Word of Salvation – Vol. 20 No.40 – July 1974
Happiness Is…!
Sermon by Rev. A. l. de Graaf, B.D. on Psalm 144:15b
Youth sermon ( – esp. suitable for Calvinettes)
Scripture: Matt. 6:19-34
Psalter Hymnal: 316; 94:1,2 (law); 296:1,2,7,8; 38:1,2,3,4; 38:5
You all know how the fairy-tales end: “they lived happily ever after.” Yes, that prince and that princess, who got each other after all these terrible and exciting adventures, they got happy after all. But you know…. there’s never a fairy-tale that tells THAT story! Of how happy they were and what they MEAN.
What DOES it mean for that fairy-tale prince and princess? Getting a cup of tea in bed in the morning?
Oh but you get used to that and then you’re not all that excited anymore. Getting wonderful babies?
Oh there IS a story about that – and then an evil witch came and put a spell on the baby too.
So things can go wrong with the baby. They lived happily ever after… but in the end the princess must have gotten old and full of wrinkles. And maybe the prince became a king with lots of people bothering him. And came home late at night a bit grumpy because at those endless meetings people always wanted different things.
And he had to get up to work early in the morning.
And they quarrelled and now and then ministers and members of parliament would have to resign and – ah well you know how things can go – the newspapers are full of them. Happiness?
But the prince gets old too, and maybe gets bothered with arthritis.. How do you DO that… live happily ever after?
They tell you when you’re a very small kid that there is a pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow.
Did you ever run to find it?
Only to discover that as you run on and on, the rainbow goes further and further away…too? When you’re a tiny toddler you think you’ll be happy when you will go to school.
But it does not take long for school to become a bore and then the young girl thinks, Äh! when I can leave school and make a lot of money!” But it’s like running after that pot of gold! You run and run… but where is it now?
Making money… getting out with boys… but the morning after the night before can be cold and making ends meet is always a struggle. Getting married… getting children!
Yes there are moments of FIERCE happiness in all this,
the fierce happiness when you are surfing in the sea
the fierce happiness in the arms of the man you love
the fierce happiness when you get a baby and all of it is well and healthy.
But does it stay? Children grow up and become a nuisance and you keep running… running… running to find that pot of gold. It looks as if happy is something you always HOPE TO BECOME – like in those fairy-tales: the adventure seems to be trying to GET it, fighting against dragons or washing the Cinderella dishes hoping the fairy godmother won’t be all that long.
But even WHEN she comes you have to hurry because the clock can strike twelve any moment.
Now this morning I have to be my Lord’s messenger boy again. He wants me to tell you that there is only ONE way to HAVE happiness, and that is that HE, the LORD, will HAVE YOU. All of you. That is the only way to be happy: TO LOSE YOURSELF.
The Bible says: “Happy is the nation, the people whose God is… THE LORD! That means: that you are UNHAPPY, that you never really will HAVE happiness but that you will keep running, running, running after that pot of gold if you serve another god.
Now in the day that David wrote this Psalm 144, there were plenty of people who DID serve other gods.
Let me tell you something: “there is not one man or woman or boy or girl in all the world, who does NOT serve some god or other.
We are no dogs or cats, you see. We are religious beings.
But if we serve gods we made ourselves we are silly, and we will never be happy. In the day that David wrote this psalm, there were people who served gods made of stone or wood.
Big ugly looking statues who they thought were full of magic. Or god Baal who really was the sun.
They thought Baal – the sun – would give them all they needed.
Or they had a goddess Ashtarte, the moon goddess,
the goddess of fertility
who gave you children and
who was worshipped by very wild parties in half-dark temples.
Yes they also had a god called Milcom or Moloch but they were so scared of him and they thought that god would only give them what they wanted if they would OFFER TO THAT GOD THEIR CHILDREN. The image of that god was made out of metal and it was hollow. And they stoked a fire in that hollow image until it was white hot, and then fathers and mothers would come and put their little first-born baby in those red hot arms till it died!
Terrible is it not? THAT IS THE WAY THEY THOUGHT – this terrible god Milcom would give them attention, give them what they really wanted… make them happy.
You see?
THEY THOUGHT, those poor people, that GETTING THINGS would make them happy.
But those gods of course could not make these people happy at all. Their life was full of fear and bitterness.
But are people so much different today?
Some people have MONEY for their god today. They do ANYTHING for money! They neglect their children for money… dad works… mum works making money to buy things, things!
No time for children… no time for people… only for THINGS! Well, let me tell you there are more unhappy millionaires in the world than unhappy poor people.
Of course it is terrible to be poor and God wants us all to do our best that poor people get real help.
But no, happiness is not in money and what IT can buy.
Because once you get the hang of THAT it’s never enough. First you think: oh as long as we can have a house!
But no sooner has the THING-worshipper got his house or he wants a better house…and a swimming pool… and a car… and there of course are ALWAYS better cars than the one you’ve got! Always. There is NO end to it. God money is like the pot of gold that’s never there. You run and run and run… but KEEP running!
Those people too, think THAT GETTING THINGS is happiness.
Others have another god, they call him SCIENCE.
Science must give us things. Science must kill disease and make life long and comfortable.
