How To Live Unhappy! Or happy!

How To Live Unhappy! Or happy!   Major Kelly Durant  9-1-13, Re: 5-15-22

1.John 10:9-11  I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 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.

2. It may sound crazy to you, but there are people in parts of the world who will argue that giraffes do not exist. Did a grandparent or a friend ever tell you crazy stories about crazy people?  If a person lives geographically landlocked, or in a poor village, they have never seen one and if they have never been to the zoo or if they have no trust in outsiders who speak things contrary to their ideas, then to claim there is an animal like a giraffe is just too crazy for them.

For many people, a person with a new concept or a new discovery is seen as stupid in their view and discredited for claiming something they never heard of as really existing! How many of you here have seen a real live giraffe anyway? If you haven’t, do trust they exist because others have seen them, or because they are in books or in pictures? 

How many of you know people that are not happy in life? Usually they have never seen true happiness, or they refuse to see or admit that happy people exist! These are the non-believers, like people who do not believe in giraffes because they have not seen one for themselves. They are like a blind person leading other blind folks. 

Discontentment, or unhappiness, is a curse on humanity within all cultures and classes of people today! Many people of the world deny that God’s love exists, and that happiness is real! The unbelievers have never experienced the overflowing of the joy of the Holy Spirit! Just because they are miserable doesn’t mean the rest of us are, but they really think that! In their darkened minds they cannot understand joy, so happiness is foolish to them! Everyone is a hypocrite to be happy in their mind because they think others fake their happiness! But that’s not true if they have Jesus! 

3. All people everywhere are always limited to judge others and their selves only by their own experiences and knowledge in life, and most of the time this is very narrow scope! Most people copy others, and if the norm in a culture is always to complain, always to blame others, and always to be unhappy about something, then for them that is just life! And if you are happy with the little that you have and are different, then you are taken as a traitor to the culture, race, or social class where others think you belong! 

Think of it this way, when I say the word light, what comes to mind? The sun, light bulbs, and the colors we see from sight, right?  Actually, this part of light that we see is only a tiny fraction of what light really is! There exists infrared light, x-rays, and a whole spectrum of light that we do not perceive unless we study about it and observe the effects of it. This is the same with our minds and hearts, our fallen human brains exist in a darkened deceived state unless we bring clarity to them with Jesus teachings and way of life about being free from evil deeds and being happy.     

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

4. Today my point is actually how to live happy, not unhappy! To be unhappy just comes by default in our human nature! Jesus came to save us from those who steal and kill and Satan knows how to steal and kill your dreams and happiness in your mind and heart whether it happens in a body experience from outside sources or not. 

Jesus’ solution is to give life abundantly, and how you interpret abundant, or life to the full, determines whether you will experience it or not! What is Jesus’ life to the full?  I cannot explain it but when I take time to pray and read God’s word I feel like I am alive and full of life and I am rejuvenated. Feeling good about life does not come from some momentary stimulation and excitement: life comes from life and the source of that is God’s Holy Spirit though His Word!

John 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Basically, people who live in, for, and with Jesus moment by moment are people full of life and happiness and peace despite the conditions around them.

5. If you want to know how people full of life with Jesus can have a supernaturally strange happiness and peace consider the martyrs. It is recorded that while waiting to be fed to the lions or burned at the stake, they would sing hymns. So impacting was their love for each other, and joy to die for God for the Roman audience that these Romans actually lost their appetite to see them be killed in these horrific manners! Remember Rome converted but it took almost 300 years!

In The Salvation Army we don’t drink, but most of you have at some time or another had a few, or you have been around relatives that have had lots to drink, and they are loud and laughing and appear happy, right? That is how the disciples were described to be when they were full of the Holy Spirit!

Acts 2: 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

I wish all of us could be as carefree as the drunken! Wouldn’t it be great if everyone before coming to church would be all prayed up, full of God’s word, and spirit to the point that each of us would appear happy as if from strong drink? I long for the day that all believers will live happy and shine their smile and laughter to everyone around them instead of the typical serious dry scolding faces that displays they want it known they have an issue and are unhappy over something. Satan’s controlled people are miserable and want you miserable too! We are not cursed with misery and guilt like they are.

6. The formula for unhappiness is the same as it has always been, a focusing on the getting of ones’ own needs met above the priority of taking in and the living of God’s words that give life. James 4:1-3 4 From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. God answers prayer but not for greedy, only the needy!

Unhappy people are discontent because they want more out of life than what they should have because they compare their lives to the people of the world. They want the pride of having more money or fame or power than others, and they are so selfish, and lust driven that they do any and all business transactions in a self-serving manner trying to fill the void in their empty souls with some momentary gain or stimulation. How conflictive these selfish people are! 

7. Reserved, or introverted people who seek illusive happiness usually work within systems that permit rewards and promotions but they often are so competitive they become miserable because someone else in that corporation or institution got something that they didn’t.  In the end, it is a lust or greed for the pride of recognition that eats at people’s souls for an authoritative position, be it in a job, sports team, political party, school, or even a church.

