Finding Happiness Text: Ecclesiastes 3:1 4:16 Series: Escaping Futility, Enjoying Fulfillment, the Book of Ecclesiastes, #3 Pastor Lyle L. Wahl February 8, 2004 Theme: Happiness Is A Gift From Our Sovereign God. Introduction. This morning, as we continue in Ecclesiastes, we are taking a look at Happiness. If I were to ask you how you define happiness, I am sure there would be many answers. We can start with the dictionary: a state of well-being, contentment, satisfaction. Synonyms include being glad, cheerful, joyful, light-heartedness. One person wrote, A friend and I recently argued about the nature of happiness. We concluded that for most people, being happy is an occasional feeling that can t be sustained over time no matter how fortunate you are. I looked at a number of surveys that are intended to gauge how happy you are. Key words in the questions were joy, optimistic, cheerful, hope, promise, satisfied, in control, pleased, rewarding, life is good, sparkle. Another person, Happiness is an illusion. That is one reason why no two people ever agree on what constitutes happiness. No matter how one chooses to define happiness, it is an empty notion now you have it, now you don t. Few things make people more unhappy than the search for happiness. In Christian circles, we often draw a distinction between happiness and joy. Happiness, it is often said, is a feeling based on our situation or circumstances, while joy is not. One problem with this is that the Bible uses the words interchangeably. And, before we get too far, another good question is how many people are happy or, how happy are we? Yesterday s Edmonton Journal had an article, Happy Employees are effective
employees, in which the person interviewed stated that companies are full of people with negative feelings suffering not feeling good. On the other hand, one study asked people in a number of countries whether they strongly or moderately agreed with the statement, I m very happy with my life as it is right now. Countries on the high end were Australia: 91%, Canada: 87%, the U.S.A.: 85%. At the bottom: the Ukraine, 21%. Then, I can t forget the man who, back in 1982, decided that Canada was not peaceful enough to be happy. So, he did some research, sold his home, moved to a remote, safe spot arriving in the month of March in the Falkland Islands, just five days before the Argentinians invaded. Just one more wrinkle: one psychologist reports that more than a dozen studies have shown a connection between extroversion and happiness. Extroverts tend to have fewer bad moods and to get out of them faster. All of this can get a bit confusing. Let me suggest that the basic dictionary definitions give us off to a good start: a state of well-being, contentment, satisfaction. And the common Christian distinction between joy and happiness, while perhaps not strictly accurate, at least points us in the right direction. There is true happiness, which comes from God, and then there is the limited, flawed happiness, the best we can do on our own. The significance of true happiness for the Christian was stated well by one writer, If Christianity doesn t make a person happy, it will not make him anything at all Christianity is the faith of the happy heart and the shining face (William Barclay). This is not denying pain, suffering, sorrow. But if our faith does not bring us a general, sustained state of happiness, then we need to examine the state of our faith. Today, we continue with Solomon in Ecclesiastes, chapters 3 and 4. The first 8 verses of chapter 3 are some of the most familiar verses in the book, telling us that there is a time for every event under heaven. Note the conclusion Solomon draws in verse 12 as he looks back, I know that there is nothing better for them [people] than to rejoice. Again in verse 22, I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities. So, how do we find happiness? How do we find true, lasting happiness? As King Solomon works through this, three steps emerge, with the underlying truth being that happiness is a gift from our sovereign God. 2
Step One: Recognize Your Need Of Sovereign God. The first step is to recognize our need of sovereign God in order to be happy. Let s do a quick review of the word sovereign. It means to be one-of-a-kind, to have no equal, to have absolute power. When we look at our life, from beginning to end, and especially in light of death, the great equalizer, we come face to face with our need of sovereign God. Death is a recurring, disturbing thought to King Solomon. Last week, in chapter 2 verse 14, he observed that death comes to the wise person as well as to the foolish. Here in chapter 3 he deals with it again. Drop down to verse 18. And I said to myself concerning the sons of men, God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts. For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All came form the dust and all return to the dust. Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth? (18-21). These are some good but also disturbing questions. Some of the cults have tried to have a hay-day here. As with every other statement in Scripture, we need to look at the immediate setting and the Bible overall to help us determine the meaning. As we will see shortly, Solomon knows and believes that people live forever. He is raising observations from the natural viewpoint as he interacts with the reality of death. We see him coming back to the subject and questions of death again in chapters 5, 6, 7, 9 and 12. Last week we looked at Solomon s experiments to try to find true, lasting satisfaction and meaning through wisdom, pleasure and accomplishments. All of it comes up empty. Empty not only because these things do not have the capacity to provide satisfaction, but because no matter what we learn, become, experience or accomplish, all of us will die. So, what s the sense of it all? Why all the stress and sweat? If this is all there is, what s the point? Writing almost 1,000 years after King Solomon, the Apostle Paul tells us that if our faith, our hope in Jesus Christ is only for here and now if there is no reality beyond death then we are of all men most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19). 3