But science has made new problems. Science has also made bombs and missiles to kill people!
Science has been doing wonderful things, just like the sun, or the rain or money but science when we serve it as a god lets us down badly.
It can NOT make us happy. There are more unhappy people in the world TODAY now that we know a lot of scientific things, than there were when we still sat by an oil lamp and drove the old buggy around.
Others serve the god Public Opinion.
They think it’s happiness when the CROWD ACCEPTS YOU and you’re one with the others. What everybody does, that I will do?
ALL THE KIDS… they are right…! But they want this now and tomorrow something entirely different!
They do not give you happiness…! That too, it is like a pot of gold! But at the bottom of the rainbow and it’s never there!
Then, yes, there are also people whose god is… their belly says the Bible. They just live for their appetites, their fancies and lusts. Never mind what happens to me… as long as I can eat, drink, have fun with boys, as long as I can have nice clothes and evenings out! But when this becomes your GOD, the One-and-all you LIVE FOR… it lets you down terribly – and I know kids who because of this are bored when they are not even 18 yet.
They become hard-as-nails people, terrible to get on with, people with bitter eyes and a snarl around their mouth.
Unhappy. Oh so unhappy. You know? Like spoiled children. Whose mothers really don’t care enough to insist on what’s right. Spoiled children whose easy-going mothers give them sweets when they want them and so they end up with rotting teeth and poor health. Unhappy children always WANTING things, and they can’t even talk normally. As soon as they see their Mum they take on that nagging tone which later they give their wives – their husbands. Unhappy spoiled children.
But – says the Bible – HAPPY YOU ARE WHEN YOUR GOD IS ….THE LORD. The Lord – The Lord Jesus! The Lord who does NOT spoil His children but HE DOES care about them!
How does the Lord become your God?
In a way it is not easy. You have to go through a narrow gate. Because it is NOT popular to serve the Lord. You have to lose your pride because you have to tell this Lord that you know yourself as a lost sinner, as a person spoiled and nagging and selfish. You have to tell your Lord that you know now that you have served false gods, you have sought yourself.
But you know – then the wonderful thing is that THE LORD knows that.
And that EXACTLY FOR THOSE KIND OF PEOPLE whose unhappiness is THEIR OWN FAULT – that the Lord God for THOSE KIND OF PEOPLE gave Jesus His son to become a man and to die on a cross.
The Lord is not a god who just gives things whether they’re good for you or not.
The Lord God is a God who gave Himself for you, that you might become an entirely new person. That you might – as the Bible says – be born again. For the happiness GOD gives you is not a happiness that comes from what you GET (like a new bike that makes a kid happy only as long as it’s new).
No, the happiness God gives comes from what you ARE: that you are a new person, that you are a child of God.
And even when He leads you onto hard ways, even when He teaches you hard lessons – like a mother does who does NOT spoil her children but wants them to grow up strong and unselfish and able to help others – even when He gives you a hard time this God says: “I am with you, talk to Me about it, trust Me, I will give you peace!” I have seen people who were very ill but they were happy – they sang to God. I have stood at the bed of a young man when he died and the last words he said were: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, alleluia!” Yes even then he was happy! That God is your friend, and that He loved you while you were not worth loving at all! And now you may begin doing His will!
You may begin doing His law – AND LIKE IT! That is happiness!
Not GETTING THINGS but BEING forever a child of God. And even when you then die you will go to this Lord and at last see Him face to face, Him who loved you so much.
Happiness is… that you may serve this Lord in this life and be useful for Him, not a nobody, a failure, but a light bearer, a little help, whom it is GOOD to have around.
Happiness is – yes – yes then also to SHARE THIS WITH OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE SAME GOD AS THEIR LORD, their master!
THE SAME LORD AS THEIR GOD!
For after all, it doesn’t say: happy the girl whose God is THE LORD, but it says more: THE PEOPLE whose God is THE LORD! You belong somewhere when you belong to Jesus. Wherever you go you have people who know this too.
Oh at times God’s children forget – at times they quarrel too. And yes, there are people in churches who REALLY do not give their heart to Jesus and so they may not YET really belong and they can give you a hard time.
But then time and again you find them. The Lord’s people, who can help you, who can encourage you!
Yes in other churches, too!
Not only in the Reformed Churches.
People whose hearts have been changed by this God, who are no more the getters and scrapers, but are becoming the givers, sufferers at times and yet inside: happy indeed because they know their Lord is faithful, and alive!
They are dying for their faith right now in Russia. They are telling about Jesus to others right now on the mission fields.
They are working for their Saviour, and yes, many of them are now, like you, also sitting in Church and listening to God’s Word. They share with you, that they, too, can sing this song:
“Happiness is to know the Saviour,
Living a life within His favour,
Having a change in my behaviour,
Happiness is … the LORD!
Happiness is a new creation,
Jesus and me… in close relation!
Having a part in His salvation…
Happiness is… the LORD!
Real joy is mine
no matter then if tear-drops start!
I’ve found the secret of Jesus in my heart!”
Happiness is… to BE forgiven… and then also to forgive!
Ourselves – no matter what was done!
“Living a life that’s worth the living!
Taking a trip that leads to heaven!
Happiness is… the Lord!
Amen.