The Key to True Happiness and Success

You are a Christian, but are you really happy? If not, why not? True happiness has a cause, and lack of true happiness also has a cause. What is the key to real success and happiness? Today, let's make sure we have that vital key. I've been very interested in a life that reflects happiness and success since I was a teenager. We need to understand that vital key that helps us to be happy and also successful. We may not realize it, but we have been a part of a grand experiment in our country for the last 50 or 60 years.

I'd like to quote from an article that came out in AARP magazine. It's the May-June issue of 2007, a few years back. On page 56, the article title is, Live Better with Less. Our high-powered economy is based on growth, growth, growth, growth. So why, author Bill McKibben, is all our stuff making us less and less happy? This article got me to thinking. There's a new book that this writer of the article draws upon, written by Mr. McKibben, with the title, Deep Economy, the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. In this book, the author brings out that the idea of more, that more is better, which has been orthodoxy for the past 50 years, no longer matches reality. More stuff doesn't make people happier, he says in his book. And the writer of the article says, in fact, once our basic needs are met, the very opposite seems to be true. Once measured to have the happiest citizens in the developed world, the United States now is number 23, as far as having the happiest citizens. Number 23. Alcoholism, suicide, and depression rates have soared, with fewer than one in three Americans claiming to be very happy. Even more frightening is the trickle-down effect of this malaise on our kids. Studies suggest that today's average American child suffers, reports suffering, higher levels of anxiety than the average child under care in the 1950s. All that material progress, and this is a quote from the book, all that material progress and all the billions of barrels of oil and millions of acres of trees it took to create it, all that stuff has to come from natural resources, seems not to have moved the satisfaction meter an inch. It's as if we've done an experiment in whether consumption produces happiness and determined that it doesn't. Interesting article, isn't it? True happiness, then, and abundant life don't depend upon stuff, upon material things.

You know, an ancient experiment came up with the same conclusion when it was conducted close to 3,000 years ago. Let's go to the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 2. Ecclesiastes, Chapter 2, and beginning to read in verse 1.

This is King Solomon, who certainly had the means to conduct an experiment to have everything surrounding himself with all the stuff. He surrounded himself with all the latest stuff of that day and time. And he came up with the same conclusion as we just read in this book. Ecclesiastes 2, verse 1, I said, In my heart come now, I will test you with mirth.

Therefore enjoy pleasure, but surely this also was vanity. I said of laughter, it is madness, and of mirth, what does it accomplish? I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine. While guiding my heart with wisdom, he wanted to keep his rationale reasoning as he went through this experiment, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. Where is it really at? What really leads to success and happiness? I made my works great. I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

I made myself water pools in which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all that were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and special treasures of kings and of provinces.

I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. He surrounded himself with everything he could get his hands on. So I became great and excelled more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. This was my reward from all my labor. So this man had the means to surround himself with everything you can think of. He lived in a beautiful park-like condition. It sounds like he had more than just one dwelling place. He had all kinds of servants, all kinds of music.

Everything. Everything you can imagine. But what was his conclusion of this experiment? Verse 11. I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed all was vanity, and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. It's like grabbing the wind. You come up with nothing.

So this ancient experiment came up with the same conclusion as the other one that we read in the article in AARP magazine. Setting our minds solely then on physical pursuits can never really produce joy. There may be a momentary fleeting pleasure. There may be. But it soon fades away, leaving, it seems, a bigger empty spot than ever before. And it seems the more we humans try to satisfy an inner yearning with physical things, the bigger that empty spot becomes. I'd like to quote from John Barclay. He said, Joy, and that's what we're talking about, happiness, success, Joy has nothing to do with material things or with man's outward circumstance. A man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy. Someone that has nothing. My wife and I have been over to Africa a number of times for the Feast of Tabernacles and we saw people there that don't have electricity. They don't have anything.

Some people have running water. Some go miles and miles to even be able to get their drinking and cooking water. Water for their animals. And yet, those people are very happy and joyful. And they have so very little. They just barely are able to get by. So, it doesn't really depend upon material things.