How do we make sense of it all? Will the inequalities ever be finally sorted out, set right? If there is nothing, no One beyond us and our limited powers and brief life, there is no possibility that things will be sorted out and set right. The good news is that eternal, sovereign God does exist, and that He has revealed Himself to us clearly, authoritatively giving us His unchanging truth in the Bible. He is eternally supreme, one-of-a-kind, He has no equal, He rules over all that is. In Isaiah 45:5 God declares, I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God. He has absolute power and complete knowledge. He is in control, working out His own, perfect, holy plan. Psalm 135:6 tells us, Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. Yes, you and I, everyone, needs Sovereign God who is in control, gives order and meaning to everything in light of the great equalizer death. A second reality that should lead us to recognize our need of sovereign God is the fact of the many inequalities of life. We don t really need to be told that life is not fair, but Solomon gives us some examples in chapter 4 beginning at verse 1 and continuing through verse 16. There is the unfair and brutal oppression of the few over the many. Verse 1, Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun (1-3). It is obvious that oppression deeply troubled Solomon. We enjoy many freedoms, have many protections, but our world has its holocausts, killing fields, genocides, ethnic cleansings things we don t want to see, know closely. Secondly, there is the never ending rat-race of competition. Verse 4, I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after the wind. In school, athletics, the work place, clothes, cars, houses, and on and on the limitless list goes. Being happy, or even satisfied, 4
in doing your best hardly gets lip service in many places, and where it is mentioned it often is dismissed with a shrug or smirk. Thirdly, there is the opting out, counting on others to provide. Verse 5, The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. Fourthly, some work hard and accumulate many things, even when they have no one to give them to (verse 8). Finally, fickle popularity rounds out the list in verse 16. Kings, government leaders can find even after long service that many will not be happy with [them]. It was true then and it is true today. Step one to finding real happiness is to recognize your need of sovereign God. You might say, Okay, but how does that help me when I am going to die someday, when things are unfair and even chaotic? Step Two: Recognize Your Sovereign God Gives Order. That leads us on to sept two, to recognize your sovereign God gives order. God orders all things. Yes, in all that exists, even when things seem chaotic and random, God orders all things. The first 8 verses of chapter 3 are the only words of Ecclesiastes familiar to many people, and they are known because first The Byrds in 1965, and then Judy Collins and others, recorded Pete Seger s song Turn, Turn, Turn. The song is true to the text, except the addition of six words at the end, which made it a protest song. Verse 1, There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. God appoints both the day of your birth and the day of your death the entirety of your existence. And He does it marvellously, beyond our ability to comprehend as He meshes our real freedom and responsibility with His appointed times and events. God appoints the seasons, the life and cycles of plants, crops, all living things. God appoints the varied cycles and events of life which often are so conflicting and confusing to us: punishment and healing, getting and losing, sadness and celebration, speaking and silence, building and demolishing, war and peace. And, again, He does it marvellously, 5
beyond our ability to comprehend as He meshes our real freedom and responsibility with His appointed times and events Then, in verse 11, He has made everything appropriate in its time. The word appropriate, or beautiful, has the idea of beauty but more than that. It has the idea of cause, of purpose to make it fit. Or, to fit beautifully. The picture is that God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time. It is often said, Timing is important. One writer suggests, There s a time to be happy and a time to be grumpy and in my opinion morning is definitely a time to be grumpy. Some people leap out of bed before sunrise, smiling and singing and saying happy hellos to everyone they meet. I m not a morning person, so these earlymorning cheerleaders just make me grumpier than I already am. I agree 100% with the Bible verse which says, If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse (Proverbs 27:14). Bad timing can make a blessing feel like a curse. A New Testament corollary is found in Romans 8:28, And we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And, yes, some of the fits beautiful in its time we see now, some we should see, now but don t, and some we will see only in heaven. Then to verse 14, everything God does will remain forever. Yes, God orders all things. When nothing makes sense, when everything seems chaotic and out of control, to be truly happy requires knowing and living in light of the fact that God orders all things. A second things that leads us to recognizes that sovereign God gives order is that He judges all things. Here in chapter 3, verse 16, Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I said to myself, God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man, for a time for every matter and for every deed is there (16-17). 6
