Cultivate Happiness

Sermon Transcript

INTRODUCTION

Everyone wants to be happy. There are no exceptions. In the 4th century, the greatest Christian theologian, Augustine of Hippo, wrote, “Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy…There is no man who does not desire this.” Without exception, we all want to be happy.

The great news is that when it comes to happiness, what we want for ourselves and what God wants for us align perfectly. God wants you to be happy. A 17th century puritan preacher who I love to read, named Thomas Watson, once wrote, “He [God] has no design upon us, but to make us happy…Who should be cheerful, if not the people of God?” The 19th century baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, wrote similarly, “Those who are ‘beloved of the Lord’ must be the most happy and joyful people to be found anywhere upon the face of the earth.” If a Puritan and a Baptist think that God wants you to be happy, then God wants you to be happy. But if you’re not convinced that God wants you to be happy, then let’s allow God to speak. The OT book of Psalms is clear that God wants us to be exceedingly happy in Him, and the Psalms are clear that happy, joyful, glad, and delight are synonyms. Joy = happy/glad.

Psalm 16:11 – You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 32:11 – Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Psalm 37:4 – “Delight yourself in the LORD…”
Psalm 68:3 – But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy.

God wants us to be exceedingly happy because God is all-satisfying. And since He is all-satisfying, God is not honored where he is not enjoyed (Illustration: serving Andrea out of duty to her vs. delight in her).

At this point, you might be thinking, “Hang on, I thought that God wants us to glorify Him, but now you’re saying that He wants us to be happy?” That’s exactly right. They’re the same end. Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648) Q1: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The question is not, “what are the chief ends [purpose] of man,” as if there were two. The question is, “what is the chief end of man?” We have one end: glorify God & be happy in Him. You can’t have one without the other. Therefore, the pastor and theologian John Piper is correct when he writes, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” So, what is happiness? Happiness is a joyful heart attitude that delights in God’s Fatherly wisdom in all circumstances, even bad circumstances.

But why does happiness, as we’ve defined it, matter so much? Why is delight in God, not just dutiful service to God, such an emphasis at Citylight Church? Let’s read four Proverbs and briefly see four reasons why happiness is so important and then we’ll land on the big idea.
Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. – Proverbs 12:25. Happiness matters because anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but God wants him glad.
A man’s spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? – Proverbs 18:14. Happiness matters because a crushed spirit is one of the worst forms of suffering and it’s not where our Heavenly Father wants us to permanently remain.
All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast. – Proverbs 15:15. Happiness in your heart matters because a cheerful heart is a feast in seasons of famine.
The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy. – Proverbs 14:10. Happiness matters because no one but God knows us well enough to make us happy. Happiness in God is our grace-filled responsibility; no one can be blamed for our unhappiness.
The immense value that Proverbs places on happiness leads me to conclude that the big idea of Proverbs on happiness is: Cultivate happiness. God is all-satisfying. When we are reconciled to God through Christ, happiness becomes our privilege. However, in this fallen world full of sickness, setbacks, disappointments, and a whole host of difficulties, happiness isn’t easy. Therefore, cultivate happiness. Proverbs provides at least four ways to go after gladness, to cultivate happiness. 1. Hear good words 2. Plan peace 3. Pay attention to your body 4. Be heavenly-minded.

HEAR GOOD WORDS

This will be our longest point and I’ll tell you why. Mike Anderson, the lead pastor at Citylight Center City, categorized every proverb by theme. He categorized twenty proverbs as being about happiness. And 25% of the proverbs about happiness teach that we cultivate happiness by hearing good words.

Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. – 12:25
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones. – 15:30
Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed [truly happy] is he who trusts in the LORD. – 16:20
Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. – 16:24
Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. – 25:25

Now, in some instances when we read “word” in these proverbs, like 16:20, it’s probably referring to the word of God. At other times, like Proverbs 12:25, it is speaking more generally about the power of hearing good, encouraging, comforting words to gladden our hearts and refresh our bodies. But the connection between hearing God’s word and generally good, gladdening words is that every word a Christian speaks is meant to build up and give grace to the hearer. Ephesians 4:29 – Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. To cultivate happiness, hear good words. And of course, the best words come from God’s word; the Bible. After all, what is the Bible? A helpful acronym to remember what the Bible is: SCAN: The Bible is the sufficient, clear, authoritative, and necessary word of God. The best words are God’s words and the happiest news is good news that Jesus Christ died and rose to forgive my sins and secure eternal life for me. Here is my best summary of what 25% of the happiness Proverbs tell us about how to cultivate happiness. At the heart of cultivating happiness is hearing good words – especially God’s word – from God’s people that gladden your heart.

What does this look like, practically? It looks like putting yourself in that path of other church members and asking them to speak good words to you, especially when you’re weighed down, and speaking good words to them. So, once a week I go on a very long walk with my beloved Andrea. Every other Thursday, I talk on the phone with my best friend outside of Andrea, Jeremy. About once a month I go on a walk or talk on the phone or meet up with many of the Citylight elders individually because they’re my friends. I share my problems, worries, concerns, and unhappiness with each of them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come to one of those calls, walks, or meals with anxiety in my heart, but left glad because their good words gladdened my heart. Sometimes they give me good advice to solve my problems and that helps. But the most helpful thing they do is give me good news from God’s word. When I’m weighed down with guilt and regret it’s their good words that God is gracious, that my many sins are forgiven, that Satan is an accuser, but Christ defeated him that really gladdens my heart. When I’m weighed down with fear, what really gladdens my heart is when they tell me the good news about the far country that is coming, a new heavens and a new earth where everything sad will come untrue. A happy church isn’t primarily a “good-advicing” community. A happy church is a “good-newsing” community. To cultivate happiness, hear and speak good words to each other. Practically, two of the best ways to ensure that you’re hearing good words from godly people are to devote yourself to a Citygroup and start a discipleship group with a few people of the same gender where you encourage one another with God’s word. Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

Now, to be this kind of happy church that the world looks at and says, “there is something different about their delight,” we have to continually grow as a church that treasures God’s word. To speak good words that gladden each other’s hearts, we have to read, meditate on, and memorize God’s word. If you’re at all low on motivation to meditate on God’s word daily, remember that it’s by learning God’s word that you’re made ready to speak good words that will gladden the hearts of your friends. What your fellow church members need is for you to grow toward being the kind of person who, when you open your mouth, your native, fluent tongue is Bible. May we be a happy church that hears and speaks good words to gladden each other’s hearts, to the glory of God. And…refuse to isolate yourself.

As an aside, the sufficiency and power of good words to gladden our hearts is why Citylight Church prizes and prioritizes biblical counseling. Biblical counseling applies Scripture to the need of the moment and brings the truth of God’s word to all kinds of struggles. Biblical counseling is unique because in it, God’s word is the meal and the gravy that feeds the suffering or sinning soul. Instead of just listening, those who practice biblical counseling will talk to you and direct you from Scripture to Jesus Christ, the healer. This is different from forms of Christian counseling where the meal of the counsel is really secular therapeutic methods with the Bible drizzled on lightly at the end like gravy on a Thanksgiving meal. Since good words from God’s words spoken in a way that fits the occasion is what gladdens our hearts, we love biblical counseling.

Now, before we move to the other three ways to cultivate happiness, we have to note that there is a way of speaking to someone with a heavy heart that actually makes things worse. Proverbs calls it singing songs to a heavy heart. Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda. – 25:20. Singing songs to a heavy heart is like ripping someone’s shirt off in the middle of a subzero snowstorm. It’s simply cruel. When my child is sick and suffering and you glibly say to me, “Rejoice in the Lord always brother, let’s sing a song,” it’s cruel. It doesn’t gladden my heart. Remember Ephesians 4:29 says to speak only what is good for building up as fits the occasion. Romans 12:15 says to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. In short, through 25% of the proverbs on happiness, God says to us, “cultivate a community that is happy in God by speaking good words from God’s word to one another in a fashion that fits the occasion.” What’s your next step? Let’s move through the next three quickly.

