[Transcript may not match broadcasted sermon word for word]

Happiness Point #76: You Can Do Fun Things for Free

       One great thing about having fun is that it often times can be free. In other words, the belief that one needs to spend money, or spend a lot of money to have fun simply isn’t true. Sure, spending money to go to theme parks, the theatre, out to dinner, whatever, yeah, those things can be and are a lot of fun. But I have noticed that sometimes it is the ‘free’ things in life that give us the most happiness. It isn’t always the things that cost us money that brings happiness.

       I like hanging out with friends and just having conversations with them. Conversations don’t cost anything, and yet they can be great times of satisfaction. You can learn something new about another person, or even tell someone about something new you’ve have learned in recent times. Even playing board games with friends is a lot of fun. Granted, the game originally costed something, but usually not much. And that was a long time ago anyway. That boxed up board game in your closet could use some use.

       And let’s not forget going for walks. Especially in the summertime, walks are a great way to get out into nature and see what is going on. You can listen to music or whatever. Put those old headphones to use. There’s nothing like listening to some good music whether it be on the radio or whether it be songs we downloaded a long time ago. And, of course, let’s not forget that we can spend time in conversation with God. Yes indeed. Spending time with God while walking about in nature doesn’t cost us anything, and yet, it can be some of the best times of our days.

Happiness Point #77: We Cannot Force a Solution

       We all have wants and desires for things, whether those things are big or small. When we have the desire for something, there can be that temptation to try to force it to be done, or to come to pass. So, the original want actually begets a want for whatever is to get done. So, now, we have two wants. The want for the original thing, and that want that that original thing is accomplished in a timely manner. No one likes to wait. Just a careful evaluation of people in traffic shows us that. The whole point I am making is that we just need to be aware of that in trying to force an outcome.

       When we try to force an outcome, bad things can happen. One of those things is that we will end up getting what we want. Why is this bad? Well, because sometimes when we get something, we realize that it isn’t what we should have wanted. We didn’t think things properly through. We were too eager, too quick to try to get what we wanted. Now our happiness is gone. Nah, we should have taken more time. We should have thought it through. But, it’s too late, we got what we wanted and we are disappointed. Now we have the desire to get rid of that which we had forced into our hands.

       The other thing that can happen when we try to force an outcome is that we can fall flat on our face. We didn’t obtain what we desired, and we injured ourselves trying to get it. We made a gamble with money we had. The gamble didn’t pay off. Now, we have no more money and still the need for whatever it was—perhaps more money. Perhaps a person is too eager to build muscle. They are lifting too many weights. Then what happens? The person injuries themselves literally. Now they have to recover and cannot lift weights for the time being. They tried to force what they wanted (bigger, better muscles), and ended up with nothing but a hurt body.

       When we are stuck in trying to figure out an outcome, I think the best way for us to retain our happiness is by distraction. We need to get our minds off of whatever it is, walk away from it, and let the answer come to us. Now, we may want to pray to God and ask him for his assistance. That is fine. The point, though, is that when we walk away, and get our mind into a happier state, that is when our positive energy begins to flow. That is when the pressure comes off of us, and a solution, or even multiple solutions can come our way. This may sound counterintuitive, if you are a go-getter. But, this is often how a solution is found, and how, at the end of the day, we end up happy.

Happiness Point #78: Don’t Come to Solutions within a Negative Mindset

       We all know that when we have a negative mindset, we aren’t thinking straight. I mean that we aren’t thinking with right flowing thoughts. In this case, we are thinking bad or the worst about things. We have given up the Apostle’s Paul faith and hope. We aren’t having the faith that Jesus told us to have. So, just think about it then. In this kind of mental condition, why would we want to try to find a solution to something? Certainly we shouldn’t try to do that. It won’t work. It’s like trying to have a picnic in the middle of a thunderstorm. It’s just not going to turn out well.

       When we make a decision that is from a negative mindset, we will find it to be wrong later when the negative clouds have cleared away. This is because we made the decision based on those clouded thought processes. It is like taking wind-measurements in the middle of the storm and expecting them to still be relevant after the storm passes. We know they aren’t going to have any relevance for the clear conditions whatsoever. So, why do we want do that ourselves, to make a decision when we aren’t thinking straight? That will lead us to pain later, not happiness.

