Many years ago I was teaching an adult Sunday school class. Though I don’t recall the text or lesson, I remember a person and the statement she made. This woman was the mother of two teenage daughters, and her husband occasionally attended church. She said she wished you could be saved again, and proceeded to describe the joy she felt when she first met Christ. Her longing was to recover the happiness she had experienced at salvation. I’m sure every Christian in that class knew what she meant.
I’ve been listening to, and reading, the book entitled “Happiness” by Randy Alcorn. He has written several biblically based bestseller books, and this may be his best, certainly his longest in that it exceeds four hundred pages. He spent three years researching and writing, and I’m convinced he is right about what the Bible teaches on happiness in the life of a believer. I recommend the book and I will be drawing from it as I speak on the topic of happiness for three Sundays.
Alcorn says, “The desire for happiness isn’t, as many misrepresent it, the child of modern self-obsession. The thirst for happiness is deeply embedded both in God’s Word and in every human culture.” Blaise Pascal was a mathematician, inventor, scientist, philosopher, and writer who, as a teenager, developed the forerunner to the calculator. He said,
“All men seek happiness. This is without exception.” He went on to say, “Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”
Pascal said that even those who commit suicide are actually seeking happiness—or to be relieved of unhappiness; that is how strong this desire is within us.
If this desire for happiness is so deeply embedded in human nature that we see it pursued in all cultures over the course of all of human history, then who planted it in the human heart? If God is fundamentally a happy God, then wouldn’t we expect Him to make us desire, and have the capacity for, happiness? Wouldn’t we expect any attitude or action that deviated from the nature of God to lead to unhappiness? So, to increase our happiness, we must discover what God is like, live like that, and we will know a growing joy and happiness.
For three Sundays we are going to discuss why we should be happy, how changing our perspective leads to happiness, and the habits of happiness. Today’s message is foundational as we ask, “Why should we be happy?” The answer is simple: To be like God is to be happy. We know the Bible says in Leviticus 11:44, “Be holy because I am holy.” We know that applies to love and peace. We are to love because, as we see in 1 John 4:8, the fundamental nature of our God is love. Jesus told his disciples in John 14:27 He was giving them His peace not the peace of this world. So, if the Bible teaches that God is happy, then His followers are to be happy.
Alcorn’s book has an entire section on the Bible revealing that God is happy. For our purposes this morning, I want us to see one passage which clearly reveals the joy and happiness of God.
Luke 15 is comprised of three parables all addressing the Pharisees’ complaint that Jesus was accepting people termed “sinners”. Either by lifestyle choice or vocation these people were ritually unclean to worship God in the temple. The religious leaders were confused and offended that Jesus accepted and loved these people. The basic answer Jesus gives in these parables is that the Pharisees reveal they did not really know what God is like. God loves sinners, and it causes Him great joy when sinners are saved.
Luke 15 says:
All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to Him. (2) And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!"
(3) So He told them this parable: (4) "What man among you, who has 100 sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? (5) When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, (6) and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!' (7) I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don't need repentance.
It appears to me the shepherd’s response is an over exaggeration. He finds one lost sheep and he throws a community-wide party. The shepherd, who illustrates God, reveals a celebrative, happy attitude.
(8) "Or what woman who has 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? (9) When she finds it, she calls her women friends and neighbors together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!' (10) I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents."
I have before lost my billfold and my car keys and tore the house apart looking for them. When they were found, I was relieved and happy, but I did not throw a block party. This is more like losing a child and then finding said child: that would call forth such happiness.
Twice Jesus has described the atmosphere of heaven. We have the idea that heaven is one party after another. It could not be that way if God were not a happy God.
In the opening chapter of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck lives with Miss Watson, a Christian spinster. She takes a dim view of Huck’s fun-loving spirit and threatens Huck with the fires of Hell. She speaks of heaven as a place everyone should want to go, but Huck sees it this way:
She went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn’t think much of it…I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.
Apparently, Miss Watson failed to grasp the happiness there is to be found in heaven and she didn’t give poor Huck much of an example in the present living of the Christian faith. Huck’s view reflected that of the author Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain. I wonder if anybody ever tried to make the connection with Samuel Clemens that his gift of humor and wit came not only from a holy God but a happy God as well. Apparently, wherever God is there is an outburst of joy, celebration, and happiness.
We now come to the most famous story of the three in Luke 15: the Prodigal Son. Everyone recognizes the father in the story represents God, the younger brother represents sinners, and the older brother, who refuses to be happy, represents Pharisees.
