Happiness

This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Wintersprings, Florida, where Dr. Pete Alunson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part 18 in the offensive Christianity series. This message is titled Happiness and it's taken from Psalm 1. Now here's Pete with today's message. Father, that's our prayer this morning as we come before you is to hear your words in our life. Lord, we do need to be understood and so it's good to know that you understand us. That you understand our thoughts, you understand our pain, you understand our joys. You know us because you made us and you've been involved in our whole lives. Lord, you know us and so we come to you today. And as we come before you to look into your word, we pray that your word would be opened up to us. That your word that reveals to us the path of life would become clear and clear every day. Lord, that in it, as we study, we would find out the path of righteousness, the path of blessing, the path to happiness. Lord, you know each one of us, you know each person here and you know that some are here today and they're not emotionally happy. You know that some are here today suffering enormously or their loved one is. People struggling with cancer, heart problems, all kinds of issues Lord here in this church, emotionally and their family. And so Lord, we're not always happy but we come to you to find our happiness and our joy and we ask that you would meet us and that you would now enable us to confess our sins before you. So that because of what Jesus did on the cross, our sins are paid for and you're not angry at us, you're not angry at us this morning. You haven't been because Jesus took your anger. So we come to you and pray that we would hear your voice, that we would see your kindness and your mercy. We would see your power, we would see your love and that Lord you would lead us in the paths of righteousness for your name's sake. Lord we thank you that in the midst of the elections and all of the transition in our culture, that Lord we're grateful that you're at charge. You raise up the leadership, those who you will, you put down leaders, Lord. You somehow mysteriously and your powerful way worked through all of us, even the wicked and you accomplish your will. Lord so we pray that you would be with our leaders, that you've raised up. We pray that they would do your will and not just human will. We pray for our president, we pray for our troops. Lord we consistently pray for those in service. Thank you for the veterans in this church, Lord for their service, their sacrifice. And we honor them today and we thank you for them. So Father in the midst of all of the good, the challenges, Lord those things that bring joy and happiness and those that don't, we ask that you would teach us. And we pray you'd be with the one who teaches today, forgive him his sins. Lord use one who is finite to communicate your infinite truth as we pray in Jesus' name. All right, so good to have you here. And as I'm looking around, I think I spotted John Montgomery back there. I did. John, you can run but you can't hide. John is a good friend of mine. He's the senior pastor at River Oaks Presbyterian Church and I love him a lot. John, you must be on vacation today. So that means you don't want to do anything like preach or do the benediction or anything, right John? Just kind of want to be left alone. Not pointed out or anything. God bless you man. I love you. I'm glad you're here. Good to see you. Listen, we're in a series called, what are we in? Offensive Christianity. And we've been in this series for several weeks now. I've gone from series to series. We're in a series called Offensive Christianity. Not because we want to learn how to be more obnoxious. We're naturally that way. We Christians are. But the reality is that we're thinking about how can we stay positive and upbeat in a very difficult world, in a challenging world where we go through suffering? Where we go through difficulty? How is it that we can stay upbeat? How we can stay faithful to Jesus Christ in the midst of difficulty? A friend of mine sent me some old jokes this past week and I love them. They're old. A pastor, a Presbyterian minister is on an airplane and they hit. He's been talking with the lady next to him and they hit turbulence big time and the lady angrily looks at the Presbyterian minister and said, You believe in the sovereignty of God? Why don't you pray and get something done here? And he said, Madam, I'm in sales, not in management. You know, there's some things you can do and some things you can't do. Another old joke that I love so much is the story of the two old guys who played softball all the time. They played all the time and they played it into their 90s and then one of them finally got sick and he was in the hospital and it was the last days for him and his buddy came in to see him and he said, You know, we've played softball all these years. I love it. You love it. I got to know if there's softball in heaven. Would you tell me and he said, We've been friends. When I get there, I'll find a way to let you know. And so one night after his friend died, he had a dream. And his friend was talking to him and said, I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is there is softball in heaven, the bad news. You're pitching tomorrow. You laughed. I mean, is it okay to laugh? Is it okay to be happy? You were even happy when the choir sang this morning. Isn't it great to be a Presbyterian? I mean, you know, we can be happy like that. Is it okay? You know, as we continue the series, offensive Christianity, my thesis today is this. If happiness were biblical, if it was okay, we probably would stay faithful. We'd stay on the offensive. We'd stay following Jesus. Even if being happy were