PLAN PEACE

Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy – 12:20.
Would you like to cultivate happiness in God? Plan peace:
Be quick to truly overlook offenses because love covers a multitude of sins
Seek God’s grace to forgive the wrongs that have been done to you because God in Christ has canceled your infinite sin-debt.
Not too long ago, someone really hurt me. I won’t get into the details and he doesn’t go to this church, but I’ll just say that I thought he and I were friends, but his actions made clear that I wasn’t much more to him than a dispenser of religious goods and services. I was angry, it was poison in my heart and was robbing my happiness. So, I decided to make a prayer card so that I could pray for him regularly and ask God for grace to forgive him. It’s amazing how canceling the debt before God and praying for him regularly helped me forgive and get perspective. I have no ill will toward him anymore. I feel so much happier.
When biblically appropriate, reconcile with people who you’ve forgiven or who have something against you.
Let go of getting the last word in. That last word that you feel like you just have to get in is often the one that sets the relationship on edge and creates conflict. Say what needs to be said and then leave it to the Lord.
To cultivate happiness, plan peace. What can you overlook? Who can you forgive? How can you reconcile? When can you let go of getting the last word in?

PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR BODY

According to Proverbs, your body keeps the score for your heart. Pay attention to your body. Listen to the way Proverbs connects the heart to the rest of the body:

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot. – 14:30
A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed. – 15:13
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones. – 15:30
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. – 17:22

To cultivate happiness, pay attention to your body. If your bones are crushed and dried up, if you can’t sleep and are in lots of pain, your body may be indicating that your inner life is lacking tranquility, gladness, and rejoicing. You may not need a pill, you may need good words from God’s word through God’s people. Pay attention to the body that God has given you because it keeps the happiness score.

BE HEAVENLY-MINDED

The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. – 10:28. Future hope has the power to reach back into the present and create happiness in the midst of very trying seasons. 1 Peter says you’ve been born again through faith in Christ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. If you knew that you were going to come into a massive inheritance at age forty, would you fret much over the inevitable financial challenges that we all experience in our twenties when we are just getting going? No! You’d look forward to forty and the rich inheritance that’s coming, and you’d rejoice at twenty-eight, even though you’re in the thin years. How much more joy is available to us during our brief eighty or ninety years when we look forward to the unfading eternal inheritance that awaits all who are in Christ. That’s what Proverbs means when it says that the hope of the righteous brings joy. Being heavenly-minded makes us earthly-happy.

Honest question: What comes to mind when you think of heaven? I fear because of pop culture caricatures, what comes to mind may not be all that desirable because it’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that when a believer in Jesus Christ dies, their body goes into the ground and their soul is immediately present with the Lord. Paul says that if we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord, which the Bible says is far better than this life. However, that is not our eternal home. One day, after the Lord Jesus Christ returns, heaven will come down to earth. This earth will be renewed and resurrected. Our souls will be reunited with our bodies and we will live forever on a physical new earth in a new heavens with new, resurrection bodies that are like Jesus Christ’s glorious resurrection body. It will be more real and more physical than life in this present creation. Every tear will be gone, the most beautiful places in this present creation will be like a shadow of the reality that we will enjoy, we will have meaningful work, rich relationships, eternal joy, and Jesus Christ will be the center of it all. It will be a world of love. That is your inheritance in Jesus Christ and the eternal hope of it, when you fill your mind with it, rejoices the heart. Try not to let a day go by without meditating on the glory of eternal life with God. I have alarms set on my phone for 11am and 2pm (except Sundays) that remind me to fill my mind with my eternal hope and let that hope inform my present emotions.

Future hope is the way the Lord Jesus Christ was able to face the agony of the cross for us. Hebrews 12:2 – looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. It was for the joy of forgiving our sins and redeeming a people forever that allowed Jesus Christ to endure the agony of substituting himself for us on the cross. He was heavenly minded and that made it possible for Him to rejoice even when he tasted condemnation and death for us. If you repent and believe in Jesus Christ, then you will be declared righteous, given eternal hope, and your heavenly-mind will allow you to cultivate present happiness, to the glory of God. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. May we cultivate happiness to his glory so that the world sees that our God is truly all-satisfying.