times. So God is concerned with our happiness. But happiness is not, as defined by the world, is not me just doing whatever I want. Now, we would clarify and we would admit there is some happiness to be found in that. The book of Hebrews talks about Moses’ choice that he did not choose the passing pleasures of sin. Sin is pleasurable. If it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be so many people trying it. But the Hebrew writer wants us to know that that’s just a passing joy, a passing happiness.

That true, true abiding joy and happiness is not found through those selfish worldly means, but God intends and can make you joyful, cause you to rejoice, to be happy, blessed, and glad by submitting to his will. And so I want us to talk about that a little bit this morning as we talk about some keys to happiness. Turn with me, if you will, to James chapter 5 and in verse 11. And let me first explain as you’re turning to James, explain a little bit the title of this lesson, some keys to happiness. This isn’t an exhaustive list. There are other ways through God and through Scripture that we can find joy. This is just a very short abbreviated list of some of the things that you, as a child of God, who are seeking to conform to the will of God, can find not passing pleasure, but true, abiding, and even eternal joy.

1. Get Rid of Guilt

James would say in James chapter 5 and in verse 11, indeed we count them blessed who endure. You’ve heard of the perseverance of Job and have seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. We count them blessed, happy, joyful who endure. So let’s talk about just briefly this morning. Three, I’ve limited it to three keys to happiness. And again, these aren’t the only ones that can be found in Scripture. But to me, these are three that kind of jumped out to me of ways that God, through the path of holiness, that God wants me to find. True abiding joy. One way is to get rid of guilt. No, guilt can rob us of our joy. Now we must say in the outset that guilt and shame can be a good thing.

They are a part of our conscience built by God and trained by God through his word to let you know that this isn’t right. That what you’re doing is not the way that’s pleasing to God. The way you’re living your life is not the true path that God wants you to take toward true abiding happiness. But that guilt and that shame can rob us of that joy. Turn with me, if you will, in the Old Testament to the Psalms and look at a psalm of David, Psalm 31. You know the Psalms were songs in the Hebrew song book, and nothing can express emotion better than song, can it? And notice how this psalm expresses the emotion, the guilt and the shame that the psalmist felt. David says in Psalm 31, verse 9, beginning, have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.

My eye waste away with grief. Yes, my soul and my body. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing.

David says, God, I am miserable because of my sin and my guilt. Soul and body, he says. Now we don’t know exactly what the poet means here, because poets can use language in a less than literal way when he says, My body, my bones. Is that just a way of expressing his deep sorrow or his deep grief? Or could it be, and this is certainly possible, that his emotional state had affected his physical state.

Stress can affect you physically. So it’s it’s possible that he wasn’t just trying to express his deep sorrow and grief, that he was literally saying, This has affected me physically. This has affected my physical health by my emotional standing. I am miserable, God. And so then he would say this. Look in Psalm 32. The very next Psalm. Verse 3 When I kept silent, when I kept silent, he’s talking about silent in regard to his sins. That’s verses 1 and 2. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Again, repeating the sentiments of the earlier Psalm.

Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of all my sin. We said that in its proper context, shame and guilt can be a good thing. It can be that motivator that I want to rid myself of this.

Two possible ways, maybe you think of others, but two possible ways we can rid ourselves of guilt is just get over it. Don’t feel guilty. It’s alright. That’s obviously not what David is saying here. David said, I feel this grief. It’s made me miserable mentally and physically.

Do I just convince myself that it’s okay, that it’s alright? No. I turn to you, God. And I prayed to you, and I ask you to rid me of this guilt. And so it’s important to not just say, get rid of guilt to enjoy happiness, but to get rid of it the proper way. And maybe the better way, the longer way of saying that is, is that God, let God work in your life to remove that guilt and shame. And that guilt and shame is attached to our sins and our transgressions, our iniquities, David would say. And so the proper way to rid ourselves of that guilt is not to suppress those feelings, but to remove the sin. Remove the transgressions and iniquities. And again, that’s the act of God.

