Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness

Introduction

This week was the fourth of July which is a celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A Group of five men with Thomas Jefferson doing the main writing drafted the words to the declaration and then it was submitted to the congress of men in charge of the revolution. When it was finally submitted it famously included these words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Embedded in this document were words reflecting the philosophical thought of the day by men like Thomas Jefferson. The phrase unalienable right which are listed as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness come from the idea that God has given man some essential rights not granted by any government and if a government begins to violate those rights, we as a people have a right to overthrow said government and establish a new one that will seek our Safety and Happiness. Jefferson boiled these rights down to the right to:

life- By the virtue of being born, God has given me a right to life; so no one has a right to kill me.

liberty- Jefferson viewed man as an autonomous free agent with the ability to choose. This was how we were created and so no man has a right to deprive me of that freedom.

The Pursuit of Happiness- By pursuit of happiness Jefferson mean the pursuit of meaning and fulfillment in life.

Jefferson got these ideas from an earlier philosopher named John Locke who ultimately got them from Thomas Aquinas theory of natural law. Aquinas proposed from passages like Romans 2:14 “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:” that there is a natural law that all men are aware of without scripture. These natural laws are based on innate understandings of basic human rights given to us by God. No one has to tell me it is wrong to murder it is argued because I have an innate understanding of natural law in my heart. In theology, this understanding of natural law is enough to condemn us before God because even though we know innately right from wrong we still choose to do wrong things. Natural law is based on a belief in God and ultimately leads to unalienable rights.

This morning, I want to take one of those inalienable rights and look at it from the lens of scripture. Jefferson said we have an inalienable right to pursue our own happiness. Happiness in the end becomes the foundation for why we do most of the things we do. Take for example why would I study hard in school. You might answer that I want to gain the approval of others for how smart I am, or I want to know how to do things, or I want a good job from the degree I am getting. But let’s take it a step further: why do you want the approval of others? Why do you want to know how to do things or why do you want a degree to get that job? You answer would probably at some point boil down to this: because I think it will make me happy.

Much of what we do in life comes from an innate desire to be happy: to find the things that bring joy, satisfaction and fulfillment in our lives. That longing is placed there in our hearts to cause us to seek after God. Many theologians and philosophers have latched unto this idea:

Augustine said:

You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Later Blaise Pascal would argue that man’s craving, the vaccuum in his heart can only be filled by the infinite and unchanging God.

Atheist philosopher John Paul Satre acknowledged that mankind has a God shapped hole in his heart. Unfortunately for Satre there was no God so there was nothing that could fill that longing within him.

Is this longing a biblical concept? I believe it is. This morning I want us to begin by taking a look at the story of the woman at the well in John 4.

The Woman’s Need

In this account, Jesus wanders off by Himself to a well in Samaria. A lot could be said about his choice to come here because Samaria wasn’t on the way to where he was going and the Jews did not have anything to do with the Samaritans, but Jesus made a deliberate choice to go here because he knew this woman would be there. In this story, we see how masterful Jesus is as a communicator.

He begins the conversation by asking the woman to give him some water in vs 7. Do you think Jesus was really thirsty? Probably, but that isn’t the only reason Jesus asked this question. Water was an illustration of the need this woman had in her life. He then leads her to start asking questions in vs 9.

In vs 14, Jesus promises her water that will satisfy her so much she will never thirst again. I want us to notice her response in

John 4:15 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”

The woman at the well had a craving, a thirst for something greater. She wanted a satisfaction that would never go away. Her life illustrates a truth that we find throughout the scriptures:

Ecclesiastes 3:10–12 “I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.”

In this verse God has put somethings in the life and heart of man which point us to greater things:

travail- hard work, difficulties- Have you ever had a hard day at work, maybe a week or even a year and you think to yourself, there has to be more to life than this? You get up, shower, got to work, come home eat go to sleep and then repeat the whole thing over again. The daily grind causes us to desire something more from life.

Beauty- Seeing beautiful things reminds us that there is more in life. There is something bigger and better than my current existence.

The world- the Hebrew word world here is actually eternity. We experience life in its seasons as the first part of this chapter reveals, but there is a knowledge within us that there is more than just these circumstances I am going through. Life is a vapor but there is something more than this life.

The work of God- mystery- who truly knows what God is doing. We know some broad strokes of what the bible tells us is happening, but when we look at the world, there is a mystery. We don’t understand it all.

Acts 17:26–27 “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:” echoes this concept:

God put man in certain times: seasons and periods of history and established the boundaries of our countries for a purpose. That purpose is that they should seek the Lord. Now mankind without scripture seeks God pretty badly. The word feel here refers to groping in the dark. Illustration.

