In Pursuit of Happiness

Of all the nations on earth, which one should be the happiest? Think about it for a moment. Think around the world of all the nations, of what they have, what their culture is like, what their leadership is like, what their governance is like, what their natural resources are like, what their economy is like, what their power is like. And think of the happiest country on the face of the earth. Which one do you think it is? Well, you probably wouldn't be the poorest. You'd probably write that one off. Maybe not the one with the driest deserts and the most drought, perhaps not the dictatorship countries. You might presume that happiness is going to be where the money is, right? Lots of stuff, lots of ease, lots of opportunities, lots of kind of exciting things.

You might think it's where entertainment springs from. You know, that fun, the party, the entertainment, the pizzazz, the music and film capital of the world, etc., etc. Certainly where recreation is available with all kinds of, I don't know, things you can put on or wear or drive or whatever. Maybe social media. You know, social media has to be a great input into one's happiness. So is it the United States of America? Well, it's interesting that in 1776, the U.S. Declaration of Independence states this, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And there it is, a constitutional right that you and I have as citizens of the United States to be the happiest people on earth, or at least to pursue that. A right for happiness. That seems logical for humans, doesn't it? You know, what you might ask yourself today is, have I achieved my constitutional right? That's a good question. Here we are attending church. Have I achieved my constitutional right? Now, some of you are not in this country. I'm sure you're blessed for that in some ways. But at the same time, have you achieved, as it says here, endowed by their creator to have certain inalienable rights? The pursuit of happiness. How are you doing with that pursuit? Have you achieved that? Now, you might say, well, I could use a little help in that. All right, so what kind of help could we use? Well, how about some money? How about more money? Okay. How about a nicer home for bigger smile? A flashier car?

About a boat. Seems like everybody who wins the lottery buys a boat. A bigger boat. Oh, let's see. How about travel? Electronics? How about better entertainment? How about recognition for personal achievements? Or here's one that usually happens. A better spouse. All right? I could be happier with her or with him. How about better kids? Better weather? Better foods? Better drinks? Better scenery? Better friends? Better gardens? Better roads? A better government? We just get a better government in here. My happiness could really thrive. What is it that is holding us back, or perhaps you back, from attaining the state of happiness? Well, the USA offers these, and I only point that out because sometimes people look at the USA and think, oh, if I only lived in America, if I could just get to America, I could be happy. Offering in the US probably is a little higher in some of those areas, for some people at least. But if you Google the word happiness, the one thing you don't find, if you go through the pages of results, is Americans declaring that they are happy. You would think it would just be right there. Happiness equals me and America.

It's not there. I think, well, why isn't it there? I mean, it's in the Constitution.

It's what people are driven for. All right. Well, the fact is the United States of America doesn't even make the list of the top 15 happiest countries in the world. Not even on the list. Okay. When you look at happiness, and I'm using this term happiness, can you actually define what it is? You know, happiness as even a concept is a little bit elusive, isn't it? It's sort of loosey-goosey. It's kind of maybe what you think or how you feel. So pinning it down to something can be difficult.

Happiness is a state of being, just going around in happiness. Is that achievable? What is that? Now, every human needs happiness. We're all driven because we need happiness. Not only do we want it, we actually need it. But achieving it, achieving it, is a God-given right. But without God, it's not possible. Now, today we're going to look at some things, not just the Bible, which is the prime source of the message today. We're actually going to also go over and look at liberal media publication and a liberal university with what I would assume is individuals who are not even recognizing God. And we're going to see that humans tend to want happiness without doing what it takes to be happy. It's common for humans to want to get the reward, see? Want to get the reward without paying the price. And if you want to get rich, what do you do? Get rich, rob a bank. I don't know, be a sucker and go think you're going to get it from a casino. Get rich. You'll do something. You see, you'll go dive to the bottom of the ocean and find a treasure of gold. But what about hard work? What about the difficult process of coming to a state where you are supporting yourself well and blessed without any kind of responsibility for that? It's typical of humans. If you look at what the sexual revolution is, for instance, you'll find that they want the reward for a celibate, happy, responsible member of a family who is contributing to the welfare of others through sacrificial love. They want the reward for that without a family with no responsibility. They just want to take the reward. And how does that work? How's that working for society? How's that working for the level of happiness? Well, today let's examine the pursuit of happiness through the pages of the Bible and also just double-check out in society and see if God's law is absolute like gravity. And you can be happy as long as you follow the laws of God, or can you do a shortcut? Can you just ignore God, cancel God, cancel the laws of God, and somehow be happy? The title of the sermon today is In Pursuit of Happiness.