(11) He also said: "A man had two sons. (12) The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.' So he distributed the assets to them. (13) Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. (14) After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. (15) Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. (16) He longed to eat his fill from the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him any. (17) When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! (18) I'll get up, go to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. (19) I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired hands.' (20) So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. (21) The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.'
(22) "But the father told his slaves, 'Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. (23) Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let's celebrate with a feast, (24) because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' So they began to celebrate.
(25) "Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. (26) So he summoned one of the servants and asked what these things meant. (27) 'Your brother is here,' he told him, 'and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'
(28) "Then he became angry and didn't want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. (29) But he replied to his father, 'Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. (30) But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.'
(31) "'Son,' he said to him, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. (32) But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"
After reading that this week, I decided we are much too calm about people being saved. If we wanted to approximate what happens in heaven, we would throw a potluck supper, sing, give testimonies, and overwhelm the new convert with our happiness about his conversion. I wonder what that would do to our evangelism. The new convert would certainly have something to tell his lost friends and family.
Some might want to quibble and say this is in the context of redemption and salvation, but the Bible speaks of God being happy with His creation in Genesis 1, with the members of the Trinity in Matthew 4, with His people in Zephaniah 3:14, and that in the future we are invited to fully enter into His happiness in Matthew 25:23. My point is, the Bible provides a mountain of evidence that our God is a happy God.
To be godly means to resemble God. Since God is happy, His followers are to be happy.
If I were to say, “God is good,” how would you respond? You would say, “All the time.” Then I would say, “All the time,” and you would say, “God is good.” I want to try that a little differently, so play along with me. I will say, “God is good natured,” and you say, “All the time.” Then I will say, “All the time,” and you will say, “God is good natured.”
Let that fill your mind this week: God is a good natured God.
Suppose you have a grumpy, cranky neighbor and he asks, “What are you up to?” Most likely, you will see his question as suspicious and condemning. Now, suppose it is a cheerful, good natured neighbor who asks that question. You are likely to smile and talk about your plans in detail. A person’s character shapes the way you respond to them.
Paul said in Romans 8:31 that God is for us. Would anything change this week if you approached it with the opinion that God is like the cheerful, good natured neighbor? Would you read the Bible differently or approach Him in prayer with a different eagerness? Would you interpret the events of this week differently if you were convinced that the sovereign God in charge of your world is a happy God?
If you are going through a difficult time, do not interpret this emphasis on the happiness of God as Him being indifferent toward your struggle. Exodus 3:7 says He heard the groaning of His people in slavery and moved to redeem them. The Psalmist in Psalm 72:13 says God has pity on the weak and needy. We are told in John 11 that Jesus wept outside the tomb of Lazarus.
Have you not you felt others’ pain while maintaining your own happiness? Monday I preached the funeral for Joy Parks. She was a member of my previous pastorate and the Post Master in Velma, Oklahoma. I was sad to learn of her death, because we were good friends, always kidding and teasing one another, for I picked up the mail every day at the Post Office. The day before the funeral was Sunday. I am out early on Sundays and that morning the sky was gorgeous: pinkish red clouds and a half moon hanging in the west in a crystal blue sky. I wondered what heaven must look like from Joy’s perspective. Last Sunday she heard the choir of heaven. Last Sunday she saw the face of our Lord. Her husband Tex was at her side. Though sad, I was happy.
God’s eternal perspective knows what these hardships mean for us now and what is waiting for us in the New Heaven and New Earth. He is so powerful that He can take these difficulties and turn them for our good. None of this took Him by surprise. Yes, God is sympathetic with our suffering; the incarnation powerfully makes that statement but, as Jeremiah 29:11 says, He knows His plans for us are for good and this causes Him to rejoice.
If to be like God is to be happy, then what is to be true for our lives?
1. God must be the primary source of our happiness.
The Prodigal Son found that the happiness for which he was looking in the far country was at home with his father. When he thought back to the times he was the most satisfied and happy, it included his father. His father was the source of his happiness.
For Augustine, God and happiness are inseparable. He said, “Following after God is the desire of happiness; to reach God is happiness itself.” He also said, “The greatest commandment, therefore, which leads to happy life…is this: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and mind (Matt. 22).” Augustine believed the source of all happiness is God, and that all of God’s commandments are paths which lead to our happiness.
Jonestown was a cult community lead by Jim Jones. The community relocated from California to the jungles of Guyana in South America. In 1978, after murdering California Congressman Leo Ryan, NBC reporter Don Harris, and three others at an air-strip, Jones gathered his followers and served them a grape-flavored drink laced with cyanide. Over nine hundred died. I read that he used a pistol to take his life.