biblical, it would keep us more faithful. Wouldn't it? Would me? I think it would. All of us. That's the thesis today. And as we look at the text in Scripture, we want to see if, in fact, it is biblical to be happy. So let's take a look. Psalm 1, 1 through 6, by the way, this is a great Psalm. It is a Psalm that you can memorize. And if you're spiritual, you will. But it'll help you so much. Psalm 1, blessed is the man or woman who does not walk in the council of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does, prosperous. Not so the wicked. They're like the chaff at the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment or sinners in the assembly of the righteous. And the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. This is God's word to us. And it's powerful. And again, remember that the thesis this morning is if happiness were biblical, it would keep us on the offensive following Jesus Christ. And so that's the big question before us today is happiness, biblical. And we're going to talk about it. Psalm 1 and 2 are not David's Psalms. There are other Psalms written by inspired authors, but the first section of the book of Psalms are all Davidic Psalms. And so Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are introductions to the whole of the Psalms. And they sound almost like proverbs when you read them. They sound more like proverbs than Psalms. Wisdom literature that says basically this. All things being equaled. This is true. Generally speaking, this is true. And that's what's going on. Generally speaking, most of the time we experience happiness because of what God has done. If we follow His ways, we will be happy. Most of the time we're going to talk about that. By the way, the first point today is really defending happiness. I have to defend happiness because there are many Christians that don't believe in happiness. There are many Christians that believe in what's the other word that we believe in. Joy, yeah. We say the Bible doesn't teach that you should be happy or that you can be happy or that happiness is even a goal for the Christian. The Bible teaches that you and I ought to pursue joy. What's joy? Joy is an inward emotional state that enables us to keep on keeping on with deep contentment even when the external stuff is going bad. Right? Is that joy? Roughly speaking that is. Yeah. Well, what's happiness? Is happiness an emotion? Yeah, you think I'm going to trap you? Is happiness an emotion? Yes. Yeah, it's an emotion. And so we say because it's an emotion, it ought not to be something Christian because it's dependent upon circumstances. There's a lot of Christians who don't think we ought to be happy. Don't think you ought to be happy. Don't think you ought to sing songs like we sang around here. Don't think you ought to tell jokes in sermons. They ought to be serious and sober. Those are the same people that hate sunsets and puppies and flowers. And then they become Christians and they say, you ought to not do that in church. It's not right. And I say, wait a minute, let me get this straight. The gospel means what? Good news and good news is supposed to make you sad and somber? Oh, okay, I don't get it. But they do that. So I have to defend that happiness is okay. Okay, and this song starts out. The first word, did you remember the first word? And the new international brings out the original Hebrew very well. It is the word, what? Blessed. That's the first word. And the word blessed is the Hebrew word ashré. And now you need to know that there's not many other Hebrew words, but for blessed, the most common Hebrew word for blessed is brah. You want to say it right? You got to say brah. But this is not brah. Brah carries the idea of when God blesses us or when we bless God back in worship. The word here translated blessed is the word ashré. What does ashré mean? Well, we know from this song that it means the opposite of perishing. What's the last word in this song? The first word is blessed. The last word is perishing. So we know that ashré or blessed at least means the opposite of perishing. A person who is blessed ashré is not perishing. And then by the analogies, the metaphors in this song, we see that the righteous person is like a tree planted by water. Not a fruitful. He or she is just really a flourishing or it's supposed to be the chaff that's dried up. So we know that ashré, blessed carries the idea of not perishing and being fruitful and what a happy person. You know what Hebrew scholars do though when they really look at this. It's translated blessed. I know. But most of the time, blessed is translated from brah. But the Hebrew scholars say, you know, if we really wanted to pick the best word for ashré, we'd pick in English. We'd pick happy. So in defending happiness, the reality is it's biblical. Ashré. That's what God says. And if you don't believe me, go back to Genesis. And read the Genesis account, not now. Don't read it now. Read it later. When God created Adam and Eve before they sinned, were they happy? Let me say not, I don't think so. They were sober. Of course they were happy. Did God put them in a garden or did he put them in the desert? Did he give them all kinds of great food to eat that they didn't have to work for? Of course. Did God intend that his children would be happy in the ultimate state? Joyful. Joyful. No. Of course he did. Do you as a parent? Do you have kids? Do you want your kids to be joyful? Or do you want them to be happy? You want both, don't you? But most of the time, I want you to be happy. That's why when they're in the store and the checkout line. And they mark it so well, they merchandise so well. It's all right there. Everything your kid wants. Nothing you want. Everything they want. It's right there. And that's why it's a constant struggle. You know, I