       What happens is when we have the practice of doing this over and over, of making decisions from a wrong mindset, we find that we end up being wrong a lot of times—ending up with wrong decisions. Then what happens? Well, because we now have a track record of making bad decisions we begin not to trust our own, personal decision making abilities. We start to question ourselves all the time, and develop more and more fear inside of ourselves. Then we find that we are afraid to make decisions in general because of our track record of being wrong so many times in the past. And it’s all because we didn’t make our decisions in a proper mindset to being with.

       What is the answer then? Deep down, I think a lot of us know when we are about to make a decision that is bad. We have that little underlying feeling that something isn’t quite right. We have a lack of peace. So, what we need to do in these situations is stop and say, “Nah, I’m not making any decision right now. I am going to wait.” And we say that even if it is something we ‘feel’ needs to be decided right now. I would rather come to a ‘late,’ past due decision, then come to an incorrect one because I was forced by some artificial deadline that usually I have created within my mind. I know when I have taken this approach, that six hours later, or whatever it is, I see things totally differently, and then I know what decision I should make. The solution has presented itself. Now, I can be happy.

Happiness Point #79: Recapture Your Childlike Mindset

       It’s funny. I was thinking earlier today that the best time in my life I think was when I was four or five years old. “Why is that?” someone might ask. Well, it’s because all you do at that age is have fun, right? You play, you enjoy your toys, you enjoy siblings and friends, you spend time with your parents, you go to fun events, etc. You don’t even know that bills exist (usually). It’s just a fun age to be, at least, for a lot of people; I know it was for me. Before school starts, it is just sheer happiness. I loved this time of my life so much that I don’t think I would mind being this age for all of eternity. It would be cool to be five years old in Heaven.

       But jumping out of that, let’s get back to reality. “Yes, of course,” someone will say. “What you just talked about isn’t reality.” Well, actually, I would kind of beg the differ. The truth is, deep down, if we were surrendered enough, if we were trusting in God enough, if we had enough faith, we really could live like a child all the time. Yes, certainly so. Isn’t that what we were told that we are supposed to be doing? As my mind goes back through the Gospels, yes, I do recall a saying from the Great Master in regard to this. I am sure you do to. It is how he told us to live. In fact, he said it is how we must be. Remember that? I cringe because I don’t think any of us really models this, at least consistently. Why are we passing on this?

       The truth of all reality, a core truth to our whole happiness, is simply this: “We have everything we need, and we always will.” Our whole lives, though, become a battle against that statement, that dictum. That is because we don’t believe it. We don’t think it will be true for us. The truth is, though, that it is true for us, if we are in personal relationship with God, if we have accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. One thing I have noticed is that as my life has progressed, and as I have seen God work more and more in my life, that I am better at and have more of a tendency to believe things will work out for the good. I wish this wasn’t something that is coming by experience versus just learning about it or knowing about it, but this has been the case for me.

       The truth is that we can really, really, at the end of the day (well, hopefully during the day), let go of our negative thoughts and doubts. This is because we don’t have a need for any of them. They are totally unnecessary because God will always provide everything we need. He will always find a solution to our problems. That solution will be presented to us, always. So, all the bad thinking that we do is futile. It is a waste of time. It is a waste of our lives. It is sin against God. We have to learn to give it all up. We have to learn to become like that child, like the four or five year old, and just focus on the fun, focus on the positive, focus on others, and trust that everything will work out. Then we will be truly happy.

Happiness Point #80: List the Guarantees from Scripture

       One easy way we can increase our overall happiness level is by simply focusing on the good things that God promises us in Scripture. Sounds basic, perhaps even cliche. Really, though, a lot of times we focus on the actual verses. What I am getting at is that we can focus on the concepts, or guarantees rather, that are found in Scripture. We can write out short little things that are found in Scripture to better help us have a good, positive mindset. This can be particularly beneficial when times are tuff, or you’re just having a bad day in general. Let’s consider these guarantees in light of the past, the present, and the future.

       The good thing for us, as Christians, and one that we remember but often also forget, is that we have a lot of ‘past’ benefits that have already taken place for us. For one, we obviously know if we believe in Jesus that God has forgiven us for all our past discretions against him and against others. That’s pretty encouraging. No need to carry around needless guilt. We also know that when we believe in the message of the cross, that God sealed us with the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, and that this guarantees us that we will go to Heaven when we leave this earth. That is a good thing to know and that definitely eliminates any concerns we may have upon our death.