There is accountability for everyone, for every thing. The closing words of this book tell us that God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil (12:14). We should be very thankful that God is gracious and merciful if He exercised immediate righteous judgment, no one would survive. Having said that, however, don t confuse God s mercy with indifference. God does judge all things. The apostle Peter wrote, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. To receive and live in the gift of God s happiness, step one is to recognize your need of Sovereign God. Step two is to realize that your sovereign God gives order. Think about the great benefits, the security in knowing God is sovereign, that He is in control, in knowing that no matter how terrible, unfair and cruel the tragedies and absurdities may be, no matter how much we feel our life, our world has gone crazy with no one in control, the reality is that God is sovereign, He does give order to His creation. Step Three: Receive Your Sovereign God s Gifts. That brings us to the last step toward finding happiness we need to receive the gift our sovereign God gives. To receive is a difficult concept for some people. Our thinking is naturally focused on working, building, achieving. We are to receive His gift enabling happiness. The goal as Solomon states it, again, is to know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one s lifetime (3:12) and to see, realize that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot (3:22). The means to this is revealed in 3:14, where Solomon tells us, I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. That last phrase, for God has so worked that men should fear Him, sums up so much. God has and is working so that we can see, know He is here, reaching out to us, and fear, that is, reverence Him. To not only recognize He exists, but come to Him on His terms, accepting His free gift of forgiveness and full life with Him. To come to God through Jesus who has told us, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6). The apostle Peter, in Acts 7
4:12, And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. What is the connection to real happiness, joy? Listen to Jesus, I came that they might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Even more specifically, Jesus said, These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full [or, complete] (John 15:11). Jesus and His truth living in us is the one and only way to true, lasting happiness or joy. The second part is to receive the good things God gives. Look at verse 12 in chapter 3. I know there is nothing better form them to rejoice and do good in one s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor it is the gift of God (3:12-13). We saw back in 2:24 that good things come from the hand of God. As we read in James that every truly good thing in our lives, in our world, has its ultimate source in God (1:17). One of the most sad tragedies for Christians is when we rob ourselves of the happiness God wants us to have, His own joy which he wants to pour out in every area and time of our lives. We rob ourselves when we get caught up in the pursuits of happiness and fulfillment which Solomon himself explored, knowledge and wisdom, pleasure, accomplishment. So, instead of receiving the good things God gives and wants to give, we feverishly pursue trying to find and accomplish true joy and many other things on our own. We rob ourselves when we live without due care to live in God s truth and holiness. We rob ourselves when loose our sense of the vision and purpose God has for us. One of our great life lessons, is to learn that we receive happiness, satisfaction, meaning, peace as we live in obedient fellowship with God. Conclusion. Finding happiness. Happiness is a gift from our sovereign God. It is tied up with Jesus, His presence, His working as we live in obedient fellowship and then receive the wonderful gift. Listen to these words from a letter written by a man back in the third century: 8
This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it form this fair garden under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the side lands, you know very well what I would see. Bandits on the high road, pirates on the seas, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please the applauding crowds, under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they do not care. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians and I am one of them. As we come to a few moments for personal reflection and response, if you are looking for happiness, and not finding it, and now realize that you do not have a personal relationship with God, come to God now, here. If you are a child of God, reflect, renew and as needed, refocus on your relationship with God to receive His true happiness. 2004 Lyle L. Wahl Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. 9