Recently we were out witnessing and a teenager asked me how she should witness to her gay friend. I suggested that she could go to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and have her friend read those Bible verses. I also suggested that instead of using that approach, she could go to Revelation 21:8 and tell her friend that Jesus said that all liars (that is all unrepentant sinners) will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, because if God convicts her friend over lying, then He can also convict her friend over sexual immorality.
But then this teenager said, well, what if I just want my friend to be happy? So I suggested we envision that her friend is happy. She’s perfectly happy living a lifestyle in open rebellion against God and her friend even lives to be 80, 90 or 100 years old; will 100 years being “happy” really be worth spending eternity in Hell for that happiness? I tried to get the young lady to see that 100 years isn’t even a split second in eternity. No sin in this life is worth being eternally damned over.
The young lady also wondered why we as Christians try to force Christianity on others. I explained to her that we aren’t trying to force anyone. We are not like ISIS where if you don’t convert, you die. We aren’t trying to force anyone to do anything. We are pleading with sinners to get right with God. We are begging people to come to Jesus and be saved.
But I want to concentrate tonight on the teenager’s statement that she just wants her friend to be happy. We aren’t promised happiness in this life – not unbelievers and not even Christians. God created us to glorify Himself. But He doesn’t promise us happiness.
In John 16:33 Jesus says, These things have I spoken to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Jesus didn’t promise us happiness, but followers of Jesus can find peace in Jesus. When we trust in Jesus, when we rest in Jesus, when we abide in Jesus, when we surrender our lives to Him, we can find peace in Jesus, no matter what is going around us or to us.
Listen to these words of the Apostle Paul found in 2 Corinthians 11:23-31 and let’s see if they describe a happy life: Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft (in other words he often times faced perilous death). 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one 25 Three times was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? 30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. 31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knows that I lie not.
Did you hear all of Paul’s happiness in these verses? No? You didn’t hear about him receiving 195 lashes across his back or his being beaten with rods three times or being stoned one time where the people stoning him quit because they thought he was dead? Or did you miss that he was shipwrecked on three different occasions and even spent a whole night and day in the ocean? He fasted on purpose, but other times he was flat out hungry with no food to eat. Other times he didn’t have enough clothing.
Did you really miss all that happiness in these verses? You did? No wonder, he wasn’t describing happy times. Paul was describing real life, denying yourself, picking up your cross and following Jesus. Isn’t that what Jesus told us to do? Jesus didn’t promise Christians happiness. He said that we would be persecuted. In Matthew 24:9 Jesus says: Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. That sounds like the exact opposite of happiness. Jesus said that we will be afflicted, hated and some of us even killed for His name’s sake.
In 2 Timothy 3:11-12 Paul says: Persecutions, afflictions, which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Wow, not only did Paul not promise happiness, he said that those who live godly in Christ will suffer persecutions and Jesus also didn’t promise us happiness. Our Lord and Savior told us that we are to count the cost before we surrender our lives to His Lordship. He said that we would be hated because the world hated Him first. We also are to deny ourselves. Denying yourself; denying the pleasures of the flesh, denying self will and saying no to Satan’s temptations are in direct opposition to worldly happiness.
Do not be deceived. This life is not about your happiness. You are not in control. If you are living your life and you think that you are in control, then you are opposing God and He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. It’s not about your happiness. It’s not about my happiness. It’s not about your friend’s happiness. God is the great Creator God and He created us to worship Him. He created us to give Him glory.
Does that mean that Christians are to run around all glum-faced, full of gloom and doom? Of course not. It’s not about happiness, but we can find peace in Jesus. It’s not about happiness, but we can find joy in the Lord. You can look for happiness in all the wrong places and you may find a temporary happy feeling, but you won’t find real happiness, you won’t find real joy outside of Jesus Christ.
Does that mean life will be easy if you become a disciple of Jesus’? No. But no matter what you are going through, Jesus is right there with you, when you are saved, when you have been born again. When you surrender your life to Jesus, He sends the Holy Spirit to live inside you. The Holy Spirit leads you (when you are willing to be led). Jesus told us that we shouldn’t fear those who can kill the body, but fear Him, the One who can kill the body and cast you into Hell. Satan can’t cast you into Hell. He can work through evil men, he can prod and entice men to do evil things, even to murder you; but he has no power over your soul.
Everyone one of us has a soul and our soul is eternal. You will spend eternity either in Heaven or Hell. Forget worrying about happiness, you should worry about holiness. And guess what? God is the Holy One. God is Holy, just and righteous. That’s why He must punish sin. If He didn’t, He would no longer be Holy, righteous or just and
therefore He would no longer be God. The Lord never changes. He must and will punish sin. Even if murderers get away with murder here on earth, there will be a day of reckoning. The Bible tells us that the blood of the innocent cries out to God. Think of the 57 million precious babies that have been slaughtered in the womb and more are murdered all the time. We have people running around worried about the environment and the “rights” of chimpanzees and yet most of us stand by day after day and say nothing about the greatest sin that occurs in our nation and that is the abomination of child sacrifice.
Maybe you have never had an abortion or paid for one or driven someone to a murder mill. But have you ever hated someone? Have you ever been angry with someone? If so, then you have murdered that person that you hated or were angry with, you killed them in your heart. Have you ever wanted something that belonged to someone else? If so, then you have coveted, thereby breaking the 10th Commandment. Have you ever lied? Of course you have. We’ve all lied, so we all have broken the 9th Commandment. In fact most of us have broken it so many times that we can’t even begin to number the lies we’ve told in our life time. Have you ever looked at someone and lusted after them? If so, Jesus says that you have committed adultery with that person in your heart, thereby breaking the 7th Commandment.
Folks, it’s not a happiness problem that we have, it’s a sin problem. This problem affects each and every one of us. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There’s nothing that you or I can do to get back right with God. We cannot undo our sins. We can’t wipe them out. We can’t make them go away. If you die in your sins, then you will suffer God’s wrath forever and ever. How much happiness do you think there is in Hell? None!
But God loves us so much that He made a way of escape for us through His own precious Son. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life and then He willingly laid down His life a ransom for many. He suffered God’s anger over the sins of guilty sinners. The Just for the unjust. The Perfect One for us imperfect creatures. Jesus suffered and died for guilty sinners like you and me. He was buried and rose from the grave the third day. We did the crime, but Jesus paid our fine. He took the punishment that we deserve. But you must receive salvation. You must accept the sacrifice that Jesus freely offers and you receive it through repentance and faith. You recognize that you are sinner. You realize and admit that you have offended our Holy God, the great Creator. You acknowledge that you are worthy of everlasting damnation in Hell. But you also cry out for Jesus to save you. Do this today. Cry out for Jesus to save you. Confess and forsake your sins. Ask Him to forgive and then turn away from your sins. Put your faith in Jesus. We are to have repentance toward God and faith to Jesus Christ our Lord. Do this today and be saved.
When you are a disciple of Jesus, when you are saved, when you have repented and believed the Gospel, then you truly can find peace in Jesus. Then you can really find joy in the Lord.
Earlier I read the verses about the suffering of the apostle Paul for the sake of Jesus. But listen to what he says in Romans 14:17: For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. He continues in Romans 15:13: Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Forget happiness. Find true joy. Everlasting joy and that can only be found in Jesus alone. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
(This message was proclaimed on the square in downtown Springfield, MO on April 24, 2015)