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.’
The man said, ’Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk.’ But the boy insisted, and the man hobbled his way slowly to the cemetery.
Standing by the fence they heard, ’One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.’ The old man whispered, ’Boy, you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Let’s see if we can see the Lord..’
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, but could not get a glimpse of satan and the Lord. The old man and the little boy pressed hard against the fence as they tried to see them.
At last they heard, ’One for you, one for me. That’s all. Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done.’
They tell me that the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the kid on the bike.
I actually could not think of a good way to work that into my message - but it was too good to not tell.
So let’s get back to our theme - How to Find Happiness at Home. Abraham Lincoln observed with very deep insight, ’Most people are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.’
You see my friend, here is the principle. You cannot find happiness at home, but you can make home a happy place. Let me say that again. You cannot find happiness at home, but you can make home a happy place. Your happiness is not in anybody else’s hands.
So the question we must ask ourselves this morning is this: how do we make home a happy place.
I would like to give you six things to do to make your home a happy place.
1. Grow Your Godly Character
Micah 6:8 "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you; but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
Why is this God’s expectation? Because this is God’s character.
"Blessed (perfectly happy) are the poor in spirit."
2. Pour Your Life Into Your Family
Song of Solomon 1:6 "They made me caretaker of the vineyards, But I have not taken care of my own vineyard.
My mission statement says, "The most important people to me in the world are my family, and the most important place in the world is my home."
Teach your family to live, and to enjoy life. Pour your life into your family - don’t simply christianize them, teach them to love God. I suspect that we often do not disciple people, we simply teach them to do church.
Be gracious - whether your family is blended or not, your first marriage or not, whether they are strong or not.
People who cannot find happiness will find a way to self medicate - it may be drugs or it may be success, it may be masks of spirituality or sacrificial good works.
How long does it take as a Christian before you can judge those around you? As long as it takes to forsake the mission to save - when we no longer love, we can judge and condemn.
3. Allow the Power of God to Manifest Through You
If your are not praying for your family, you are not positioning yourself to create a happy place there.
Job 1:5 "When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, ‘Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.’"
Pray for your family every time you get in the car.
You can either empower your faith to determine your behavior, or you can empower fear, doubt and unbelief. Unless you choose faith, the fear, doubt and unbelief
4. Fill Your Life With Truth
Psalm 1:1-2 "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night."
5. Learn to Laugh
Happiness is the natural state of God children, and a deep expression of God’s presence in their lives. It is the result of who God has made you and what He has done for you. If you are not experiencing happiness it not because you do not have it, but you have allowed something to steal it or block it.
Ecc. 9:7 "Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works."
Isa. 35:10 "And the ransomed of the Lord will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away."
Happy people count what they are given. Unhappy people count what is withheld from them.
Happiness does not mean that everything is the way we want it - it means that we have chosen to not allow our desire to determine our happiness.
6. Live to Please God
God’s work in me and God’s work through me is still not about me. It is as I learn to die to me that God can do the amazing things He desires to do. That is why I need to take up the cross and die daily (to me) so that He can be formed in me and manifest through me.
If you want to find happiness walk with God. Did you know the Bible calls the gospel the good news of happiness?
Proverbs 16:20 "He who gives attention to the word will find good, And happy is he who trusts in the Lord."
The fruit of the Spirit is activated through faith.
Isaiah 52:7 "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, and says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’"
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