I'd like to have a turn to Luke 12. Jesus talked about this while he was on the earth. The physical material things are not really going to be what produces happiness and success for us. In Luke 12 and verse 13, then one from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus must have seen a little bit of a covetous attribute in this man. In verse 14, he said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you? And he said to them, to the people then around him, take heed and beware of covetousness. So, we are to take heed then. We live in a world today that is full of covetousness. People wanting more, wanting more things, more stuff, more money. Take heed and beware of covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Again, a person can possess a lot and be miserable and possess nothing and be full of joy. He spoke a parable to them saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops? He said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there I will store all my crops and my goods. I will say to my soul, soul, you have goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. Just coast along. We've got it made. God said to him, you fool. This night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So, you know, physical life will end, you know, and all those things, they won't go with us. We can't take it with us. In verse 21, so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So, real joyful living does not depend upon how many physical things we possess. And yet we live in a culture that teaches that happiness is buying, consuming things. In fact, even the economy, there's much talk about it when the consumers are not buying, then, you know, our economy depends upon consumption, people consuming, buying stuff. You know, many of us here are blessed with physical things. We have nice homes and we have furnishings and we have property, we have cars. Many of us do have more than one. But, you know, remember back when, if you were in this category, which I think many of us probably were, when you didn't have as much as you have now. Maybe you even had nothing much at all. Are you really any happier than you were then?

I know my wife and I started in our marriage over 48 years ago with less than nothing. By less than nothing, I mean that we each had a little bit of debt. We were in the red. And now we are not in the red. We have more. And yet we look back and realize that we were just as happy then with nothing, less than nothing, than we are with more now.

So it doesn't depend upon happiness and success. Do not depend upon having more. So where is the happiness? That's what this sermon is about. Where is real success? Jesus went on to provide the answer. Let's read on down verse 21 again. So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich to work God. He said to his disciples, I say to you, do not worry about your life. What you will eat, nor about the body what you will put on. Life is more. A key verse here.

Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. And he referred to the ravens and how God feeds them and provides for them. And then he referred to the lilies in verse 27, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. They just do it. You know, God has programmed that into them. That even Solomon in all of his glory was not a raid like one of these. And if God so clothes the grass which is today in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?

And so maybe we do worry a little bit too much about physical things and how we're going to make ends meet. And you need to trust in God much more. Verse 29, do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink nor have an anxious mind. Have them worry. For all these things the nations of the world seek after and your Father knows that you need these things. And so the happiness and the joy is not going to come from trusting and looking after the physical things, but looking to God to provide. Doing our part, we'll get to that as well as we move along.

But the key to happiness and success is verse 31, but seek the kingdom of God. And Matthew adds the word first. Seek first the kingdom of God. So all these things will be added to you. So real happiness and real success is going to come from setting our minds on something spiritual. It's not going to be based on setting our minds on stuff, on physical things. He went on to say, do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

So real happiness is going to come from setting our minds on the reason for which we are here. And that is to become a member of God's family, to become a part of, to enter the kingdom of God. And that is where real happiness and joy will be found. You know, in the parable Jesus gave, he said, the kingdom of heaven, which is the kingdom of God that we may become a member of, is like someone seeking goodly pearls.

And he found one of great price, and he sold everything that he had. Here is someone that was searching for something, but guess what? Every human being is searching for something. Every human being has an inner craving, an inner desire. He wants, every human being really wants to know why he was born and what the meaning and purpose of his life is. And so when we, when God began to give us that understanding, then he began to open the door to real happiness and success. He began to show us that there is something spiritual and eternal that we are here for.

The start of seeking after God's kingdom is based on understanding of that purpose and then setting our minds on it. Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and he said, repent and believe the gospel. And so repentance, which means a total redirecting of our lives.

You know, we were going along a certain direction, and then suddenly God began to show us the pearl of great price. It's a total reorientation. It is a total redirection. It's a total surrender and dedication of our life. And it's forsaking, yes, all the physical stuff, because nothing else really matters compared to the kingdom of God, once we really understand it. The kingdom of God and seeking after it and preparing for it is life, and it is life more abundantly. It begins with real repentance. It begins with knowledge of the truth that upon which real repentance is based on.