Blessed. Blessed. Romans 4, verses 7 and 8 says, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Blessed, happy, joyful are the ones who have not just learned to live with their sin, but have let God remove it. Look with me in 1 John. One of the greatest joys in being a child of God is to know that this guilt and shame that’s motivated me and drove me toward God can be removed when my sins are forgiven. 1 John chapter 3, John is talking about this. When he says, beginning in verse 19, John 3, verse 19 says, And by this we know that we are of the truth, and we shall assure our hearts before him.

There’s joy, and if you get nothing else out of this lesson, get this. Joy, true joy, is found in being in Christ and being in a right relationship with God. And so he says there in verse 19 of 1 John 3 that we’ll assure our hearts before Him. That assurance that I am right with God because my sin and my guilt have been washed away. But then look at verse 20. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. That if we’ve approached God properly, we’ve done what God has told us to do to conform to his will, to obey his gospel, and he washes those sins away. Understand two things about that. That number one is that forgiveness takes place in the mind of God.

That God can rid us of guilt that we might think is always going to be there. But forgiveness does not take place in your mind, it takes place in the mind of God. And God is far more capable of love and of forgiveness than we certainly are toward others and even toward ourselves. And so he says there’s blessings, there’s happiness in knowing that we’re in a right relationship with God, but even if my understanding of 1 John 3, verse 20 is right, that even if I can’t conceive that would God really forgive me of this, would God really forgive me of the multiple transgressions? God is greater than your heart, and he knows all things. Don’t question the power of God to forgive you and to rid you of that guilt.

2. Develop a Servant’s Heart

Another key to this that we find in Scripture, and one thing that we’re going to notice, you’re going to notice through all three of these points is all of these are counterintuitive to the way the world would say to find happiness.

Is to develop a servant’s heart. Now the world would have us to think that that’s different. You want to be happy, you rise to some position of power and authority and might. And don’t when we say that, we’re always pointing to the world. We’re always pointing to those wealthy people. But if we’re honest, there’s maybe a little part of us that we need to correct, by the way, but a little part of us that looks at that enviously. When you see people riding around in limousines, they never have to drive where they want to go. Someone drives them where they want to go. They’d fly, they don’t push through security at the airport. They have their own private jet. And they have butlers and maids and cooks and servants who just any hour of the night you can ring that little bell and say, I’ll have a sandwich, please.

And there comes this sandwich just made for you. And we look at that a little envious sometimes, don’t we? Man, that’d be nice to have all of that. Notice what the scripture says about that. Look in Matthew chapter 23. That was the mindset of the world in the first century. Things haven’t changed. Look at Matthew chapter 23, beginning in verse 1. Jesus spoke to the multitudes. This is Matthew 23. Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do. But do not, don’t do according to their works, for they say and they do not do. They bind heavy burdens hard to bear, and they lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

By all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, and in Lord’s the borders of their garments. That was part of their clothing that showed their how pious and dedicated to God they were. They love the best places. They love the best places in the feast, the best seats in the synagogue, greetings in the marketplace, to be called by men rabbi, rabbi. But do you do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ. And you’re all brethren. And don’t call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, and he who is in heaven. And don’t be called teachers, for one is your teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.

You know those Pharisees. They’re bought into this world plan, Jesus said, that they think the way to be happy is to have some great position, to have this title thrown upon you, and everybody looks up to you, and everybody bows down to you, and everybody serves at your whim and wish. Jesus said, No. No, that’s not the way my God wants you to be happy. Those who’d be greatest among you. They’re going to be your servant. Notice what he said, how he put it in John’s gospel, in John chapter 13.

In John chapter 13. Let’s pick up in the reading in verse 15. For this is Jesus speaking, John 13, 15, for I’ve given you an example that you should do as I have done. Now, if you notice the context, what he had done is that he had donned a towel, got on his knees, got a basin of water, and washed their dirty feet. And he says, I’ve given you example. You do as I have done. Verse 16, most assuredly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than him who sent him. If you know these things, if you know these things that I’ve just told you, that you need to be a servant, not a master, that you need to serve rather than be served.

