My Right To Be Happy
Genesis 22:1-18 Hebrews 12:1-3
Have any of you seen the commercial on tv in which they shout the words, “you want it all, you want it all, and you want it right now.” The words behind those words, are you have a right to be happy, and you’ve got a right to be happy right now. How many of you have heard people say before making a decision, “well don’t I have a right to be happy/.” This right has led to people walking out on their families, it has led to people falling addicted to cocaine, it has led people into a huge pile of debt, and it has brought a lot of pain and heartache into the lives of others.
This idea of my right to be happy has led Christians to make the same poor choices as those who do not know Christ. I wonder if the health and wealth gospel of God wanting you to have everything you want now so that you can be happy has helped Christians justify making decisions that are contrary to the word of God. Did you know that teens in the church report having sex just as much as teens outside the church? Did you know that divorce rate in the church with elders and pastors is running at about the same rate as divorce out of the church? Where is our commitment to follow Christ in all of this?
If only we could pull closer together the idea of my right to be happy, with the consequences that result from making the choices, we’d probably be able to think more clearly. For instance if the credit card commercial sponsoring the commercial you want it and you want it now, would also flash what the ultimate price tag will be with their 24% interest charges, late fees and more that you be paying in the future for the next 10, we just might think twice, before paying 3 times the amount an item originally cost and wait to get it or do without it altogether.
There is not a right in the constitution to be happy. There is a phrase in the Declaration of Independence, that speaks of the “pursuit of happiness.” But if you go pursuing making yourself happy, you end up being selfish and inconsiderate of others. There is no right in the Bible to be happy. God never says, come follow Jesus and become happy. Some of us as preachers may have lied and said that, But God’s word never did. Take a closer a look at the lives of the saints, and you will discover that God interrupted their happiness in order to fulfill His plans for their lives.
Think about Abraham and Sarah for a moment. God gave them a promise that they were going to have a child. Abraham was 75 at the time. But the child was not born until he was 99 years old. It took almost 25 years for it to happen. How many of you know they were happy to see their child Isaac born. Sarah was as proud as she could be. Abraham was boasting to everybody he met.
And then God says to Abraham, take your son, the one you love, and go offer him as a sacrifice to me. Can you imagine how that upset his happiness? God you’ve got to be joking right. But it was no joke. Abraham was not at all happy, but he chose to be obedient. He surrendered his desire for happiness, to the will of God for his life and in the process gained one of the greatest discoveries of his life. He learned that God provides for us in our real times of need. He was willing to trade his happiness for a true relationship to God.
Let me ask you today, how willing are you to trade in your personal happiness, for a genuine relationship with God. Jesus told his disciples once that “look, if you cannot deny yourself, then you cannot be my disciple.” To deny ourselves something only happens by giving up our right to be happy. The only people who can grow spiritually are disciples of Christ. It’s not enough to be a church goer. People were going to church like places and temples look before Jesus came and they were still lost.
Jesus did not come to simply get us to come into a building once or twice a week and drop of a small donation. He came to engage us into a relationship in which we are to be changed. If your life is not changing, then I question if you are really walking with Jesus Christ. We are to be known by the fruit we are bearing. By life changing, I mean you’re thinking differently about the world, about life, and about choices you make to respond in given situations. Walking with Jesus is all about changing attitudes and having our minds renewed.
Jesus knows what it feels like to deny himself. He knows what it feels like to give up his right of happiness. Go with me for a moment back to the night of his betrayal. He had shared that first communion with the disciples. He told them this bread is my body which is broken for you. He then told them the wine was his blood, which was being shed for them.
The disciples could not understand what Jesus was talking about because what he was describing seemed to be so violent, and that did not fit in with their view of happiness. So they did not want to hear all this talk about Jesus being broken and his blood being shed. Next thing you know, he may start talking about them having to be broken, and their blood having to be shed as well. Let’s just change the subject. A little while later Jesus, takes them out into the garden to pray with him. But they had had a little too much to eat, and they started falling asleep instead of praying.
