Finding The Door To Happiness Series

On a family visit to Disneyland a man pondered the sign over the entrance arch that read, “Welcome to the happiest place on earth.” The rest of the day he looked at the faces of the people and was impressed by the small number who were actually smiling during their visit to “the happiest place on earth.” He roamed the park trying to make sure his kids had a good time and wondering why so few adults seemed to be enjoying themselves. To live life to the fullest is qualitatively different than merely existing. Jesus said that part of knowing Him is to enable us to live life to the fullest: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Not according to the standards of a fallen world, but life as it was intended to be according to the designs and desires of the Creator of life.

• Would you describe inside your skin as the happiest place on earth.

What if you had the chance to start life over again knowing all you do after living as long as you do? What would you change? How would you raise each child different knowing the unique traits and talents they possess? Small glimpse of how God sees our lives and makes some of the choices He does.

Beyond that I think their would be two goals I would have for the second shot at life: 1) Live a happy man. 2) Die a happy man (life too short to not be happy) Key/trick/secret is the have the kind of happiness that you can carry beyond this world. Many in this world claim to be happy and are in many ways(spend lots to be happy, shop, buy expensive toys) but the problem is that their kind of happiness will die when they do.

TWO QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ANSWER TODAY TO GET YOU ON THE RIGHT ROAD TO HAPPINESS:

1. DO YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY? Dumb question? Obvious answer? All generations have know the importance of being happy in life.

Founding Fathers: Right to the LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

2. ARE YOU HAPPY? With your life as it is right now? Job? Family? Finances? With who you are? Where you are? What you have? What you are accomplishing in your life?

3. BONUS QUESTION: Did you know that GOD WANTS YOU HAPPY? BONUS ANSWER: Real happiness is found in a God centered life I did not say anything about money, prosperity, popularity, achievement or circumstances.

Henry David Thoreau is often noted for his statement that most men “live lives of quiet desperation.” In an attempt to avoid that kind of existence, he lived alone from 1845 to 1847 in the woods of Walden Pond, Massachusetts. In 1854, he wrote of his experiences in the book Walden. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” The worst fact of death is the truth that we had never really lived. You don’t have to go sit in the woods for 2 years to understand how true that statement is.

BEATITUDES: Blessed are the ______ lit…Happy are…

7 So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

A veteran mountain climber was sharing with a group of novices preparing for their first major climb. He had conquered many of the world’s most difficult mountains. “Remember this,” he said, “your goal is to experience the exhilaration of the climb and the joy of reaching . . . the peak. Each step draws you closer to the top. If your purpose for climbing is just to avoid death, your experience will be minimal.” Jesus did not call us to live the Christian life just to escape hell. Our purpose in following Christ should not be merely to avoid eternal punishment. If that’s our primary motivation, we are missing the wonders and joys and victories of climbing higher and higher with Jesus. When we walk by faith, we will see each day of the Christian life as a challenge to be met, and as one more upward step to glory! Do not live minimally. Live life to the maximum!