Real repentance, then, is the first action we must take toward real success, and it is the start of a joyful and abundant life. Then after that is baptism, and we bury the old self and the old past, and we no longer have our minds set on something physical, as most of the world does.

But now we have our eyes set on something spiritual. At last we know why we were born and why we exist, and we know what we need to be busy doing. And we have come to see and understand that the purpose is awesome. It is eternal life and sonship in God's eternal family and joint inheritance of the universe.

And suddenly all things become new, because we've set our mind on becoming a part of the kingdom of God.

What we're discovering where real happiness and real success lie, it is seeking after something spiritual. It is setting our minds on something spiritual and taking our minds off of the physical. It's setting our mind on things above, not on things on the earth. It is setting our hearts on the kingdom of God.

There's no other purpose than for us to eventually be in the kingdom of God. And so nothing else can ever really satisfy or give joy and meaning and purpose to our lives.

So if we're lacking in happiness and joy, there has to be a cause.

And the Scriptures bring out that if we have our minds set on God's kingdom and His righteousness, and that if we are seeking to obey God's laws and commandments, that there will be blessings. Two whole chapters in the Bible bring out the blessings, once we set our minds on keeping God's laws. In Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, blessings, it says, happen. Blessings are caused when we obey, and curses are caused when we disobey. So real happiness then comes when we set our minds to keep the laws of God. That's part of being in God's kingdom, is to be obedient to God's laws.

And so we actually cause happiness, we cause success by obedience to God's laws and His way of life.

Let's go to Joshua 1. And actually we cause not just success, but we cause, as it says here, good success.

So that is something we all would like. We'd like to be very successful. We'd like to be happy. And we're pointing out the way to do that. In Joshua 1 and verse 5, this is God telling Joshua, after the death of Moses, Joshua 1 and verse 5, No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. And you know, this applies to us just as much as members of God's church as it did to Joshua and the Israelites. God is with us. No one will be able to withstand us or to do anything to us unless God permits. And God will not ever leave us or forsake us. So verse 6, Be strong and of good courage, he told Joshua. For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

And so God also tells us, Be strong. Be strong as we then go forward, seeking after God's kingdom, doing the work and the mission that God has given us to the work he's given us to do. We are to be strong and of good courage because God is with us. In verse 7, only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go. God wants us to prosper. He wants us to have blessings on every side.

In verse 8, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make, you will, in other words, cause your way to be prosperous. You will make your way prosperous, and then you will have, or you will cause, good success. So I tell you, walking with God, setting our minds on the kingdom of God, keeping God's laws, and striving to do what is pleasing to Him will cause our way to be prosperous, and we will have good success. This applies to us as members of God's church. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Not only does God tell us to do it, He commands us to do it, to be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed. We don't need to be afraid either. For God, the Lord your God, is with you wherever you go. Obedience, then, to God, walking with God, setting our mind on His kingdom will certainly cause good success. If we're lacking happiness and joy in our lives, what should we do? Well, we should examine our hearts and make sure that we get them set on the true riches. You know, covetousness, seeking after stuff. And that's what this world all around us, advertisements on television, and magazines trying to get us to want something that we don't even need, maybe didn't even know existed until we saw the advertisement. Covetousness is sin. There's a law against it. So we have to control our desires. Covetousness breaks the 10th commandment. It is a sin, and it does destroy. Sin destroys joy. For lacking in joy and happiness, we need to make sure that we keep our eyes single on God's purpose, seeking God's kingdom, because that's going to light up our lives. If we're lacking joy and abundance, we need to refocus on our relationship with God and draw closer to Him in prayer, and study, and meditation, and get our minds off of the things here below more and unto things above more, and seeking God's kingdom first. Now, with this said, are the physical things sin? Is it a sin? Should we not even try to have a savings account or try to work and provide? Certainly not. God says that we are to work six days. Six days shall you work. That's a part of the fourth commandment, just as the Sabbath, the seventh day, is a day for rest, but part of the fourth commandment is six days shall you work and do all your labor. And then the seventh day we are to rest. But yeah, we are to work, and we are to enjoy our work. And there are scriptures that show we are to lay up for old age, and even lay up to be able to give to our children's children, our grandchildren. So to be thrifty and to be frugal, all of those good qualities are very biblical. And God wants us to enjoy our work. He wants us to enjoy the results of our work. He wants our work to be rewarding. Let's notice a few verses again in Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 2 and verse 24.

