God Wants Me to Be Happy

God want we to be happy.

We have all heard that said either in person or from someone’s post online.

Maybe no one would argue it is explicitly in the bible with a chapter and verse, but many would believe the idea is very much a biblical one.

We want to believe that God desires us to be happy, right?

And here is the good news, we are RIGHT to believe that!

God want you and me to be happy! So why am I including this statement in the Series about what is NOT in the bible?

Well, because what we typically mean when we say “God wants me to be happy” is that God wants me to be happy in the way I define happiness.

We are saying that God’s desire is for us to do whatever makes us happy, have whatever makes us happy, and be whoever we want in order to make us happy, even if it is at odds God’s Word and His way.

We want to believe that God wants us to be happy in the way WE define happy.

but we are really bad at defining happy.

There is a biblical theme that proves this.

Eve believed eating the forbidden fruit would make her happy.

Cain believed killing Abel would make him happy.

Esau thought eating the strew Jacob made him would make him happy.

Noah thought getting drunk would make him happy.

Joseph’s brothers thought selling him in to slavery would make them happy.

Samson thought marrying a Philistine would make him happy.

David thought sleeping with another man’s wife would make him happy.

David’s son Amnon thought sleeping with Tamar would make him happy.

Solomon thought after 999 women, 1 more might make him happy.

Jonah thought going to Nineveh would NOT make him happy, so he went the opposite way instead.

The rich young ruler though keeping his wealth would make him happy.

Judas thought 30 pieces of silver would make him happy.

And like those that went before us we are not good at knowing what will really make us happy.

Some of us thought that looking at porn would make us happy.

That leaving a spouse for someone else would make you happy.

Going deeper into debt for the new stuff or the awesome vacation would make us happy.

Having sex and/or living with someone you aren’t married to would make you happy.

Getting drunk with our buddies would make us happy, or at least numb our unhappiness for a while.

In all those cases, we have bought in to the lie of the Devil that God just wants us be happy and we know best what will accomplish that.

But as the Prophet Jeremiah said:

Jeremiah 17:9 CSB

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

What often think will make us happy…what we invest our lives into believing we will be satisfied…often leaves us wanting or hurting or lost.

God does want us to be happy.

He commands us to rejoice, to pursue joy and fulfillment and happiness.

In Psalm 1 David describes a “blessed” person which also means “happy”

Jesus, in the beattitudes is describing the same thing in the word “Blessed”.

God does want us to be happy, but He has also defined happiness and revealed to us how we can pursue it.

There is an account from the life of Jesus that helps us to understand what pursuing genuine happiness looks like.

I want to spend a few minutes looking at this account and point our 3 lessons about Pursuing happiness.

John 6:22–35 CSB

22 The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat. They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone. 23 Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.” 28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked. 29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.” 30 “What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” 32 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

Pursuing Happiness

Stop TRYING so HARD to FIND it.

The crowd that is referenced at the beginning of the passage is the same crowd who had been following Jesus the day before.

As Jesus and His disciples were traveling by the sea of Galilee the day before Jesus stopped and asked his disciples how they could feed the 5000 plus people who were following them.

If you remember the details of that story, the disciples were at a loss to how they could do such a thing, but one of them, Andrew, found one young boy with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.

Then one of the many miracles Jesus performed in his ministry happened right there on that hillside. With only 5 loaves and 2 fish, Jesus fed more than 5000 people.

Now the next day, that same crowd woke up and found that Jesus and His disciples were no longer there, but had traveled across the Sea to the otherside.

We don’t really know how many were left over from the previous day.

It had been 5000 men, plus all their children and wives. As many as 20,000 people.

Perhaps half or 3/4 had left and went back home. So anywhere between 1000 and 5000 people could still have been there that morning.

We are told a group of boats from Tiberias came near to the crowd, so using those boats, the crowd sailed across the sea looking for the man who had done such an incredible thing the day before.

Imagine the effort it would have taken and the organization it would have required to get that many people from one side of the sea of Galilee to the other.

It would have potentially cost them money to use the boats, and the time it would have taken to get everyone across...

But when you have found something/someone that so incredibly satisfies such a vital need, we could understand why they would go to such great lengths to track him down.

When they find Jesus, his words reveal something so profoundly illuminating about the hearts of man

John 6:26–27 CSB

26 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27 Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”

They were seeking Jesus because they thought He was something special, but because of what He had done for them…and they wanted more of it.

They were working so hard, trying so hard to get something that was only going to satisfy them for a moment, for a season and then the work would start again.

We work really hard to be happy don’t we?

Going from one thing to the next, searching for the illusive feeling of pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction we define as happiness.

For a moment or for a season we find something or someone who makes us happy, who fulfills in us a desire or a need, but it doesn’t take long for the satisfaction to wear off and the need for something new, or something refreshed to come.

This is so clear in the world of technology.

In most of our pockets or hands are phones that, when they came out, were the latest and greatest technology.