       Moving to the present, and speaking of the Holy Spirit, we also know that he actually dwells with us until we get to Heaven. In essence, that means that God is always with us, just like Jesus said he would be. Jesus also said he is our Helper and Comforter. Great truths. Another truth for the ‘present’ is that we know we have access to God when we want to spend with him. We have the ability to approach the Creator of the Universe and spend time with him, and even make requests from him for ourselves or for others. This means we always have a friend, no matter what is going on, and again, God can and will provide help for us. And as the Sermon on the Mount states, any need that we have will be supplied to us—another basic present truth.

       Looking into the future, there are some key things that we can put on our list for encouragement, to increase our happiness. Our Lord’s prayer reminds us daily that God eventually is going to establish his kingdom here on the earth. That means that one day everything will be perfect again, just like it was before sin entered into the world. So, God is going to eliminate both sin and the evil forces that promote it. Satan will no longer be in the picture, at least till the very end. We know when the New Heaven and New Earth finally arrive that we will have abundance of possessions as well as abundance of friends, relationships, people to spend our time with, to live our new lives with. Yes, in considering the basic guarantees from Scripture, we have much to be hopeful for, many good thoughts that we can use to increase our happiness right now here in the present.

Happiness Point #81: Scripture Reversals Help You Understand

       Most of us want to understand the Scriptures in our daily walks. There are a whole slew of books that can try to give us insight—there is no shortage in that department. A lot of them actually will help us. We can even go so far as to learn Greek or Hebrew so that we can further understand the Scriptures in their original text. Most of us aren’t going to go that far, though. In fact, I’ve never usually cared to go that far. I mean, after all, if we have the Bible in English, isn’t that good enough? If the English version isn’t accurate, then what’s the point of it? Wouldn’t it be a sin to read it in the first place? I think the original languages argument often shuts off the Scriptures to being capable of only being understood by an elite few. Sounds familiar from negative past church history, doesn’t it?

       One method that can greatly help us understand the Scriptures, and it’s one that anyone can do, is simply to reverse the verse in question in order to get the other side of it. It’s a simple and easy method that requires no in-depth schooling. Anyone can do it. Certainly, it’s not going to work in every circumstance—far from it. But where it does work, can help us greatly. It can give us different angles that perhaps we haven’t seen before, so that we can gain insight into things that perhaps we’ve never even thought about or noticed. It allows us to see things from a different and new perspective.

       Personally, I’ve noticed that the reversals work particularly well with the teachings of Jesus or those of New Testament epistles. We can take a verse from the Apostle Paul, for instance, and reverse the words so that we see things in a different light. We could note, for instance, from the beginning of Romans 8, one of our favorite chapters in the Bible, if not our most favorite, in considering the first verse of that chapter, that God now only highly approves of us because we belong to Jesus. See what I did there? We could jump to verse 12 and see that we are only rich to live toward God—and that because of everything God has done for us. Or, we could go to verse 26 and see that the Spirit makes us strong. And on and on we can go throughout the Bible, and increase our happiness.

Happiness Point #82: Limiting Yourself is Good

       In American society, I don’t think a lot of us consider limiting ourselves when thinking about what increases our happiness. We think, “We need to get more, more, more!” Getting more seems to be a lot of people’s solution to a lack of happiness, right? I mean think about it. If we aren’t happy with the money we make, we think we need to get more money. Everybody wants more money. Or consider relationships. People want to be friends with everyone, to increase the number of their friends across the board. Social media works to accomplish this goal. Or, we believe that what we have isn’t new and interesting anymore, so buying something new then is the solution, right? Jesus said to beware of this kind of mindset.

       If we gain more and more relationships, that is more and more people we have to talk to and tend to. People we have to grow toward. If we are doing that, we are spreading ourselves a mile wide and an inch deep, as the saying goes. We aren’t going to be able to develop lasting, deep relationships because we simply don’t have the time. We’ve got more and more people to talk to. I would rather have a few friends that I am close to and enjoy than thirty friends that I can’t keep up with. Yeah, I may feel cool and popular in the latter case, but my happiness will suffer because I will feel like I’m really not close to anybody at the end of the day.

       The truth is, most of us already have enough. What we should do is try to enjoy what we already have. Whether that’s our money or our relationships. Most of us can be perfectly happy, and are in a lot of cases, happy with the money we already make. We can focus that money on the areas that we enjoy, whether that’s hobbies or even eating out. Sure, more money may allow us to do what we already do on a more grander scale, but that is all. We should also focus on the relationships we do have, growing these deeper, instead of always trying to get more. In this last case, quality is definitely more important than quantity.

- Daniel Litton