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Jesus is saying the key to true happiness is not in being served, but in serving someone else. Being like Jesus, to be willing to get on your knees and to wash someone’s feet. We need to understand that contentment, contentment and satisfaction will rise in proportion to our service that we’ll render to others. Look in the book of Galatians, how Paul would make that point. In Galatians chapter 5, the emphasis throughout Scripture is upon this concept of being servants. And yes, we should be servants because that’s what God is to us. God has served us. Jesus came not to serve, be served, but to serve. Yes, we should be servants because that helps you. That benefits you.

But there is a secondary benefit to being a servant. It makes me happier. It gives me that contentment. And notice how it will rise. Galatians chapter 5. Start reading in verse 13. Galatians 5 13, for you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love to serve one another. Let’s pause there.

You’ve been freed from your sins. You have, in this context, you’ve been freed from the old law that bound you and held you down. You’ve been given liberty. What do I do with that liberty? Do I use it to serve self? To seek for self? He says, do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. And when we see that expression for the flesh, we think about fleshly things, and our mind almost immediately goes to the most base, carnal thing. But here he’s not talking about the idea of just pursuing our own sinful lust. But he says, don’t use your liberty as an occasion for the flesh, but through love to serve one another. Serving my flesh is not only manifested in doing the most base, carnal, worldly, devious things.

3. Keep Your Eyes on the Goal

Serving my flesh can mean just putting myself first. And not humbling myself to serve and to help you. Don’t use your liberty for that. Use it to serve, he says. For verse 14, for as the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. Paul says what Jesus said. Serve. And you’ll be blessed if you serve one another. Another way that God intends us to find joy, true abiding joy and happiness and blessedness and gladness in this life, is to keep your eyes on the goal. And if you think about it, so many times when we’re unhappy and robbed of our joy, it’s because we’re focusing on the wrong thing.

We’re focusing upon the earthly, the temporal, rather than focusing on those high and lofty things. And let’s be honest, it’s easy to do. It’s easy to take our eyes off the prize and focus on the discouragement because they’re so plentiful. There is so much bad in this life. And if we’re not careful, we’ll have that little voice speaking to us like Job’s wife spoke to him in the midst of his discouragement and disappointments and hardships. And that little voice will say to us, as she said to him, Why don’t you just curse God and die? But we can look past those trials. I’m not saying it’s easy, but we can look past the trials and the tribulations of this life and focus on the goal that’s before us to find that true and abiding happiness.

That’s what Jesus did. Look, look in Hebrews chapter 12. In the follow-up to the discussion of those men and women of tremendous faith in chapter 11. He says this. Verse 1, in fact, we talked about this last Sunday, verse 1, lay aside the sin, run the race that is set before you. But look at Hebrews 12, verse 2. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. You look to Jesus. We could say that’s our focus, that’s the goal, but then he takes it even further. You look to Jesus really again as your example. As he is our example in our service, he’s our example in what focus can do for us.

Who endured the cross? The new King James says, despising the shame. That’s a phrase that’s really kind of difficult to translate into English. Its best idea is that since he looked at the goal of pleasing his father, of receiving the resurrection and the glory that would follow his suffering, that he despised the shame, really is the idea of he just dismissed it. Was there shame and humiliation in his death? Absolutely. That’s what it was intended to do. But he devalued that shame because his eyes were fixed on the goal. And we can do the same with the hardships and the tribulations and the disappointments in this life that we can dismiss and de-emphasize those. If we look at the prize and at the goal, that all of this is doable, it’s endurable because there is God.

Conclusion

And those who are living will be raised to face the judgment. And those who found themselves in Christ through the obedience of the gospel will experience joy and bliss and happiness, unknown and unimaginable to earthly resident. And if I can focus on that, like my Savior, I can endure anything by keeping my eyes on the pride. It’s true, God wants you to be happy. That’s not a license, as Paul would say, don’t use your liberty for the provisions of the flesh. It’s not a license to say, I get to do what I want to make me happy. God wants you to have true abiding joy and happiness that come only through his pathway and his goal. And so let God rid you of your guilt the proper way through the forgiveness of your sins.

Develop a servant’s heart and find joy in serving others. And whatever you do, don’t ever take your eyes off the prize. Would you find the happiness that God wants you to have through Him and through His obedience to His will this morning? If we can help you, let it be known right now as together we stand and as we sing.