They were sold to us as something that would meet our every technological need for as long as we could imagine.

But now they are a year old, or 6 months old, and the next, the newest, and the greatest has come out and what we hold is obsolete.

But the happiness we work so hard to achieve pales in comparison to the deep and profound joy found in God.

This is where the problem with the ways we pursue happiness.

When we look for it apart from God, we seek a false substitute–one that’s temporary and fleeting.

It wears off once we return home from our vacation, or our marriage reaches a difficult season, or our job isn’t as fulfilling as it once was.

The crowd worked hard to get to Jesus, and they were willing to work toward whatever it is Jesus was promising them.

“What do we need to do to get what your talking about?”

What is the key? What is required? What are the step?

They were still thinking about bread for the stomachs.

Jesus’s words to the crowd are profound and jarring “Stop working so hard for something that will never really make you happy!”

Jesus doesn’t tell them to stop trying to be happy, He says stop working so hard to stay happy/satisfied/fulfilled.

Stop pursuing things that only temporarily satisfy and start chasing the thing that will reap lasting happiness.

RECOGNIZE where it can REALLY be FOUND.

Jesus says that what they really need isn’t more bread, they need something that doesn’t leave them hungry.

They need HIM.

They didn’t need to work hard, find a new source of happiness, or pursue another fleshly pleasure, they needed to believe in (give themselves over to) Him.

He is the bread that satisfies, that doesn’t leave them hungry and searching for something else to fill them.

Whoever the spokesperson for the crowd is seemed to be well acquainted with the OT stories.

Perhaps Jesus is talking about bread like Moses gave in the wilderness, that would be pretty sweet to have every morning.

“Why don’t you do like Moses and give us bread every morning, then we would really believe in you.”

Like the crowd, we believe if our physical needs and desires are met, then we will find happiness.

If we had bread every morning, then we wouldn’t have to work so hard to get it and could enjoy more thing we enjoy doing.

If we had a good job that we enjoyed and that paid well we wouldn’t dread going to work and would ultimately be happy.

If we had a better marriage we would be happier.

If we had a nicer house, car, bedroom set, side-by-side, or whatever, then we would be happy.

If we have a boy friend/girl friend then we would be happier.

And like the crowd, if God would give us those things, then maybe we would believe in Him.]

The crowd wanted Jesus to get them what they THOUGHT would make them happy,

but he tells them "I am what will make you happy.

Follow me to find true happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction, and rest.

You will not find it in a marriage, a relationship, a job, a bigger salary, a nicer vacation, a new car, a new side-by-side, a bigger house, a vacation condo on the beach, your kids making an athletic team, or getting into a college, having children, building a big retirement, or whatever else we try to cook up ourselves.

John 6:35 CSB

35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

GIVE your whole SELF to JESUS.

At the heart of every human endeavor and invention in the pursuit of happiness is really a longing for Jesus.

“I am the bread you are seeking”

In your work, I am the bread!

In your family, I am the bread!

In your finances, I am the bread!

In your relationships, I am the bread!

You will not find the happiness your heart longs for in anything but Him.

And it isn’t enough to be a fan of Jesus.

To think Jesus was a pretty good guy.

To give Him a couple Sundays a month and a $20 in the offering plate.

Jesus says whoever “COMES TO HIM” shall not hunger and whoever “BELIEVES IN HIM” shall never thirst.

To come to Jesus is more than coming to church, though coming here to worship on Sunday is what someone who have came to Jesus will do.

To come to Jesus is more than having an affinity for Christian stuff and Christian ideas.

To come to Jesus means that we come to Him instead of coming to anything else.

That we give our WHOLE SELF to Him.

Jesus gets to the end of His speech with the crowd at the end of John 6.

Because of His strong words, many walked away from Jesus that day, likely coming to a similar conclusion as the Rich Young Ruler in Luke 18, the cost of following Jesus was much too high.

This is true today as well and is true for some here today.

You want to be happy, but you just can’t imagine giving your life to Jesus if the answer.

I can’t change your mind and won’t even try, but I will pray that God will.

After most of the crowd walked away from Jesus, He turned to His disciples and said:

John 6:67 CSB

67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”

And then Simon Peter speaks up for the rest of the disciples:

John 6:68–69 CSB

68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Where else will we go Jesus, in you we have found the words that lead to life, that lead to happiness. There is no where else for us to go.

Have you come to that same conclusion about Jesus?

If you have and yet you have never given you heart to Christ I want to invite you to pray in just a moment. The words of a pray won’t save you but the faith it takes to pray those words and mean them is what saves you.

For those who know Jesus, I want to give us a moment to ask a couple tough questions to ourselves, about ourselves.

To where are we looking for our happiness?

And how hard are we working to get it?

"Dear God, I know I am a sinner. I want to turn from my sins, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe He died for my sins and that You raised Him to life. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as my Lord from this day forward. In Jesus' Name, amen."