Humans desire to achieve sort of a state of happiness, and you can think of how this is done. Some will go as far as drugs, just to have some sort of a continual state of, I don't know, feeling no pain, or maybe it feels good. I don't know what it feels like. But others will go to alcohol, different types of things to make them feel good. Others will turn to a life, a lifestyle, of sort of binging on things that cause the five senses to feel good temporarily. And they'll want to be happy.

When we put something in our happiness bucket, we have a temporary feel-good pleasure, but there is a corresponding component of action and response, cause and effect. And if we just try to get the effect with the wrong cause, then there is an unhappy result that takes a person down at that point.

When we think of blessings—let's just say, happy, happiness, and the church will use the term blessings. This made me feel good, so it's a blessing. And we often name a whole lot of things blessings that aren't necessarily from God. But we'll somehow say, you know, I got this thing, and it wasn't quite right, but it's a real blessing. I shouldn't have it, you know. I bought this thing I couldn't afford. I got payments that I can't make and everything else, but I was blessed. I got this new Cadillac. You know, that's kind of sometimes what we do. I got the job. I got the money. I got the girl. I got the guy. I got the dress. I got the car. I got the house. I got the vacation. I got the fee site. I wanted. Now, am I happy? Well, oftentimes, we're not. Oftentimes, we have all this stuff, and we look around, we look in the garage, we look in the house, we look at our life and say, yeah, I've got all this stuff and all these things I want to achieve. I've got them, but I'm just not happy. I wonder why not. Maybe I need more, more of it.

In the magazine The Atlantic from October 2020, there's an article that's published that was written by Arthur Brooks. He's a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and also the Harvard Business School. And he looked at a lot of research that had been done through behavioral scientists into happiness, causes of happiness. You look at the causal analysis of happiness and also the causal analysis of unhappiness. Now, here's a little quote of his article. It says, amid the advances in quality of life across the income scale, average happiness in the United States is decreasing. The general social survey shows a long-term gradual decline in happiness in America and a rise in unhappiness from 1988 to the present.

So you think about what happened back in the 80s until now and think how technology has advanced, the internet has come on, social media has come on, physical things, people's opportunities, money. It's really, really advanced since then. And unhappiness has grown while happiness has declined.

Let's stop and ask a question. What is your and my calling about? Could we reduce it ignorantly and say, well, God called me to have my eyes opened, to understand His Word, to repent, be baptized, forgive my sins, receive the Holy Spirit, so that I can be happier, so that I can have a happy life? That's what it's about. And now, with God's help, I can get more stuff. I can have happier things that make me happier because I rub my genie three times a day on my knees and say, gimme, gimme, gimme. You know, that's one way of looking at religion, because oftentimes that's what people do. They go to God for more stuff or for a bailout. But hold on. What is God's Word encourage us to seek? Something to pursue. There is something we're to pursue. Is that something happiness? Or is it by chance the opposite of personal happiness? And you think, oh no, this is not going the right way. I want happiness. Why would I want to pursue the opposite of my happiness? Well, in short, so that you'll be happy. But let's see. If we go to Matthew 6, verse 25, Matthew 6 and verse 25, I want to slow down and read this and look at a word here.

