Strength for the Journey: 1 Corinthians 15:58, etc.: True Happiness

Everyone wants to be happy, but most people are looking for it in all the wrong places. Here are the three things you need in order to be happy.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:58, 1 JOHN 4:7-12, & JOHN 14:3: TRUE HAPPINESS

INTRODUCTION

When I taught seventh grade I used to ask my students to write for me an essay: “My Goal in Life.”

As their compositions showed, my students weren’t very ambitious to make a great mark in the world—to find the cure for cancer or to explore the Amazon or to write great books or symphonies.
Most of the children wrote that all they really hoped for in life was to “be happy.”
They weren’t especially interested in fame or fortune or accomplishing great things. They just wanted “happiness.”
They didn’t realize—what all of us older people know—that happiness isn’t something you can find by seeking it.

You’ve probably heard the saying:

“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder.”

Not so many mornings ago I woke up—as I often do—long before time to get up and was thinking about life. I was considering what I had done with my life up to now and that soon my life on earth would be ending, and what would I have to show for it?

I was thinking about the pains and limitations of old age, and I was becoming sort of melancholy as I thought about how little time I have left.
I wondered: what do I really need to be happy?
Then something came to me that I had read many years ago. It was this saying,

”Happiness consists of three things:
something to do,
someone to love,
and something to look forward to.”

I thought about the wisdom of that saying, and it occurred to me that with Christ in my life I have all these things.

I. The first thing we need to be happy: Something to do: 1 Corinthians 15:58:

“Therefore my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

A. Many of you have been active in times past, serving God and serving other people. You have cared for your families, visited sick neighbors, taught SS, sung in choirs, given to those in need, served your churches and neighborhoods in 100 different ways.

B. But now it is different. The old opportunities are gone and maybe you have become discouraged because now you are no longer serving others but others are serving you. But now I want to remind you that there are still things to do for others and for God.

We can all pray—for our families, our friends, our enemies, the people of the world. When we watch our TVs and see the troubles of the world, we can pray for these people. We can pray for our churches, for our children and grandchildren and relatives out in the world that need help from our God. Someday we may learn that the greatest good we did in the world was by our prayers.

We can encourage others. Think of how often your day has been brightened by a friendly smile or a word of encouragement. You can be that person who encourages others by an expression of gratitude, a compliment, a listening ear.

We can still give. Maybe we can’t give as we used to, but we can still give something back to God. We can still give gifts to other people.

I had an aunt who lived to be 101. She lived in a nursing home for several years. She ordered several copies of a monthly devotional booklet. When the nurse aides came into her room, she gave each aide of her booklets.
They came to expect them and ask for them.

And most important—we can bear witness that God is real.

I think of a last visit to a friend as she lay in bed at the end of life.
She was not old but she had a disease that she knew couldn’t be cured.
She was not grieving. She was planning her funeral.
She wanted her service to be a witness to her faith in God.
At one point she began to laugh. She said, “I seem to always want to be in control. Here I am planning my own funeral!”
Even in her weakness she was keeping her faith alive.
That strengthened my faith. I thought: “If she is able to say that God is real, then he must be real!

II. The second thing we need to be happy: Someone to love. I John 4:7-12:

“Dear friends, let us love one another;
for love is of God,
and he who loves is born of God and knows God.
He who does not love does not know God;
for God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us,
that God sent his only Son into the world,
so that we might live through him.”

A. The great incentive to love is God’s love for us: John 3:16. Let’s repeat it together.

And if we truly love God his love will fill our lives and we will love others because they are dear to him.

B. Yesterday we had been married 50 years. Our children asked our friends and relatives to send us cards. We have been getting these expressions of love from people we love and it has been very humbling. We have a lot of people to love and so do you.

C. But let me remind you that love in the Bible isn’t just a feeling.

Love in the Bible is mostly a way of behaving—love is respect, kindness, courtesy, service, sacrifice, giving of what is dear to ourselves to others.
Love is for those who love us, and love is even for our enemies—Jesus said so. So when you pray for those who love you, also pray for your enemies.
That is what Jesus said. There is always someone to love. And there is always some way to show that love.

III. The third thing we need to be happy: Something to look forward to: John 14:3:

“Let not your hearts be troubled;
believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many rooms;
if it were not so,
would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And when I go and prepare a place for you.
I will come again and will take you to myself,
that where I am you may be also.

A. Sometimes you hear the saying: “The best is yet to be.” That’s especially true for Christians. Psalm 16 tells us that “in God’s presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore.”

B. Some of us have walked with God so long that we’ve forgotten how terrible it would be to grow old without God. Think of what it would be like to have nothing to look forward to but ever-increasing weakness, pain, and forgetfulness.

C. Sometimes as I lie in bed and can’t sleep I think about what it will be like in glory—in the Paradise of God, the Father’s House, New Jerusalem.

No more tears, no more crying or pain or sickness or death.
We will sing and dance and sit down together to feast with the Lord.
Every pleasure we enjoy on earth will be translated to perfection in glory.
We will be re-united with loved ones and make countless new friends. We will share stories together.
We will have work and leisure and never grow weary or be bored.
It will be better than we can imagine now.
And, best of all, we will see Jesus face to face. We will walk and talk with him.

CONCLUSION:

People think they need many things to be happy. But we know that we need only three things, and they are things that we can all have if we are friends of the Lord Jesus:

Something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.

We are so blessed, we who are God’s children. Let us give thanks.