have learned that girls like shoes more than boys do. Oh my goodness. And the enemy. Of course you want your kids to be happy. Do you want to be happy? Is that higher on your list? Yeah, you woke up this morning. Did you say, Lord, I really want to be joyful. I said, I want to be happy. I want to have a happy day. Of course. God created you. Don't want that to desire that. It's a part of his will. It comes to the word ashram. Some of you remember our original, one of our original elders, Bob Hall, big tall guy. He told me when he was in college, he worked for southeastern books. Some of you did too. You sold for southeastern books. They got him up at six o'clock in the morning. All these college students. And they had a pep rally at the beginning of the morning before they sent him out to sell books. And the pep rally was this. The guy got up front and said, are you healthy, happy, and terrific. And they had to repeat back. We are healthy, happy, and terrific. It just cracked me up thinking of these college students. But when God created Adam and Eve, how did He create him? Healthy, terrific. He wants that then. He wants it now. By the way, if you view of God as he doesn't want you happy, that tells me more about you. It tells me more about your background. It tells me about your theology. It tells me that you're living more through your pain than through the revelation of God's word. And defending the concept of happiness, I want you to know that it's biblical to be happy. Now some of you temperamentally are happier than others. You sanguins and fleagmatics are happier than the melancholys and calerics. The melancholys and calerics are the saddest and the maddest people in this church. Your knee jerk reaction is to be mad and sad. You sanguins and fleagmatics. You irritate everybody else. Why are you happy? But that's the way it is. So temperamentally, some of us are happier than others. But it's biblical. Defending happiness, secondly, I want you to know pursuing happiness because that's what this psalm is all about. This psalm is how do you get it? And first of all, notice how he talks out telling us what not to do. Happiness, see happiness is not only emotion, it's a life skill. Do you hear that? Because I think it's very important. God doesn't teach us anything unless it's a life skill. This is a life skill. Happiness is a life skill, not just an emotion. And so first of all, he tells us what not to do. Here it is. Blessed is a man who does not walk in the council of the wicked or stand in the way of the sinners or sit in the sea of scoffers. That's one big thing. But notice, he says, if you want to be happy in this life, you will stay away. You will not spend time with those who are wicked. Now that sounds like a pretty strong word, doesn't it? But in psalms and in proverbs and in the wisdom literature of the Bible, a wicked person is somebody who does the opposite of what God wants to do. God says, live this way. This is the right way to live. This is the best way to live. This is the way to happiness, to be healthy, happy, and terrific. I sound like health and wealth, don't I? Some of you just aren't sure. I've gone away from my Presbyterian roots. You're going to bring me up on charges and Presbyter, don't, don't, don't. You hear me out. See, the wicked are those who go the other way. And there's a lot of people who are relatively good, but, you know, compared to mass murderers, but they're still wicked in many ways. Let's just use the terminology. What not to do is follow in the way of the wicked. Now the scholars who study the Old Testament say, don't follow this progression too much, but I can't help it. Notice what it says, walk in the council of the wicked, and then what? Stand in the path. They've got to sit in the seat of scoffers. Scoffers are the worst kind of sinners. And they say, don't follow that progression, but sure looks like. See, if we're walking through life, and we are listening day in and day out to wicked people who are not following the Lord, if we're walking with them, and they seem like they are the godly ones who we ought to follow, and we're listening to them and all of a sudden we stop and say, what is it you're saying? We start to take it in more, a little bit more. And then if we continue to let them influence us, then we say, let's get a cup of coffee. We sit down. What are you saying? And the progression is real, however you cut it. That if we will allow the wicked to influence us, we walk with them until they get our attention. And then we stop and we listen. And then we begin to really take it in. Students, you got to understand that that's how life works. That's how influence works. People we walk with, we stop and talk with and we sit with. And he says, if you want to be happy, you got to stay away from those people because they're not going to help you. Corinthians 1533, bad company corrupts good morals. And it's just the way it is. And he says, don't be around those people. It's a way to happiness. Now, are we going to ever be able to get away from sinful people all the time? No. Is that the goal to build a covenant community here where it's just us? A holy huddle. Just ask good and godly people. Oh, man. Some of you are saying, yeah, I think so. Are we all good and godly? Good. Good. Because if you, I'm glad some of you said, no, because if you said, yes, and I'd have to confess some of your sins for you. You know, there's a whole lot of bad going on in here too. And so no, you know, we were saved not so that we could be in a holy huddle away from everybody else. But so we could be leavened for the rest of the world to be out there for. But for us, while we're out there, the council still stands that if we're going to be happy, we can't go the other way. That's not going to make us happy. It's