Finding Happiness At Home Series

Series - "Living Life to the Full"

Finding Happiness at Home (LTF-07)

Psalm 127:1

This morning I want to wrap up our series that we have entitled "Living Life to the Full." In Genesis 2:7 we read that ‘the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.’ It was not simply that the breath of God filled man’s lungs, it is that the life of God filled his being. What life? The life of God. In other words the same life that was in God He breathed into man and it became the life that was in man. It was full, complete, fruitful and satisfying. It was good, it was very good, it was perfect. And man was happy.

Everybody wants to not worry but be happy. It is written into our constitution as an inalienable right.

This morning I want to speak with you about ‘Finding Happiness at Home.’ Please open your Bibles with me to the book of Psalms and the 127th chapter. Psalms and chapter 127.

While you are turning there let me show you something I have come to understand. Happiness is in the will of God. Now that is important - because it is possible to lose your happiness, to be distracted from the things that bring happiness.

Ecc. 3:22 "I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?"

Have you every stopped to ask yourself why the drive inside of man for happiness is so strong? Most people spend their lives in search of happiness. May I suggest to you that that is one of the impacts of the Divine image in man. He was created in the image of God, and God is eternally happy - and therein lies the hunger, the life pursuit of man.

Allow me to develop that a little further if you will. For mankind one of the primary keys to happiness is effective and meaningful relationships. For man those relationships are either the source of incredible pain or incredible joy. Let’s face it this morning - happiness is found in the context of relationship and when we have it we feel deep peace and joy - and when we do not have it we feel strife and pain.

Again, it is my understanding that God’s sense of eternal and perfect happiness, the peace and joy He experiences, is the fruit of the perfect relationships He experiences in the eternal council of the Trinity and in the perfection of His own being. The reason you and I are so relational is that God is a relational being. He never has and never will exist outside of the context of relationships.

What I want to show you this morning from the Word of God is that you can have that happiness that God intended and that God created you to enjoy. Now listen carefully if you would - that happiness is not dependant upon having a happy home, but it may help your home become a happy place. That happiness is not dependant on having a happy job - but it may help your job become a happy place.

Here is what I have learnt. If you can’t be happy when you’re single then you won’t be happy when you’re married. If you can’t be happy with just having a modest home, then you won’t be happy in a mansion. If you can’t be happy with a little money, then you won’t be happy with a lot. You see my friend, your happiness is not dependant on finding the right circumstances. Rather, the happiness in your turns your circumstances into a happy place.

Psalm 127:1

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts. ’One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me,’ said one boy. While they were counting several nuts dropped and rolled down toward the fence.

Well while they were counting, another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. So he slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, ’One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.’

He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.

’Come here quickly,’ said the boy, ’you won’t believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls.’