Jesus said, therefore I say to you, okay, this Bible is not written to society, not in his day, not in our day. It's written to you. He's speaking here to his 12 apostles and those who would be called by them to you. Do not worry. Now that word worry can mean worry in the Greek, or it can also, if you look in your lexicon or whatever, mean anxious, anxious thought. Okay, it can have that. That's the primary meaning is don't worry and have anxious thought. But wait a minute. There's a secondary meaning. I don't think any of us are worried about food and clothing, but there's a secondary meaning. If you look at two, it says to take thought, to look out for a thing, to seek to promote one's interests. So let's put that in here for a moment and see how it fits. Therefore, I say to you, do not take thought to look for things, to seek to promote your interests, about your life. Continue on. Notice your life, what you will eat. Ah, I think a steak, I think some vegetables will make me happy. Or what you will drink. I think a fine wine or a little of this or something there or some wonderful juice. That will make me happy. Nor about your body, what you will put on. I think that outfit would just make me happy. That one in the store window. In verse 31, therefore do not, here's that word translated worry, do not look out for things.

Looking for happiness, looking for personal fulfillment. Do not look out for things saying, what shall we eat now? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? For, notice verse 32, for after all these things the Gentiles seek. Right? They weren't starving in Jesus's day. They had clothes in Jesus's day. They were seeking them. They were seeking them in pursuit of happiness. Quite possibly. Quite possibly. We even saw Paul talking about women who would braid gold into their hair. They would take little fine strands of gold and they would braid it into their hair so that when they walked in the sunshine the gold would glitter. So he's telling women, you know, don't put gold in your hair, but that might bring me happiness if more people looked at me. So he's saying here, don't do the things that the non-believers are seeking.

For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Verse 33, but you seek first the rule of God and His righteousness. Seek God's laws. Seek His kingdom. You see, He has a kingdom in heaven, the kingdom of heaven, and it has laws and rules, and it has a ruler. So seek that rule and His righteousness. So that's what we're to see. What is God's righteousness? Love God with the heart, soul, and the might. Love your neighbor, is yourself. First John 3, by this we know love. He gave Himself for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Doesn't sound like seeking my happiness, does it? So we go on here. Seek first this rule of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added, added to you, added. Didn't say you'll somehow get them. Those things will be added to you.

Now, God provides for those doing right. God provides those who are loving, giving, sons and daughters, part of the family. Those who are giving and serving to others, God provides their needs. They have to be responsible and do their part, but God will make it work out. An example of that would be Solomon. Solomon was the son of David, and among all the sons, Solomon was given rulership. And then Solomon was given incredible wisdom and fame and wealth, great wealth. Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 12, and see if all of those things made Solomon happy. Solomon here is calling himself the preacher or the teacher in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 12. I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. God made him king over Israel, and he did right for a long time. Now, verse 16, I communed with my heart, saying, Look, I have attained greatness.

I have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge. Verse 17 of Ecclesiastes 1. And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly, pleasures, to be happy. And what did he find? I perceive that this also is a grasping for the wind. He did not achieve happiness that he so desired. Even though he had things, you notice, I was there. I had attained. I sought these things. I tried to make myself happy. And he said, it was like grasping the wind. I couldn't get happy.

Let's pause and read every verse in the Bible right now that contains the word happiness. We'll begin in Deuteronomy chapter 24 and verse 5. Deuteronomy chapter 24 and verse 5. Every verse in the Bible that contains the word happiness. Deuteronomy 24 and verse 5 says, now, before I read this, let's just put it in context. This is the Bible telling us about happiness, right? So let's apply it like the Bible applies it. Okay. Deuteronomy 24 verse 5. When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war to be charged with any business. He shall be free at home one year and bring happiness to his wife. That's the only use of the word happiness in the Bible. It's something you give to someone else.

All right. You shall bring happiness to your wife. Hmm. That's interesting. Kind of stands the concept of pursuit of my happiness on its head, doesn't it? But is that a bad thing or is that a good thing? You know, a happy wife can be a happy husband, too. Happy household. Giving to other people, making them happy, often has a response in kind that is a pretty nice thing.

God loves you and me and does his up-mode for us, and that's a good thing. And when we respond in kind and do the same to others, relationships flourish. Now, happiness, sometimes we might be tricked into thinking, well, but I can still get happiness. Feast the tabernacles. As soon as you say the word feast, going to the feast, a little smile comes up.