not. It's going to hurt us. And parents, you will never get your kids away from all sin. There was a college up north some place that marketed itself by saying, we're 100 miles from any known sin. I've been to a Christian college. I mean, I'll tell you about the sin in a Christian college, man. But he says, what not to do? If you want to be happy, what not to do is hang around the wicked and let them influence you. What to do, verse two, his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. The happy person is the one. You know, again, this is generally speaking. We follow God's way. Look at your life. Those of you have been following Jesus since the time of the Apostle Paul. All right. Has everything been perfect? No. But are you basically happy for the life that you have been living following Jesus? Yeah. Why? Because it's the right way. There's way more blessing than there are difficulties in that way. When we follow God's will we. We're happier. I was out in Colorado speaking a few weeks ago and I had a morning off. So I had an opportunity to take a hike. And there was a 13 or 13 or 13 or as opposed to a 14 or they have 54 mountains over 400,000, 14,000 feet. And they've got, I don't know how many 13,000, 13 or 14 years. There was a 13 or and I wanted to climb it. And had a morning off and there was no maps in the place. And there was nobody who worked at the camp that wanted to go. But they dug up a 17 year old kid. And he'd hiked it. He'd hiked it two times in two previous days. And he wanted to go the third day. He'd hiked the same mountain the third day. That is a definition of neurotic. I want you to know right there. But he wanted to go. And so I was cool with that. He could be neurotic with me. And I didn't know the map. He knew the way we got up there. And as we got hiking up the trail was very one mark until we hit the snow. And then the snow we stopped at a couple of places. And we didn't know. But he'd been up that mountain. We just didn't know where the trail went. And so he says I think it goes this way. And I'm standing there checking this thing out. And I said he's 17. I'm 51. We go this way. So we started going that way. And I was right. I still self-righteous. I couldn't stand. I was so great. I only told him I was right about six times. When you're hiking in territory that you don't know you've got to follow the map. And you look at the map over and over again. And you go with somebody who's been there. And only when you're an old guy. And you figured out what doesn't work. Do you know what does work? Because you've been hurt by going the wrong direction. You don't want to go there anymore. I was speaking in St. Louis Friday and Saturday. And I was teaching men about grace. And after I had a break this guy came up to me. And I mean he had tattoos all over the place. Anywhere you could put one there was one. He had pins and needles and stuff everywhere that you can put one. And he had a mustache that was curled up like this. And he dressed really funky. But he had a smile on his face. He can't tell me. I mean what you're saying about grace is that a former witch male prostitute and drug dealer can be forgiven. He was smile. You got it. And during the whole seminar what's he doing? When I'm looking when I'm turning pages and reading scripture he's going like this. He's flipping his look and he's like why? Because he's been lost. And when you're lost you follow the map. You don't want to be lost again. You want to be happy. You don't want to be unhappy. Listen my philosophy is no pain, no pain. And I'm straight with you guys. I'm hoping I'm living my life now hoping I don't mess up this church or mess up my family. I really don't want to do that. I'm going to territory that I've never been before to stage my life. I don't want to mess it up. I can't afford to go down a path that is untried, unproven. I got to go down the road that God says is going to lead me to the greatest happiness for me for you and for my family. And that's his way. How is happiness described? I love this verse three. He's like a tree planted by streams of water. What does the happy person looks like? He's a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit and its season whose leaf does not wither whatever he does he prosperous. That's what the father wants for you. Happiness, ash ray, blessedness, happiness as he builds you into a prosperous person as he defines it. Some of you are going to be wealthier than others. Some of you are going to have more success in work than others. That's fine. There are pastors at bigger churches in mine. So, and your point would be, can I be happy here? I'm very happy. We'd be happy wherever God puts us if we're going his way. That's what it's all about. Are you always going to be happy as a Christian? No. No. I mean, when are you not happy? I'm not happy when I preach a bad sermon. When plans don't come together, I like it when a plan comes together. That great theologian said a few years ago on TV. I don't like it when plans don't come together. I don't like it when I feel shame or guilt. I'm not happy. I'm not happy when you suffer or my family suffers. And if you do, you're in trouble. If you are happy, you need counseling when those things happen. There are times where we're not going to be happy, but the reality is if we're going down God's path will be like Jesus said. He said, I am the true vine of my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. So, it will be even more fruitful. There are times where we go through trials and suffering and difficulty. And I talked about suffering last week. God prunes us in the midst of suffering. That's true. He makes us holier. And more resembling him in our character. But then he says in verse three, you're already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. God