Sermon Central
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Happiness Is In Your Hands
Contributed by Andy Grossman on Aug 3, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: Gives seven helps that will lead you to happiness
“Happiness is in Your Hands”
August 3, 2014
I believe that God is a happy God. He is a joyful God. I believe heaven is filled with love and laughter. Angels are singing; saints are shouting in joy; there is a euphoria that we can only dream about. This is the destiny of the Child of God.
Some hear that word “happiness” and go into a long dissertation (at least in their own mind) about how “happiness” is dependent on “happenings” and joy is a fruit of the Spirit and doesn’t depend on what’s happening. You can have joy in your heart in the midst of trials. All that is true but for our purposes I am going to use happiness and joy interchangeably. I hope you can get past that and understand what I am trying to communicate.
The Bible says,
“...what can be known about God is plain...; because God has made it plain... For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.” Romans 1:19-20 (NET)
This morning as I went on my daily walk, here in the shadow of Mount Shasta, I was awe struck at the beauty all around me. I saw flowers and trees and animals. I saw the sunrise and last night I saw the sunset. There was even lightening flashing through the crimson clouds last night. It all is so wonderful to me. I can’t help but worship my Creator God. I can easily see that He is good. I can see that He is orderly and loves beauty and so much more. I can see God is a happy God, not like the sappy smile of the chubby Buddha statue, but the core of His being is one of happiness (joy). That is not to diminish His holiness or any of his other attributes, but along with the purity and love you will find happiness as a part of His nature. He exudes joy.
The Bible tells us that God created us in His own image. And, as God is a happy God - I believe He wants us to be happy. He created us in a perfect environment that contained everything we needed for our happiness. We had every attribute necessary to make us happy. And then we fell. Adam and Eve made that selfish choice and what was once natural became unnatural and what was unnatural became natural. So the things we were created for do not come easy and the things we were designed for is now a matter of difficult choices and discipline.
Happiness is one of those things. God wants it for us. We want it and try a thousand different things in hopes of finding it. Most people have far less happiness than they want and wander aimlessly through life seeking it. The purpose of this book is to help you find greater happiness that you now have. You do want more happiness in your life, don’t you? If so -I think I can help you.
There are a few things that happy people do. Happy people have a few things in common. The number one thing that determines if you are happy or not is whether you realize that your life has purpose and meaning. You are not here to just fill space or to be a background character in someone else’s movie (as someone put it). Nothing would be the same if you did not exist. Studies show that one of the best predictors of happiness is whether a person considers his or her life to have a purpose. The Bible says,
“It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned (how) we should spend (our) lives...”
Ephesians 2:10 (Living)
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
You have a purpose. You are not just a mistake of nature. God has plans for you and the sooner you realize that, the happier you will be. That fact changed my life. In fact, that verse in Ephesians two changed my life.
As a young man, my sinful life brought me to a place where I equated life with pain. I felt like life was purposeless and you would be better off dead. If you added all the pleasure you received from any sinful activity with the pain that resulted – the pain outweighed the pleasure. So, I concluded that you were better off dead.
God brought someone into my life who directed me to God’s Word, the Holy Bible, and I found out that I was created for a purpose. That was long before the book, “The Purpose Driven Life” was written by Rick Warren (which I loved). We need to realize that we have a purpose in life.