Anticipation. Why? Happiness potential. You know, when you think of the feast and all the stuff that's potentially there for you, I mean, let's pick the best sight, right? Go through the list. Pick the best amenities. Oh, this is going to work just right for me. Where are the friends going? Make sure you've got friends around. Activities. What activities do they have there?

We'll get those special foods. Foods might make me happy. Tend the social, see the sights. Stuff yourself with everything you can get down that tastes good and you shouldn't have the rest of the year, but somehow it's great during the feast. What is God's purpose for the Feast of Tabernacles? Let's look over in Deuteronomy 16. Deuteronomy chapter 16 and verse 13. This always applies because the feast is always coming, even if the feast has just ended in the autumn.

You're thinking about next feast. People are saying, where are you going next year? What is God's purpose for the feast? Deuteronomy chapter 16 and verse 13. You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have been responsible. Oh, when you have gathered from your threshing floor, gathered from your wine press, so you've worked hard, and you shall then rejoice in your feast. You and your son and your daughter. Pause there a minute. How many sons and daughters do you have? Could you have? Did he have? You've got to start thinking about them. You've got to make this feast special for your son and also your daughter.

Those are two individual tastes, two wholly different personalities. Ages. And your male servant. And your female servant. Oh, the one who serves me, I've got to be thinking about serving them specifically, a male and a female, different ages, different likes. I've got to make this a special time for them. And the Levite, the teachers, and the stranger. That's the one who's traveling, the one you don't know, usually because they were traveling through.

And you're like, well, I need to help this person I don't know, but they were traveling through my town, through the gates of my town. They were here at feast time. They don't have a home. They're far from home. We need to make it special for the strangers. What are their needs?

What are their ages? What are their desires? And the fatherless. Now, that takes on some challenges in a good way because the fatherless individual is one who is very well positioned to receive some important love and concern and friendship and companionship and family relations. And the widow, the one who has lost a husband, the one who is maybe lonely, maybe older, maybe has some physical challenges that needs extra assistance.

Seven days you will keep this feast in verse 15. To the Lord your God in the place which he chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands in order to provide this for others, he'll bless you in the work of your hands so that you all can surely rejoice. Now, that's going to be quite a feast. It's very, very difficult then just me going to get a good time.

It's always been said to have a good feast. You must give a good feast and then you come back having the best feast you've ever had. When you can go and you can serve and you can help and you can go out and find people that maybe don't have the opportunities that you would and include them, then it just makes such a wonderful feast by loving and caring and helping and serving others. And the result is what we call the best feast ever.

And it could be at any site. Pursuing happiness equates with pursuing selfishness. If it's done in the human way, I'm going to go get all of this stuff and fun and things and that is selfish ambitions. Let's go to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 19. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 19 through 21.

Now, the works of the flesh. Now, in a really modern, modern, modern, modern translation, it might say the works of the United States.

Because this is really the most fleshly-based, probably, country you're going to see on the face of the earth that promotes any and everything. Now, sometimes you don't see this at home, but if you came over to another country that doesn't have television production itself and you go into their hotels, their restaurants, and their homes, you'll see TVs on the wall playing stuff from this country and it will make you cringe. It will make you ashamed when you see the raunchy music videos with the sexual expressions and the terrible scanty clothing that's worn and the films and the violence and the gore and see the people there from a culture who are well-behaved, well-dressed, looking at that. And that's the constant diet you see on the televisions around the world that pumps out the representatives of this country because we're the media capital of the world. We produce the movies, the TV shows, we produce the music. And it's sadly the works of the flesh are evident. Verse 20, idolatry, what you would see on those TV sets and what is now being copied by the local youth, the young adults in those countries, it's just shameful how they just change their cultures. And you see idolatry and sorcery and this demonic stuff that's coming out more and more in film and in media and hatred and contentions and jealousies and outbursts of wrath.