looks at you as clean because of Jesus. You're clean, not dirty. Remain in me. I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit of itself. It must remain in the vine. See, that's walking the same path. Remaining in the vine. That's the same idea. Different metaphor. I am the vine. You are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he'll bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he's like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, whatever, ask whatever you wish. You'll be given you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit. Showing yourself to be my disciple. See, once you to bear fruit, once you to be happy. You've got to defend happiness and pursue happiness. Now, real quickly, for those of you who would like to pursue unhappiness, this is what he says. If you want to pursue one happiness, this is how you do it. Verse four, not so, the wicked. In other words, the wicked do everything opposite to the righteous. By the way, are we righteous because we're doing everything right? No, no. See, what he's saying here is that the righteous are those who have been called by God, redeemed by Christ and are following God's way. He calls us righteous. That doesn't mean we do everything right. But the wicked don't want it in to do with Jesus. They don't want anything to do with forgiveness. They don't want anything to do with God's way and they deliberately go the other way and they are like, well, they are like chaff. Have you ever seen chaff? What is chaff? Talk to me. What is chaff? It's the kernel, the external, very thin, waste kernel around grain or something important, right? Have you ever seen, by the way, have you ever seen chaff? We eat peanuts sometimes. Maybe we've been walking along the road and saying, oh, there's a piece of chaff right there. No, you can't see chaff. What happens to chaff? Just like this. I've been wanting to do that in church for a long time. Just make a mess. What good are little dots that you punch out of the janitor and going to be happy with me today? And there's some people in the choir who said, I've got to pick those up before the next service. They said, don't be so neurotic. Just leave it there. They don't even see it out there. You won't be able to worship, but that's okay. What good are these little round holes? Nothing. They're good for nothing. They're good for nothing. Chaff. See, the difference between chaff and these little round holes is you can see these little round holes. You can't even see chaff. You follow the way of the wicked. God says, you're like chaff. Nobody will even see you. A person who follows in the way of wickedness might cause great damage, might do horrible things, but eventually they're nothing. They become inconsequential. The opposite of what we want. We want significance. He says, you'll be chaff. Now, here's how the Psalm ends, verse 5. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment or the sinners in the assembly of the righteous. The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Let me give you some bullet truths. Here you go. Because there is a God who is holy, there is a right way to live and a wrong way to live. Number two. Because there is a God who is holy and just, there is a blessing and a cursing. And there is a blessing and a cursing in this life and there's a blessing and a cursing in the life to come. The blessing in this life for following the Lord is that we will, most of the time, be happy, hurt. Find joy. Find that God's way is the good way. The cursing in this life for not following God's path is to become chaff inconsequential. Nothing, dried up. The blessing of God in the life to come is called heaven. The cursing in the life to come is called hell. And that's why Jesus came. God is so good he doesn't want you to end up like chaff in this life nor does he want you to end up in hell in the next. He came to give us life and life abundantly. He died on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven and have happiness now and happiness in the life to come. By way of application, I just want to say this. You may be a Christian who has been going down the wrong path. You were going down the right path for a long period of time, but then you decided to go down the other path. And you're not really happy. Being on your own, going against God. Not really. You can always turn back. Jesus died for that. He's not angry at you. So you can just turn around today and say, I want to go down the right path and look at His word for the right steps. If you don't know Christ and you're going down the other path, you can turn around now today because Jesus died for you. God is so great. We're worshiping Him today. We're singing songs that ought to only be sung in a charismatic church because the fact that we're happy and you can embrace Him by faith today. We call you to Him. We call you to freedom. We call you to happiness as well. It's our heads and hearts. Before we end this time today, it might be a good thing for you because you might forget. Maybe now is the time in the quiet of your heart and mind to just tell God I want to get going down the other path again toward you. Just tell Him that and ask Him for strength. And if you've never embraced Christ, simply say this in your heart. Sometimes the quickest prayers are the most meaningful. I need a Savior. I'm tired of doing life my way and I embrace you today. Come into my life or Jesus. Father, meet us and help us to follow you to true happiness this week. Be with your people who you love a whole lot more than I do. Give them your grace, strength today. We pray. Jesus holy name. Willow Creek Church is associated with the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.willowcreekchurch.org and our phone number is 407-699-82-11.