There is nothing better—and this is just looking at the time that we sojourn in this physical life as a human being— there is nothing better during this human lifetime than that we should eat and drink, and our soul should enjoy good in our labor. This also I saw was from the hand of God.

So to work hard and to produce is certainly something God wants us to do. In chapter 8 and verse 15. So I commended enjoyment because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry.

For this will remain with him in his labor for the days of his human life, which God gives him under the sun. So during this human lifetime, God wants us to work hard. He wants us to enjoy our work. He wants us to feel rewarded by it. He wants us to certainly look to the future and save a side and be able to provide for ourselves and others.

In chapter 9 and verse 7, go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart. This shows an enjoyment, then, of this human physical life. For God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white and let your head lack no oil. So go ahead and enjoy and provide adequately for your enjoyment.

So we should enjoy our work and our physical blessings, but we always need to keep things in the spiritual perspective of seeking God's kingdom. That's what really matters. This book ends the last two verses, Ecclesiastes 12 and verses 13 and 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. This kind of sums up this book of Ecclesiastes.

The book of Ecclesiastes is trying to take a good hard look at this physical human life and just say, What's the best way to live this human life to fulfill the purpose that God has given us temporary life for? And so this kind of sums it up here in verses 13 and 14.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

And it goes on to give a little warning. Be careful. Don't think you can go some other way and get away with it. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it is evil. So don't think that we can get away with disobedience, that we can sneak around and nobody catches us. Oh, there are so many cold cases of crime and evil, murder. Did the people get away with it? I've spent cold cases all down through history. No, nobody gets away with it. It will all come to light. There's a second resurrection for those who are dead, and they will have to face what they did. The truth of who stole and who killed and all those cold cases are going to be resolved in the second resurrection. There's a warning here in verse 14, not just to think we can live any old way of life and it won't be seen. So we should always keep the physical things in a spiritual perspective. That's what verses 13 and 14 are saying. True happiness has to do them with our relationship with God. And if we're seeking God's purpose in His kingdom first, the physical things will be added. They're not a sin at all. We will enjoy them. In fact, when we have a spiritual perspective, guess what? We enjoy food and drink everything more. We enjoy a sunset more. We enjoy a beautiful little baby. My wife and I saw our beautiful new grandson. He's now four weeks old today. And Grandma got to hold him quite a bit when we were down in Georgia. But here's this cute little human being, little boy. And you look at those little toes and it's just a miraculous thing. You enjoy it. All of these things we enjoy even more when we have a spiritual perspective, have God's perspective on it.

So if our life is lacking, I know that this modern age that we're living in, we could be stressed quite a bit by it. We could feel drained and robbed of our happiness and joy. And if that is the case, we need to get our spiritual focus back. Things are not quite in focus the way they need to be. It's like binoculars. When they're out of focus, it's blurry when you look out. But if you get everything in focus, you can see crystal clear. So if our life is lacking, or if we feel a bit drained of joy and happiness, then we need to refocus on God's kingdom. Let's go to Isaiah 55.

