Topic: What is happiness? how can one find happiness?

Scripture reading: Matthew 24:37

Introduction
These two questions come up very often in the media and television programmes. Does
happiness exist? if so where, and how can one find it. Today, those who are in the pursuit of
happiness are often worried and upset by:

o The economic crisis

o The increase in price that decreases our saving and purchasing power
o Insecurity that drives fear in us.
o Terrorist attack.
o The future of our children.
o The advance in technology that pulls us apart and locking us in front of our so confrontable small
screams.
o Our personal problems
o Finding a spouse
o Paying off our debts
o By disease that plague the earth.
o Or by the disappointment of a promotion, we were waiting for but didn’t receive it.

looking at this list expected happiness shows that perhaps happiness is the most difficult
word to define or to explain but, one thing is certain everybody absolutely everyone on
earth, in one way or another is looking for happiness somewhere.

Let’s pray

Everyone on earth, in one way or another is looking for happiness somewhere.

o Whether it is by putting aside a huge sum of money.

o Being in control.
o Sacrificing ourselves for our children.
o Living according to the Bible principals.
o Working hard to make ends meet.
o Running after one pleasure to another or devoting ourselves to genuine activities.

We all seek to achieve a certain state of happiness now or later. One thing is certain, we all
have a personal definition of happiness. For some, happiness relates to money and power
for others it is sacrifice, shearing and being modest.
COLLINS dictionary gives the following definition of happiness.
Happiness is an emotional state characterized by feelings of joy, pleasure, gratification, excitement, and
achievement. It is involving positive emotions and a well balance life.

Happiness is therefore not only a state of pleasure, joy nor gratification, it represents a state
of balance that last throughout our lifetime. People tend to be confused between happiness,
joy, and pleasure. One is brief and punctual while the other last for a lifetime. Spending a
pleasant and joyful time does not mean we are happy, and we have achieved happiness.

Tonight, I would like us to answer these 7 questions personally.

1. Does happiness depend on what you have?

2. Does religion lead to happiness?
3. When will we experience happiness, now or during eternity?
4. Can we truly find happiness, or does it fall on us by chance?
5. Do we have to go beyond the extreme to find happiness?
6. What are the limits in the quest for happiness?
7. Can we say we are living our happiest life on earth?

Let me share this poem with you before I continue.

The title of the poem is: Money will buy

Money will buy a bed but not sleep;

books but not brains;
food but not appetite;
beauty products but not beauty.
a house but not a home;
medication but not health.
luxuries but not culture;
religion but not salvation ;
a passport to everywhere but not heaven;
amusements but not happiness.

Friends! Let me tell you, happiness is the fruit of a spiritual struggle; it is not only well-
being or material security.

Being happy is God’s will for each of us. We are not in this world by chance. You and I are
the most wonderful creation designed by the world greatest artist. Our intelligent, beauty,
skills nor structure can be compared to thing on this planet, this tell us there is someone
superior to man who is capable of this wonder.
It is impossible for man to create a drawing without draft but for God it’s not, I am saying
this to remind you that we were not place on this earth to live in misery, dirt and poverty.

Dear youth, if there are persons who are unhappy, it’s because they are neglecting the
formula of a happy life. What is this formula?

Let’s read: Deuteronomy 30:9&10

‘‘9
Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your
womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you
prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors.
. 10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the
Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.’’

Maybe you think it’s heavy and burdensome to keep God’s commandments, if you think so,
then think again my friends, let read what is said in 1st john 5:3

3
In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.

This society is molding a God to suite those living in it, people who are money-oriented and
superstitious.

Let’s read: Matthew 24:37

37
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling,
budling and having fun, living carless without thought of their actions, there were living a
life of impurity and in fornication. No one was thinking of the judgment day.

The text in Ecclesiastes: 11. 9 gives us context

9
You who are young, be happy while you are young,
and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you into judgment.

For this generation that we are living in, happiness is equal to giving one’s heart joy, having
access to all kind of pleasure and sinful behavior.
do you know: "Everything is permissible," but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible," but not
everything builds up. We need to control our liberty by the law of God love.

My dear friends, it is not forbidden to have moments of joy nor pleasure But, in all these
things we must be wise, because at the end of it all we will have to give account to God for
our actions.

The human heart thirst for happiness and pulsation; if You are searching for happiness in
material things, in night clubs or in a one-night stand. Maybe it is in love at first sight, or all
the forbidden things life has to offer.

Ask yourself this one question: What will it profit me to gain the entire world but lose my
soul?

We know Solomon was the wisest and richest king, but he said, “I have seen all the works that
are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Obviously, wealth and status,
and other pleasures of the world cannot fill our hearts, but will make us feel more and more
empty.

However, nobody can realize their dreams but achieve hopelessness and emptiness.
Mankind can’t help but ask itself: Life is short, how can we not waste each day of our lives?

To Conclude I would like to say:

Friends, if we here on planet Earth, breathing sin- polluted air and living among sin-infected
people, true happiness will always be hard to find. Whether you’re billionaire King Abdulla
of Saudi Arabia, or Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z, self-appointed “King of New York,” no earthly
pleasure, fun nor kingdom will offers us true happiness. Sure, you can get all the toys—
cars, clothes, money, even friends—but true happiness can never be bought. This is
absolutely true: No earthly satisfaction nor kingdom lasts forever, no matter how rich or
prosperous that person is. So, if you’re seeking to happiness let God guide you. “Fear God,
and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”