God Never Said That: God Wants Me To Be Happy

There's nothing wrong with pursuing happiness IF our definitely of happiness is Biblically accurate.

God wants me to be happy

Isaiah 52:7 (ESV) – “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Psalm 97:12a (NLT) – “May all who are godly rejoice…”

Psalm 97:12a (NLT) – “May all who are godly be happy…”

The Problem With Happiness

Happy:
a state of well-being and contentment: joy
a pleasurable or satisfying experience

John 10:10 – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

God wants us to be happy, unless that happiness is caused by something we have done that is not right or is unwise.

God wants us to be happy, unless it is at the expense of others.

God wants us to be happy, unless happiness, resulting from worldly things, becomes our greatest pursuit.

God delights in our happiness, when our happiness derives from us delighting most in Him.

Joy = Living in the awareness of grace and favor.
Grace = That which affords joy.

Joy is Grace recognized and lived out without depending on what you feel in the moment.

John 15:9-11 – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Isaiah 35:5-10 - “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling spring. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

God Never Said That: A Heart to Follow

God never said to "follow your heart."

Genesis 6:5

Jeremiah 17:9

Proverbs 28:26 (NKJV)

Matthew 15:18-19

TAKEAWAY: Our hearts were never designed to be followed, but to be led by the only heart worth following.

Acts 13:22

1. Dependence

2. Obedience

3. Repentance

Fully DEPENDENT on God

Because David knew he couldn't trust his own heart.

Psalm 51:5

Psalm 16:2

Our dependence on God is directly connected to our understanding of who He is and who we are before Him.

The better our understanding of God, the more dependent we will be upon Him.

1 Samuel 17:37

Faithfully OBEDIENT to God

The more dependent we are upon God, the more obedient we will be to Him.

Acts 13:22

Psalm 18:1

Psalm 103:1-2

John 14:15

Fearfully REPENTANT before God.

Repentance- a change of mind that results in a change of action. Repentance puts sin in it's proper perspective.

Psalm 51:1-4, 7-10

How we feel about our sin is one the greatest indicators of how near or far our hearts are from God.

Psalm 139:23-24

Prov 3:5-6

From Complacency to Revival

Complacency- a feeling of contentment or self satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger.

Revival- renewed interest after a period of indifference or decline.

Isaiah 6:1–8 (NIV)
1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

1. Revival involves a defining moment, usually a crisis

Isaiah 6:1 (NIV)
1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

2 Chronicles 26:1–5 (NIV)
1Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
2He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors.
3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah; she was from Jerusalem.
4He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.
5He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.

2 Chronicles 26:16–23 (NIV)
16But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the LORD followed him in.
18They confronted King Uzziah and said, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the LORD God.”
19Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the LORD’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead.
20When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the LORD had afflicted him.
21King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and banned from the temple of the LORD. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
22The other events of Uzziah’s reign, from beginning to end, are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
23Uzziah rested with his ancestors and was buried near them in a cemetery that belonged to the kings, for people said, “He had leprosy.” And Jotham his son succeeded him as king.

2. Revival involves a fresh glimpse of Gods glory.

Isaiah 6:1 (NIV)
1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Isaiah 46:10 (NIV)
10I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’

Isaiah 6:2 (NIV)
2Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

Isaiah 6:3 (NIV)
3And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Isaiah 6:4 (NIV)
4At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

Isaiah 40:25 (NIV)
25“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

3. Revival involves repenting of our sin.

Repentance- a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.

Isaiah 6:5 (NIV)
5“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

4. Revival involves experiencing the grace of God.

Isaiah 6:6–7 (NIV)
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 (NIV)
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9not by works, so that no one can boast.
10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

5. Revival involves obedience.

Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)
8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Jesus is Our Only Hope

1 Pet 1:3-9 Preach the gospel to yourself every morning, we have hope in Jesus.

Our minds are to be fully engaged. 1 Pet 1:13. Fill our minds with Godly things. 

Choose your words carefully. Always be helpful.

Our lives are to be different. 1 Pet 1:14-15. Our lives should point to the Holy God.

What do we do?

1. We need to pray.

2. Examine our hearts. 

3. Talk about the situation, be open, be helpful.

4. Don't go back to "business as usual." Be proactive, reach out to help in the name of Jesus. Be a part of the solution.

Jesus is there

John 4:1–26 (NIV)
1Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

1. Jesus will always show up at noon.

A time when we are broken, when we hide our struggles, when we need Him most. Jesus is looking for me and wants to know me like no one else will.

John 4:6 (NIV)
6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

2. Jesus comes to us on our brokenness, not our greatness.

Jesus knows all of our struggles and sin, and He wants us anyway.

John 4:16 (NIV)
16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

3. Don’t miss your divine moment.

Open up to Jesus, come clean with Him.

John 4:13–14 (NIV)
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 1:14 (NIV)
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:16 (NIV)
16Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

4. Tell your story!

John 4:27–30 (NIV)
27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”
30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

John 4:39–42 (NIV)
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.
41And because of his words many more became believers.
42They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

SPEAK, DON’T SPEAK

Ecclesiastes 3:7b - “[There’s] a time to be silent and a time to speak…”

Before you speak, be certain your words would be better than your silence.

Position, Problem, Prescription

Position

James 3:2 perfect means mature. We must think about our words and how they affect others.

Proverbs 18:21 – “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

James 1:26-27 – “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.”

James 3:2-5 - “We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

Problem

We have a sin nature, and our words can hurt others as well as our relationships.

James 3:7-8 – “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

James 3:9-12 –9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

Prescription

Listen to the Word of God, take time to think and pray. When you do speak, use words that are God honoring and give life and encouragement.

James 1-19 – “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry

James 1:21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”

Luke 6:45 – “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Proverbs 15:28 (NLT) – “The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words.”

Fix the heart, fix the issues.

Cry out to God, lean into Him, take His Word to heart.

Psalm 141:3 (NLT) – “Take control of what I say, O LORD, and guard my lips.”

Psalm 19:14 (NLT) – “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Jesus Turned Around

Mark 5: 25-34 ESV And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Jesus turned around. So awesome! Jesus will always turn around and call us a daughter or son.

Sometimes we might feel like Jesus won't like us because of the things we do. We serve a God who takes pleasure in us, who always loves us.

The woman in this story had been unclean for 12 years, she was an outcast. She tried to handle her problems by herself, but it just made her worse. So often we do this too, we turn to other things to numb the pain. The only way to be made whole is to get into the presence of Jesus. He wants us to come to Him, He loves us unconditionally. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

If Jesus sees us in pain or ashamed, His desire is to run to us and hold us and tell us He loves us.