When Jesus was on his knees in the garden, he made a conscious decision to give up his right to be happy, in order to do the will of God. He said, “Father, if it be possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as You will.” In other words, “I am putting my own desire for my personal happiness second to your will for my life.
This was not an easy thing for Jesus to pray or do. As a matter of fact, he had to pray that prayer three times that evening, because he was going to need the strength for all that was going to happen to him within the next 24 hours. For just as he said, “His body would be torn and ripped open, and his blood would spill out on the ground. He would be nailed to a cross, crucified, and hanging between heaven and earth he would die.”
Everyone of us hear is facing something that we think will make us happy. If we can just have that one thing, or get out of that situation, or if that would happen to me, then I would be happy. Have you ever thought, maybe it’s not God’s will for you to have that one thing. Maybe it’s not God’s will to take you out of that situation. Maybe it’s not God’s will for you to have that thing.
In our society, it’s hard to believe that God might not be as interested in our happiness as we are. It’s the spoiled child that insists his or her parents keep him or her happy. You ever have a child come up to you and say “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do.” You see the leaves need raking, the dishes need washing, and laundry needs to be folded. You mention this to the child and all of a sudden they are not bored anymore.
How many times does God see us like this. God I want to get out of this situation. God sees some attitude adjustments we need to make, God sees some patience we need to have developed, God sees some kindness we need to produce, some God sees some forgiveness we need to grant. All we see is that our right to be happy is being violated? Did you ever think that God just might be at work in this situation? What is taking place may ultimately be for the greater glory of the kingdom of God.
The apostle Paul is the one that God used to write several of the books that are in written in the New Testament. One of them is the book of Philippians. In that book we find the command, rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Do you know where Paul is when he writes that book? He is in a cold damp dark and smelly prison jail. Yet he talks about rejoicing in the Lord.
Several of the New Testament books were written while Paul was in jail. If keeping Paul happy had been God’s agenda, we would not have the New Testament books that we have today. You’re writing a book with your life in your situation right now. You may not know it, but somebody is reading that book right now, and somebody else is going to read it in the future. What does it say about you and your relationship with God. Will it say how you were determined to be happy or determined to be obedient to God, saying not my will but yours be done. Sometimes we have to make decisions not on what’s going to make me happy, but on what’s the right thing to do. They don’t always go together.
We cannot forget that God made us for a mission. There was not promise that the mission would be easy. There was no promise that we would always be happy carrying out the mission. There was no promise that things would go our way during the mission. The promise was that we would find life and have it more abundantly if we continued on in the mission.
An abundant life is not the result of pursuing money and things. An abundant life comes from walking closer to Jesus Christ. We spend a lifetime growing older so that we can die and meet God face to face. Yet most of us try to live as though this meeting is never going to take place. We act as though we will live forever and everything we have is going with us into eternity. We act as though we have a right to be happy on earth and a right to be happy in heaven.
Naked we came into this world, and naked we go out. Nobody will stand before God with an impressive list behind or in front of their names. They will not announce in heaven, “next to stand before God will be the “Rev. Dr. Rick Gillespie-Mobley, BA, Mdiv, JD and Dmin. Pastor of the esteemed Glenville New Life Community Church PCUSA.” Some angel will probably say, “Rick, you’re next.” Not even the family I came out of is going to matter. All that is going to matter is was I a disciple of Jesus Christ. Did I say no to my own happiness, in order to say yes to the will of God? Did I truly put my faith and trust in Christ and live like it.
I can’t say this strong enough. God is not a Santa Claus. He’s not trying to just make you happy to win you over to His side. He’s not interested in throwing gifts and jobs, and answers to prayers to get you to come to church. God wants you to know that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. No matter how hard you seek to be happy, it is going to slip out of your hands and mess up your life. You can spend a lifetime trying to be happy and end up in hell. Or you can choose to enter into right relationship with God, and find a life that has meaning and purpose to it. Having joy in your life comes out of knowing how to say yes to the will of God.