Selfish ambitions. I remember one time I was in a foreign country and the always present television was on in a restaurant, in a small rural restaurant, and there it was. And it was a TV show. I won't name it, but it was about the weird twisted things that people do. And they have these groups of people come on and describe and tell about the twisted lives and the just, I mean, Sodom and Gomorrah that they do. And I had to sit there and try to eat as people would look at me and look at that. And it was just horrible. Of course, it would sell in this country, would sell advertising. Selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. Of which I tell you beforehand that just as I told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's the pursuit of happiness. If you don't believe it, go downtown. Go to Sin City, you know, go to some of the fun, resort places where people go from this country and other western civilizations, sometimes they're foreign countries, and see just the twisted perversion that goes on there.

Selfish ambition is about pleasing the self at the expense of others.

It's empty, it's unfulfilling, and it has consequences. Let's go back to that article from the Atlantic by the Harvard professor. He says, My colleagues, fellow professors at Harvard, show in their research that to get happier as we prosper, we need to change the choices we make with our financial resources. It's interesting how now you have the godless society, you have the Atlantic, which is a coastal publication in the northeast, you have individuals who are saying there is no God, and here's the conclusion they're coming to. We need to change the choices we make with our money. In an extensive review, the colleagues, the professors at Harvard, analyzed the happiness benefits of at least four uses of money, and these four uses of money, the top four, are one, buying consumer items, whatever that is, boat car, plane, TV, whatever, whatever you can buy with money, hiring people to do tasks, especially unpleasant tasks, experiences, I'm sorry, expenses for doing things with others, paying to do things with others, go places, or things that cost you money to be in the company of others. Could be meals or anything. And fourth is helping friends, family, and charities. Now what they came up with was the evidence is clear, although people tend toward buying consumer items, number one, much greater happiness comes from the other three, and the other three were hiring people to mow your lawn or wash your car or whatever it is you don't want to do, roof your house. But the other two are doing things with others, spending funds to be able to do things with others, and fourth was helping friends and family and those in need. So we're starting to head for for towards something here. Even within society, they're finding happiness really comes from interacting and being with or serving other people, helping other people. Now he says marketers know that if they can grab hold of your brain and get you in a state of hedonic consumption, they can probably sell you something. But notice what this professor in Harvard says. Next time you're presented with the claim that this or that product will make you happy, say five times out loud, this will not bring me satisfaction, this will not bring me satisfaction, this will not bring me satisfaction, this will not bring me satisfaction, this will not bring me satisfaction. He said six months later, you'll be glad you said those words. So they're finding that acquiring things do not bring happiness. Okay, so let's move on from there. Experiencing a happy result is something that we do find in the Bible, but it's a result from something. It's a result from a good work. It has a happy result. Let's look, for instance, at Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3.

Now the reason I like to sort of bring this in with Harvard University study is it's like the law of gravity. It's a law. There's no shortcut. You can't jump off a roof and have a soft landing. You just can't unless you have a parachute. You have to do the intermediate, you see. So what we find here is, Proverbs 29 verse 18. We're probably familiar with this statement, where there is no vision, the people perish. This is the old King James. A newer version would say, where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint. But if you look at that word vision as the word vision, where there is blindness, where there is no vision, you're spiritually blind. Remember how Jesus said, Satan is blind in this world, but your eyes can see? If you don't have God's law, you can't see. Without vision, the people cast off restraint. So you take away God's word, you can't see it. And what has society done? Cast off all restraints. I don't have to be thoughtful of other people. I don't have to do things that are ethical or civil. I just want to pursue the end product that I don't want to pay for. Just want to be thoughtful. Just want to steal it. Cast off restraint. Notice, but happy is he who keeps the law. See how that fits together now? Where there is no vision, you can't see.