God intended life to be happy and joyful. And if we're lacking in this, then we can do something about it. And it doesn't depend upon our circumstances, not even trials. We'll get to that in just a moment. Not even trials and hardships we might go through. Isaiah 55 and verse 1, So this is a beckoning call to all of us, actually, all human beings. Ho! Everyone who thirsts, well, that's all of us, come to the waters. It's not talking physically, but spiritually. You that have no money, doesn't take money, come, buy, and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. What do you spend money for what is not bread? And your wages for what does not really satisfy? Things that don't really hit the spot. That's what people are doing today. They're buying a lot more stuff. And yet, that stuff is not making them any happier, in fact, if anything less happier. Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, come to me. Here, and your soul shall live, and I'll make an everlasting covenant with you. And so, verse 7, let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man is thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. He'll have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon. And then in verse 12, once we do repent and draw close to God, you shall go out with joy. Our happiness will be restored and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. You know, the sun is going to come out bright in our lives. Blessings, good things. Instead of the thorn, verse 13, we'll come up the cypress tree. Instead of the brier, we'll come up the myrtle tree. And so blessings will come from God because we've drawn close to him, or walking with him, and we've set our focus on the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So is it possible to have success and happiness all the time? You know, I think we'd have to say it is possible. I think Jesus had happiness and success in his life all the time. But it's going to require constant contact and communication with God and fellowship with God. But guess what? We humans do let down, and we are not perfect. And this evil world is all around us. There's much stress. There's a fast pace. The world is filled with bad news. Doesn't your heart go out to the airplane crash in the eastern Ukraine? And the sad thing is that things like this will continue to come across the news in an evil age that we're living in. So just the bad news that is happening in the world, trying to make ends meet. We can be robbed of our happiness and joy. And I think we are to some extent. But in spite of all the uncertainties and the stresses of the world, we can have a life that is joyful and abundant. And again, it depends upon our relationship with God. That's the bottom line. Our relationship with God, getting connected with His purpose, that we be in His family, His kingdom.

So even so, as we are human beings, do we ever get discouraged? Do Christians ever get down? Does a Christian ever have the blues, a case of the blues? Well, yes, he does. Read the book of Psalms. The man after God's own heart, David, said, Oh, my soul, why are you cast down? You can read some of those Psalms. And David was discouraged. He was going through trials and difficulties. He was being persecuted. People were threatening his life. And he writes about it. But guess what? In each of the Psalms, if you go on down to read, where he brings out these problems and troubles, and he was in a state of being discouraged by all that was happening, if you read on down in each one, he says, But I will trust in God.

I will look to God to deliver me. In each of them, he looked to God, and he got help so that he was lifted up. So, a Christian will have down days and periods of time where he will be maybe discouraged. However, the closer he is to God and to God's purpose and puts things into a spiritual perspective, the more he's going to be able to maintain the level of happiness and therefore joy and success in his life. And that is possible as we grow and mature to put things more into a spiritual perspective, even as we go through difficult times.

Look at James 1. Look at James 1, beginning in verse 2. And this is possible for us as Christians. With God's Spirit guiding us, we can do it. We can have this perspective. James was quite mature himself because he wrote this and no doubt was living by it. In James 1 and verse 2, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. I can assure you that's not the natural thing, is it?

When a big dark cloud heads our way, we don't count it all joy. But we can with a spiritual perspective even count our trials a all joy, knowing that the testing of your faith produces something very important, patience. And the margin says endurance. Those trials, those difficult times that we go through, produce something important and eternal in us.

And then verse 4, let patience or endurance have its perfect work. It may take some time. We may have to go through then the trial or the difficulty for a little while. Let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So yes, even as we go through moments of trial and difficulty, we can with a spiritual perspective, maintain a level of happiness and joy. In 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter brings out about the same thing. And by the time Peter wrote this, he was also very spiritually mature. And he was encouraging others to look at trials with a mature perspective.

1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 6, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. So these people that he's writing to were going through some trials, but he was encouraging them to put it in a spiritual perspective. And they could greatly rejoice. Verse 7, That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory the revelation, the coming of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.

And we do, don't we? We've not seen Christ literally with our eyes, but we do love him. Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible. King James says, joy unspeakable, but I like the new King James better, joy inexpressible. There's a joy that you cannot put words on. Joy inexpressible and full of glory. Even as we go through trials and difficulties, it is possible that joy inexpressible does not need to be diminished when we put it into a spiritual perspective and keep our minds focused on the kingdom of God. Brethren, what lies ahead?