Happiness depends on given circumstance which may or may not happen. Joy is something we can have at anytime just by thinking of the goodness of God. That’s why we can sing the song, “I get joy when I think about, what He’s done for me.” It is important for us to remember what Jesus had done for us to help us keep things in perspective. Are you willing to quit asking the question “Don’t I have a right to be happy” just long enough to answer the question “am I being obedient to God in all the ways I should be in this situation.”
We are told to fix our eyes upon Jesus, not upon the situation, not upon the want or the desire, but to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and is seated at the right hand of throne of God.
What you’re going through is not going to last forever. You may say but I’ve been dealing with this for 10 years. 10 years is but a drop in the bucket, in terms of the eternity you will spend with God. God knows how to repay you for loss time that you spent being obedient to the will of God. But in reality, the only loss time we have on earth, is the time we spend ignoring God’s will for our lives, seeking to happy, pleasing ourselves. Those are the wasted years.
We as Christians have yet another reason to want to be pleasing in God’s sight. We know that Christ suffered for all of our sins. Each time we sin, it is as though we are crucifying Christ all over again. We can’t love Jesus and see our sin as just “whatever” and go joyfully about our business. There is a video I found on youtube entiled “Does He Still Feel The Nails.” The video is somewhat violent, but Jesus died a violent death because of the love that He has for us.
Communion is all about the violence of that night. His being ripped apart, His blood being left all over the place. He have up his right to be happy that night, and chose the will of God to be sacrificed for our sins. Before you think your sin does not really matter that much. Ask yourself the question, “when I sin, does he still feel the nails.”
Show The Video http://www.youtube.com/v/XpHYJScbxCY&hl=en
Are you willing to do some self-evaluation that may lead to repentance. Are you willing to trade the right of being happy, for the right of being obedient to God no matter what. Are you willing to change your way of thinking and make some attitude adjustments? Are you willing to get rid of the idol of Happiness and turn to the true and living God? Let us pray.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
Genesis 22:1-18 Hebrews 12:1-13
A. The Right To Be Happy
1. You Want It Right Now
2. The Cost Of Being Happy
3. The Effect Of Health & Wealth Gospel
4. Teens, Sex, Divorce
5. Right & Consequences
B. Where The Right Is Found
1. US Constitution
2. Declaration Of Independence
3. The Bible
C. The Right Is Challenged
1. Abraham & Sarah
2. 25 Year Promise
3. A Call To Sacrifice
4. New Relationship With God.
D. Jesus’ Call To Discipleship
1. Can You Deny Yourself
2. Why Did Jesus Come
3. Being Engaged To Change
4. What’ The Fruit
5. Jesus Knows What It Is To Deny
E. Jesus Makes A Conscious Choice
1. If It Be Possible, Let It Pass
2. Jesus Need Strength
3. A Very Violent Night
F. Our Challenges For Happiness
1. But This Is What I Want
2. What To Do With A Bored Child
3. A Few Suggestions
4. God Challenges Our Need For Change
5. Patience, Kindness, Forgiveness
G. Good Things Out Of Bad Situations
1. Writings Of The New Testament
2. You’re Writing A Book
3. Who Wins—Happiness Or Obedience
4. What Is God’s Will
5. God Made Us For A Mission
H. What’s The Difference Abundance –Happiness
1. A Lifetime For A Date
2. It Will All End
3. Judgment Day—Just A Plain Rick
4. Did I Say Yes To God
I. Who Is God & What Did He Do
1. Not Santa Claus
2. Not One O Offer Bribes
3. Sinner In Need Of Savior
4. Happiness vs Joy
5. I Get Joy
J. Fix Our Eyes On Jesus
1. Is 10 Years Long Enough
2. Lost Time
3. God Restores Wasted years
4. Communion & Violence
5. Does My Sin Matter
H. “When I Sin, Does He Still Feel The Nails”
1. Video
2. Invitation
Hebrews 12:1-16 (NIV)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