People cast off restraint, but happy is he who keeps the law. So we now begin to find happy and keeping the law. And the law is love, God with your heart, soul, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And the byproduct of that is happiness. When I told you before, pursuing the opposite of happiness is what we're called to. That's it. Happy is he who keeps the law. And keeping the law is not pursuing happiness, your own happiness. But happiness is a byproduct of keeping the law, which is to love others. It's what Harvard has come up with, as we'll see in a minute. Let's go to Psalm 128 in verse 1. This is a song of a sense. This is a song that you would sing as you traveled from the lower parts of Israel heading up to the Feast of Tabernacles, or any of the three festival seasons there at the temple in Jerusalem. So this is a bubbly song. We're going to the Feast. It's all exciting. It's about the result that comes from revering God and his laws. Psalm 128 verse 1, blessed is everyone who fears or reveres the Lord, who walks in his ways. So you see here the blessing, or that happiness that we're looking for, comes from walking in the ways of God and revering him. Verse 2, when you eat the labor, you didn't just, you didn't go eat the thing. No, you ate the labor of your hands. It is a by-product of the effort, the work. You eat the labor of your hands. You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. I'll give you a real-life scenario. There are parts of this world you can go to where people are what you might call very poor. They're actually fine. They may live in a very subsistence type of environment, but they don't have the kind of restrictions that you do. In other words, when you go home, you have a whole lot of things to take care of. You have things to wash and things to fix and you've got bills to pay and all this stuff. When you go build something out of a natural environment, you're done, and it self-cools. I've been in a place that in the African sun, at the equator, it's so hot outside, but when you go inside, it's chilly. You could use a jacket, and there's nothing there but a thatched roof and mud walls.

I was stunned. It's great. Now, when you eat the labor of your hands, you'll be happy. Now, some well-meaning person from the west will come along and say, oh, hey, you don't have this, and you don't have that, and you don't have this, and let me start sending you some cash, some money. Well, wait a minute. This person has an acre, and they go out and work very, very hard, and they till that land, get the weeds out, and then all by hand, and then they plant seed, and then they water it, and they try to fertilize it, and they do whatever they can, and they finally get food, right? And they have the fruit of their lands, and they feel happy, and they share, and the food is big, and it's piled high, right? Now, when somebody comes along and says, oh no, let me start sending you some money, they say, oh, I can just go buy this food, right? I can just go to the store now. I can go to along the side of the road. I don't have to go out there and take up all this stuff, weed. I don't have to worry about rainfall. I don't have to kill myself doing all this stuff. And so the money comes in, and we think we're helping, right? And then, invariably, it always happens, the money supply stops, and the person's lost their land, and they forgot how to farm, and now they don't know what to do, except they want more money. They've tasted the pure, sweet power of just money. Money with no strings attached, no effort attached, and they've just lost their life way. And so people will tend to be miserable, just like you and me, if all we're given, if we get some supply that we didn't have any responsibility for, we didn't take any part of the process, and we think it's going to make us happy. No, it says right here, when you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. There's a certain responsibility. Now, how you apply this, in whatever circumstance you're in, you can't be happy just by winning a lottery or having some sugar daddy just start, you know, giving you a bunch of cash. It's not going to be fulfilling.

In verse 3, when you're eating the labor of your hands, and you're a responsible husband here, is what this is talking about, your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house. Your children, like all of plants, all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears and reveres the Lord. This is a responsible family unit, not some guy running off doing porn and somebody out trying to get guys to think she's attractive and the kids running around, you know, social media. One thing the Harvard study said that one of the biggest detractions, one of the biggest detractions from happiness and causes of unhappiness is social media. Is the exchange of social media. It just brings tons of unhappiness. Well, not that it's necessarily bad of and by itself, but that tends to be where it goes in society.

God's laws instruct us to be responsible, to love others, serve with good works. That's what we're here for. If we look at 1 Timothy 4 and verse 8, it says, but godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. So godliness, which is loving others, helping, serving, being responsible, being an individual who contributes to the welfare of others. That is not only good for now, but God says that's good for the time which is to come. So we need to pursue this godliness. We need to chase it. We need to go after it. And the byproduct of it is happiness. That's the byproduct. It's a life that is fulfilled. It's respected. It's appreciated. It's contributing to others, which feels good doing, and the person has a happy result. In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3, we are instructed to really look to the godliness and focus on that. Don't look for the happiness. Look for the godliness. Pursue it. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3.