For us, we know, according to prophecies in the Bible, that the times will become more difficult in the world. There may be job losses. There may be famines from food shortage and floods. There may be job or economic collapse. There may be persecution upon the Church of God. All these things are indicated. But guess what? Nothing can diminish or take away our happiness and therefore our road to success and our destiny. Let's go to Romans 8. Nothing can if we keep a spiritual perspective.

We'll need that at the end of this age. You might say, well, how can you be happy with all of these? How can you have a level of happiness when all of these things are going on in the world and people are suffering more and more pain and death? You know, we have to rise up to God's level of looking at it. God is allowing this to continue, knowing that the world has chosen this path and God is going to let it run its course. And we have to look at it through God's eyes. You might wonder, how can we be happy with even things like have happened to the Church?

All the difficulties and the trying and the testing. Again, look at it through God's eyes. God could bring all Christians of different, wherever they are, of different organizations together. If He wanted to do so, He could do that any moment of time. He allows it to go on this way because He has a greater purpose in mind. We have to keep ourselves growing in the right setting and the right perspective and be very careful that we're sensitive to the times that we are living in, in the Church. So we can be happy and know that God is in control.

In the world He's in control and in the Church He's in control. Both the world and the Church, ultimately, then are in good hands. In Romans 8, verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword? All of these would be very difficult things. They cannot separate us from our minds being set on God's kingdom. For your sake, we were killed all day long.

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all of these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Paul doesn't have a downcast attitude as he writes these things. He's very positive. I am persuaded that neither death nor life, angels, principalities, powers, things present or things to come, height or depth or any created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So we're going to keep our minds focused on God's kingdom, keep our relationship with God strong and growing, and keep our spiritual perspective in the days ahead.

Brethren, God wants our life to be happy and joyful. He wants us to be a success. We were not created to be a failure. We were created to succeed.

Jesus said in John 10, verse 10, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Turn to Psalm 144, verse 15. Psalm 144, verse 15. In the last verse in this psalm, Psalm 144, verse 15, happy are the people who are in such a state. The preceding verses are just showing obedience to God's laws and the blessings that result from walking with God and obeying His laws. Happy are the people who are in such state. Happy are the people whose God is the Lord. So let's keep the true God as our God, and it says we will be happy. Seek His kingdom. Stay right in step with His purpose in your life. In Psalm 16, verse 11, you will show me the path of life. God has shown us that path, hasn't He? You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So we are in God's presence, aren't we, as we strive to obey Him and do His will? And there's fullness of joy then, even as we go through trials and difficulties at times. There's still the fullness of joy. That doesn't ever diminish. At God's right hand there are pleasures forevermore. God is happy. He's, I'm sure, very sad to see the way many people in the world go. Sometimes He no doubt is sad to see the way that we might go. But it still doesn't rob Him of His happiness and joy. God will always be happy and joyful. And furthermore, He knows that ultimately He's going to set it all straight and bring it all together as one. So, and we know that as well. So, brethren, as we live each day, each moment, we are in the presence of God. And that is where real happiness and success are to be found. Just a couple of scriptures in conclusion. Matthew 25 and verse 21. And isn't this the epitome of happiness and success? If we go on and run our course and complete it and have this to be said to us one day, would not this be ultimate happiness and success? In Matthew 25 and verse 21, His Lord said to Him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. To have those words said to us one day will be the ultimate happiness and success. Let's go on and be faithful then. Faithful to God's calling to us. And in verse 34 of this same chapter, Matthew 25 verse 34, The King will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That's what God has in mind. He wants us to succeed and to be able to come into His family kingdom. Final verses will be in Revelation 21. Revelation 21. And if we can be there in that heavenly city, the holy city, New Jerusalem, then that will again be the ultimate in happiness and success for us. Revelation 21 and verse 6, He said to me, It is done. God's plan is now complete with His family, with mankind. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will giveth the fountain of the water of life freely to Him who thirsts. Eternal life. And verse 7, He who overcomes will or shall inherit all things, the universe. And I will be His God, and He shall be my Son. So isn't this real happiness and real success to enter God's kingdom as the Son of God, inherit the universe? Brethren, let's keep our eyes on that, because that is our goal.