Other more extrovert personalities with the adventure gene may revert to illicit sex or illegal drugs to try and stimulate their way to happiness. This path never works as it leads to guilt, depression, and hopelessness. Sad to say, I know this from personal experience! The big lie from all the glamourized life-styles of the rich and famous is that they are happier than the rest of us! But the contrary is reality!

When they asked Howard Hughes (the former billionaire a few decades ago owned American Airlines, Hollywood film companies, and many corporations if he was happy with his millions.  He replied, “Well a million is not worth what it use to be”! In other words, the wealthiest man on the planet who led an extravagant lifestyle like no one had ever done before him was very unhappy because he wanted more! He actually developed an obsessive–compulsive disorder and lived as a recluse suffering in physical pain.

8. So in life everyone pursues happiness, right? It is in fabric of the American expectation. "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. These are "unalienable rights" that all human beings have been given by their Creator. A true statement, but only walking with Jesus’ gate will get you there!

The problem with the illusion of happiness is so many people commit atrocities seeking it disregarding the damage done to those around them. The imbalance of wealth and poverty today is horrific with multi-billionaires hoarding their money while 1/3 of the people of the world suffer grave hunger.  So many divorces happen because someone demanded the ‘right to be happy’ (but they were the problem!). Sexual freedom for the pursuit of happiness has prompted not just divorces but the spread of HIV and other STDs to the point that 50% of the populous here, in many countries, are affected!  Happiness was the pursuit of power for Hitler, Lenin, Mao, and other dictators who combined killed well over 100 million people in the past 100 years! The pride of power is extremely cruel! 

The personal pursuit of happiness has no limits to its deception and damage so it is inherently Satanic as Jesus points out in the verses of John 10:10. According to the world’s standard, happiness will involve doing something criminal and illicit such as stealing and killing in order to get ahead in wealth or power. 

9. What do people in power do for their happiness?  They mismanage other people’s money for personal gain (corruption), and they eliminate the competition by character assassination, (if not by actual murder). Sound like mafias, dictators, and politicians, right? It is the philosophy of life for those without Jesus and it is spreading misery!

Jesus’ answer is profound and amazing, the anecdote to this destructive behavior is the pursuit of Jesus way of life which brings on real happiness and it involves doing the diametrically opposed action, that of loving God and your neighbor as yourself!

There have been times when I have prayed with someone to accept Jesus and I have felt so happy that I thought I was drugged, and it was like a shot of endorphins to the brain, and I just wanted to explode with good feelings and laughter! The other person felt it as well! Have you ever felt so happy that you have felt your entire body, your chest and brain feel like they going to overflow? That is the Holy Spirit! Some people get the Holy Spirit bumps (chicken skin) too!

10. Let’s review what kills our happiness. How does Satan ensnare with his thievery and murder? 1. Comparing yourself to the wealthy (privileged class) people of the world. (Many of which have gained wealth by illegitimate means and exploitation, so they are guilty of stealing before God and men) 2. Desiring more than what you need (Jealous and greedy people cause others to suffer as they try to get something by abusing you, they are guilty of coveting) 3. Pursuing destructive and addictive passions (this includes the bottomless pit of the consumption of drugs, alcohol, illegitimate sex, etc.) 4. The lust for power (Power usually involves war and maybe murder so the positions in high places can be available for a new group of prideful ambitious ones) 5. Pride: Demanding worship of yourself and demanding your way only (This leads to many sins being committed to protect a person’s image, and the manipulation of others with much abuse, humiliation, and cruelty taking place)

Take note that people who commit grave sins against God and humanity pursuing their own joys and passions suffer from fear and guilt, whether they will admit it or not. To cover up their immature actions they destroy others around them. And they destroy their selves as their guilt leads to paranoia and depression which usually leads to drug addictions, and then physical illness from bodily abuses takes hold. It’s unhappiness!   

11. Don’t let Satan rob your joy! People who live with demons that have moved in while they keep pushing the limit of what they would try to obtain some satisfaction in life are fatally sick and unhappy! Have you ever walked into a room where a sick person is and then you start feeling sick as well? This is how Satan spreads his discontentment, through the deception of others who are overtaken with his devices. We as Christians do not go with the flow, we go against the flow, the current, the culture, and the trend to be full of your own self and self-pity because we have the victory in Jesus! 

A person not protected by God’s word who idolizes a star with fame and wealth who goes in and out of rehab centers, and in and out of prisons, could get the idea that to be cool on their level, one has to imitate their depression as well! Like with the music industry, you’re cool if you self-destruct!  Absurd right, but people worship it and imitate it! Corruption of the soul is a disease that rapidly spreads, just look at most singers and movie stars who degenerate into pathetic hedonism in just a few years! So many cases we have seen like this! What unhappiness, look and learn how not to be happy!

Don’t let anyone in your family, in your job, or in your world steal the joy of the Holy Spirit that God wants to give you day by day! You will have happiness if you live in God’s Word and obey his words knowing that your reward is in heaven for resisting temptations and living totally free from the snares and chains of our miserable unhappy enemy! A Holy life lived within the Holy Spirit is a life vibrating with the joy of the Lord and that is a strength that can even face death and die happy! Life is in Jesus! The more of Him, the more life and happiness you will find! Let’s pray…