And his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. That's what God is giving us. He's giving us what pertains to making you and I like him, godly, doing right through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. Verse 6, add to knowledge self-control. Don't make it about me. Make it about others. That's where self-control comes in. And to self-control perseverance. And to perseverance godliness.

We're going up the chain here, as we've talked about before, and we're moving towards being more like God is. And to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness agape love.

What is the result of the pursuit of happiness? Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and verse 3. About as high up the chain as you want to go, thinking that you could be happy, would be Solomon.

Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and verse 3, he says, I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh, how to be happy, how to get happy. So I tried it with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay hold on entertainment, until I might see what was good for the sons of men.

Verse 4, I made my works great. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards. I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools. Verse 7, I acquired male and female servants to serve me.

I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. Verse 8, I also gathered for myself silver and gold and all the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I went for entertainment. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my wisdom remained with me. Verse 10, just to make sure the pursuit of happiness was pursued fully, whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. Also, he said, I did not withhold from my heart any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor. Verse 11, Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and all the labor which I had told.

And indeed all was. It's an Old English word, vanity. It doesn't mean pride or, you know, like you think of vanity today. It just means emptiness, uselessness, worthlessness. Okay? All was worthless. Another, if you look at the word, it means a vapor. All of it was like catching steam out of a coffee pot. There was nothing to it. The Hebrew word is habel, it means like a vapor. All was a vapor, like a little fog that, you know, here it's just gone.

And a grasping for the wind, like grabbing some steam or grabbing a breeze. He wasn't happy.

So there is no lasting fulfillment involved in any pursuit of personal happiness. Let's go to 1 Timothy 6 and verse 10. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 10. It's not money that's the problem, but it's the self-acquisition for me that's the problem. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 10 says, but the love of money, it's not money, it's the love. It's the, I want money. And what is money? Well, money isn't what you, it's not your crop. It's not your olives. You know, it's not your effort. Money is, money is just money. And the love of money, not the love of work, not the love of serving, not the things that would engender some money, but the love of that money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Does going after money for me produce happiness or many sorrows at the end of verse 10? But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. And when we pursue godliness, righteousness, faith, love, patience, guess what state we find ourselves in? Happiness.

But it's the opposite of what you're pursuing. It's a byproduct of it. Godliness and godly are used 32 times in the New King James Version.

Righteous and righteousness is used 558 times, meaning doing right in God's eyes. So we come now full circle and we say, okay, doing right, which is loving others, serving others, humbling the self, mind off the self, helping all those other individuals have a great time, a good life, helping the poor, etc., produces happiness.

What is the surprising result of the pursuit of happiness? Let me read you three scripture excerpts. Proverbs 29, 18. Happy is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 14, 21. He who has mercy on the poor. Happy is he. Job 5, 17. Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects.

We wouldn't necessarily associate that with happiness, would we? But, you see, being responsible, right with God, and serving others results in happiness.

In conclusion, we find that God did not create this whole universe and sacrifice his Son and go to all this element so that you and I could somehow use him to have a happy life for a personal kind of a quest. Even the liberal Atlantic magazine article determined, quote, the timeless sources of true human happiness are faith, family, friendship, and work in which we serve others. Let me read that again. The timeless sources of true human happiness—remember God's laws. They work no matter who you are. Our faith, family, friendship, and work in which we serve others. So we are to pursue godliness. It's the great two commandments that everything hinges on. And we find in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 6 that godliness with contentment is great gain. I want to conclude with that statement. Godliness with contentment is great gain. You know what the Greek word there translated great gain means? It actually means a lot of money. It's a word—great gain. It's like godliness with contentment is like getting a lot of money.

It's not exactly, but that's what it feels like. Godliness with contentment—it's like you just got a windfall. It's like the windows of heaven opened and dumped on you. So, brethren, to be happy both now and forever. Pursue godliness with contentment.