God desires to be known and loved by His creation so he has created within us thirsting. A desire for fulfillment, longing for satisfaction what Jefferson calls the pursuit of happiness. The woman at the well longed for something more than mere water. A water she would never have to go get more of because it completely satisfied her.

How She Tried to fill that Need

The problem with many of us is that we don’t know what to fill that need with. We seek all kinds of things to fill the vacuum in our hearts and those things never truly satisfy. What is it that she tried to fill her longings with. I want to look at two:

Physical Appetites

Relationships

Physical appetites- John 4:15 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” The woman clearly wanted water in this passage. She had a real physical thirst that needed to be satisfied, but she found that when she got water she need more the next day. Satisfying her physical appetites didn’t quite seem to do it for her. We often live much the same way. To fill the emptiness of our lives, we seek out things like food, alcohol, drugs, sex and even just fun and relaxation because they seem to make us feel good. And they do. They are all things that bring pleasure; but notice this woman’s craving. She wanted water: that I thirst not. She wanted something that would truly satisfy her. You can eat a good meal which brings you pleasure and still be depressed about other things. In fact, those with eating disorders think that either eating or not eating will fix their problems for them; but the problem persists and they still struggle. Not only did she want something that truly satisfied, but she never wanted to thirst again. Notice what she says neither come hither to draw. She didn’t want to come back for more. She wanted something that was permanent. The problem with trying to fill all these holes is that they don’t solve our longings. We have to keep coming back for more.

2. Relationships- John 4:16–18 “Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.” Related to a desire for physical appetites is a deeper longing for meaning in life. A longing to be loved, valued to have an secure relationship with someone. This woman is said to have had five husbands. Five husbands seems like a lot for those all to have died and then she got remarried. I think after two or three if that were the case I would have given up because I’m a black widow. But I don’t think that is what was going on here. I believe she had divorced and married five different men. Scientists have estimated that the average person has between 4-7 serious relationships in their lifetime. We bounce in and out of relationships. But why? If the first relationship had truly satisfied, we would have stuck with that one right? This woman clearly was looking for something. It was something that five husbands couldn’t offer. Relationships are the closest thing to satisfying our souls in the way God does, but other people were never designed to truly fill that hole. Men and women will always fail you. There is no such thing as a perfect husband of wife. There is no such thing as a perfect marriage. I do not believe anyone who says they never have problems in their marriage because its a lie. It presupposes they are perfect and they are not. Your boyfriend, husband, or wife cannot meet all the needs you have and it is unfair to expect them to do so. This woman’s desire for fulfillment in relationships went a step further. Jesus says that the man she was with now wasn’t even her husband. She was willing to sin in her pursuit of fulfillment. Our culture is filled with people having sex before marriage, affairs, pornography. We will seemingly do anything to fill that hole even if it is wrong. Girls, if a boy ever says to you if you loved me, you would sleep with me or do this wrong thing or that wrong thing, he is tempting you to be like the Samaritan woman. Notice, it didn’t satisfy her.

The Only True Solution to Our Craving

In our pursuit of happiness, there is only one thing that can truly satisfy.

John 4:13–14 “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

John 4:26 “Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.”

There is only one water that can satisfy our thirsting. Jesus Christ provides that water. For the Christian, there is a constant well of water available to us to satisfy our craving. I feel so bad for so many because they have never experienced what it is like to have Jesus satisfy the craving of our heart. They don’t know the joy of seeking and finding Him.

Conclusion

You might be thinking, but Jason, I know a lot of Christians who seem just as unfulfilled as I am. That is unfortunately still true. But it isn’t the water’s fault. You see many Christians are seeking the same things as the world to satisfy them. Jeremiah describes this in Jeremiah 2:13 “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” We stopped going to the true water and instead we made wells with holes in them. The water leaks out.

The Christian still has to drink continually of this water of their relationship with Jesus to be satisfied. Psalm 42:1 “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God.” Psalm 63:1 “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: My soul thirsteth for thee, My flesh longeth for thee In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;” The craving is there, but we have constant access to the water that satisfies that thirsting.

So the challenge is two fold. If you have been pursuing happiness and find yourself coming up short, God put that desire within you so that you would seek after Him. If you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ, I would love to introduce you to Him. when the music plays, please come talk to me.

Believer, that longing you feel for friends, food, money, meaning, fulfillment that is there to remind you, you need God. Seeking after all those things may bring temporary relief, but they are wells with holes. I am pleading with you to truly seek God. Find Him to be the water that satisfies your heart. I don’t mean, getting up in the morning for a few minutes to read and say a quick prayer. I am pleading with you to find a true relationship with Him. Find connection with Him through his word and prayer. Later Jesus would say John 4:34 “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” Find satisfaction in working alongside of Jesus in His work. There is more to your Christianity that merely coming to church or performing certain ritualistic practices. I am inviting you to that today as well.