This four-week series is designed to highlight the relevant and important topics of happiness and contentment. Happiness means something different to different people. Many, in our modern society, attempt to “find” happiness through material possessions, a new job, or even a significant other. In the end, though, these things often leave us just as empty as we were before. ‘The Search for Happiness’ flips this approach on its head, detailing the importance of putting our focus on the person of Jesus, as well as our walk with Him. This alone will bring us lasting joy and contentment.

In this episode, Pastor Tito shows where to find a level of happiness that is constant during chaos.

Read the Sermon Summary below

CONSISTENT JOY

Searching for happiness in the chaos

“Man is bored, because he is too big to be happy with that which sin is giving him”  AW Tozer

It’s hard to add anything else to what AW Tozer’s said about why it’s so hard for people to be happy.  The truth is that so much can happen in our lives that can throw off our happiness.  Even the smallest decision can alter our emotions in a big way.

For example, the fall of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis was a product of pride.  The rules were simple in the Garden of Eden.  God had given them everything for food expect one thing.  They were not allowed to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil.  Both Adam and Eve lusted after something that they couldn’t have rather than appreciated all that they did have.  This led them to lose everything.  How often do we do the exact same thing, constantly looking for more because we feel like we don’t have enough?

The first man and woman followed in the devil’s footsteps.  Satan, the great serpent, was prideful rather than grateful.  He wasn’t happy enough being the chief of the angles.  He wanted to be God.  This pattern of sin that began in the Garden is replayed throughout the book of Genesis and the rest of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament), producing the same results.  This lack of appreciation in our lives won’t always lead to immediate destruction, but this unhealthy attitude can set us up for failure and keep us from finding joy.  During one of those time in the history of the nation of Israel, we see God use a man named Nehemiah to help his fellow countrymen to discover the true source of happiness.

Nehemiah, along with the scribe Ezra, helped lead the rebuilding effort of the city of Jerusalem since the Babylonians had conquered and captured the Israelites, leading them into a 70-year exile.  For the Jews had consistently sinned against God, going after what they didn’t have instead of appreciating what they had in God.  Now the Israelites find themselves back home after seven decades of slavery.  They worked to rebuild the walls of their beloved city.  Now it was time to rebuild the people’s relationship with God.  They all gathered together and had the Law of God read out for the first time in a long time.  The people reacted to this reading in a unique way.  They cried.

¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:1 (ESV)

The people cried tears of repentance and guilt because of their sins.  The Law pointed out to them everything that they had done in the past, revealing how they deserved the wrath of God.  This is like us receiving news bad news from the doctor, revealing to us that our health issues is actually cancer. Nehemiah encouraged the people not to cry about the past but rather celebrate the present, for God had chosen to restore them rather than destroy them.  There was a way to temporarily treat the disease!  Despite their faults, the Lord had never failed to love them!

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed is had come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.  Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.  I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.  John 16:32-33 (ESV)

Jesus’ last night with Hid disciples before going to the cross must’ve been very emotional.  The hardest thing He probably had to say was the above statement, for He prophesied that His own followers would not only abandon Him but would also lose faith in Him.  Knowing their “future” sin, Jesus didn’t condemn them.  Instead He comforted them.  He wanted to know that even before they would allow their faith to be defeated, He had already overcome.  So, despite their future faults, Jesus would never fail to love them!

⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:9-13 (ESV)

There is a lot about life that is hard, even impossible to know.  But one thing is certain.  We can know how to be happy because of who we know.  His name is Jesus, the source of true happiness.  Paul was able to describe love in such an eloquent way because he met love face to face.  That encounter changed the way Paul viewed himself and God, especially in regards to time.  Our FAITH in Him allow Jesus to help us with our past, and our HOPE in Him allows Christ to help us approach the future.  Yet it is His LOVE for us that helps us to live in the present.  Appreciating the love of Jesus today what anchors yesterday and tomorrow.  Personally, knowing how God loves me is what makes me happy!

We can always enjoy this kind of joy despite our failures because our God has never failed us, and He never will.  When Jesus is our source of life, we will find a level of happiness that is constant during the chaos that’s contagious.