From this historic mass suicide comes the expression, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.” In other words, “Don’t follow anyone blindly.” That is good advice for us because we are so easily duped by Satan and this world into thinking that counterfeits will deliver happiness. Maybe there is a temporary happiness but it always ends in misery. Do not drink the Kool-Aid.
When we sin we are using a God-substitute in an attempt to be happy. By all means, enjoy the pleasures of this world: food, children, and a warm coat on a cold morning. Proverbs 18:22 says, “A man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” Psalm 127:3-5 says, “Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, children, a reward. Like arrowsin the hand of a warrieor are the sons born in one’s youth. Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them…” The pleasures of life are to remind us that God is the source of pleasure. We forfeit our greatest pleasure when the things of this world become substitutes for God. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus reminded us to seek Him first and all these other things will be added. He is our primary source of happiness.
Start today. When you find something that gives you happiness enjoy it and thank God for it; He is the source of that pleasure, and He is the source of the abilities to enjoy them. Many of you will gather to watch the game. You will eat tasty food, enjoy the company of others, and be entertained and excited by some incredible athletes. God made all the different tastes and flavors; He could have made everything taste like green beans. He gave you the capacity to relate to others you could have been robots but He gave you the ability to laugh, cry, and not feel alone. Just take a moment and turn your thoughts to God in thanks for this happiness He has shared with you. A life consistently lived in this fashion will be measurably more happy. It starts with recognizing that God is the primary source of your happiness.
If to be like God is to be happy, then what is to be true for our life? God must be the primary source of our happiness.
2. We must seek happiness the correct way.
It is amazing that Satan is more aware of the truth than we are that sin sabotages happiness. The outcome for the Prodigal Son is no surprise. Neither should it be a surprise to us if we are a critical, cranky, negative mate or parent to discover that our family member doesn’t want to be around us any longer. We are not surprised when a smoker is diagnosed with emphysema, so why are we surprised that workaholism leads to physical stress and isolation from the most important people in our life? Sin sabotages happiness. We must seek happiness the correct way.
Seeking happiness without God is like seeking water without wetness or sun without light. Psychiatrist Paul Meier writes,
I have had millionaire business men come to my office and tell me they have big houses, yachts, condominiums…, nice children, a beautiful mistress, and unsuspecting wife, secure corporate positions—and suicidal tendencies. They have everything this world has to offer except one thing—inner peace and joy. They come to my office as a last resort, begging me to help them conquer the urge to kill themselves.
We must seek happiness God’s way. The next two messages will deal with the specifics of how we seek happiness God’s way. We will talk about cultivating happiness; it is not something that suddenly springs into existence. We will examine what the Bible says are the means or habits which lead to happiness. The starting place in seeking happiness the correct way is to seek the Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased.
What I’ve said to you this morning is, “To be like God is to be happy”. In this life the source of happiness is God. To be truly happy you must seek it in the correct way: God’s way. I know you have questions and I’ll try to answer many of them as we explore what the Bible says about happiness. I encourage you to buy Alcorn’s book, from which, I am borrowing liberally.
Finally, if life’s experiences have not convinced you, like they did the Prodigal Son, that God is the true source of happiness and this happiness is only achieved when we pursue it in the correct way, then learn this lesson from eternity. The funeral I did this week reminded me this life is a temporary situation; one day it will come to an abrupt end. After the termination this life, we have one of two combinations:
1. Both God and happiness
2. Neither God nor happiness
What we will not be able to have is God without happiness or happiness without God. To be like God is to be happy.
PRAYER
INVITATION
Let’s say you are a happy pagan; you do not need God to be happy. What do I have to say to you? Every person must answer to God for his life. On that day it will not be a question of happiness but holiness. The Bible says in Romans 3:10 “none are righteous, not even one”. That is why there is so much talk about a Savior and salvation. Only Jesus can rescue from an eternity without God and without happiness. Take this seriously. We need to talk.
To my fellow believers let me read you what C.S. Lewis, the great Christian thinker and apologist, said: “It is a Christian duty…for everyone to be as happy as he can.” I think he is right. Hundreds of times in the Bible we are told to rejoice, be glad, and delight in God. To say it so many times, God must have meant it. That makes sense if the God we serve and worship is a happy God.
I want you to pray a prayer with me this week: “God, help me live like I just received Good News!”
1. Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 147.
2. Ibid, p. 88.
3. Minirith & Meier, Happiness is a Choice, p. 13.
