Live Free with Josh Howerton - Where Happiness Comes From | Ep. 359 | Thursday, June 20, 2024

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Happiness isn't something that is arrived at; it is enjoyed now! Success can't be the driver in finding our joy. How do we know? Look at Solomon. With all he accomplished, he "hated all the hard work" he had done. Isn't that amazing? Let's remember what gives us satisfaction and stay content in the moment. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what is up, everybody? Thanks for tuning in to the Daily Drive today. My name is Bro, and man, I hope your summer's going great, that you're able to break your routine a little bit and maybe swim and play and laugh and read and travel and soak in God's goodness. We have been walking through what we're calling five easy ways to wreck your life. And we're taking some content from a book called Ecclesiastes, which is actually a diary or a journal of a powerful, wealthy king who wrecked his life and is writing to say to you and me, anybody who will love. Listen, don't do what I did. Walk with your creator now.

Let His wisdom and not your appetites guide your life. Even though your desires promise to lead you to happiness, they will not. They cannot deliver. Y'all ever say, when blank happens, then I'll have a great life? Like we're waiting around for that elusive something to come along? When I get my degree, then I'll be able to enjoy life. When I get this project done, then I'll be able to enjoy myself again. and when I finally find that perfect someone, then I'll finally be happy.

You know what research shows? Happy single people who get married are happy married people. Unhappy single people who get married or unhappy married people. Research shows very little difference in the happiness between singles on those who are married, so maybe happiness comes from another place. Happiness is not a when a blank happens kind of thing. It's not that job. It's not that house, that car, that boat, that vacation, that invite,

or that relationship you've been wanting that determines your happiness. People who think this way don't magically become happy when fill in the blank happens. They just tend us have a tendency to transfer that mindset onto the next. Now when that blank happens, then I'll be happy. I think I told you before how my 104-year-old grandma would often say, when you get to be 104, don't buy green bananas. That's just great advice right there, man. Get them ripe.

Live in the moment now. live gratefully every day like it might be your last don't wait around for fill in the blank to be happy walk with god now enjoy god now savor the moments he gives you now like we said on yesterday's podcast it's pretty cool how the research is backing up what solomon is trying to say let me read what some of the research is finding it says people who are inclined to savor were found to be more self-confident and gratified and less hopeless and erotic those skilled at capturing the joy of the present moment hanging on to good feelings, appreciating good things, are less likely to experience depression, stress, guilt, and shame. In other words, happy people are in the now. They're not dependent upon tomorrow as the key to their happiness. They're fulfilled long before that someday event ever comes along. They're happy now because they've learned that happy people don't chase after happiness.

They chase after God, and happiness finds them. So Solomon is trying to say to all of us, walk with God now, enjoy his presence now, instead of letting pleasure drive you, chase after him every day. Let him lead you. Live in the awareness of his presence in the moment, and happiness will find you. So the first of the five easy ways to wreck your life is to let pleasure drive you. And today I want to introduce number two. Solomon says, and if you really want to wreck your life, let success consume you.

Let pleasure drive you and let success consume you. I sat down a while back with a group of about 15 people. They were successful people in their own right. And I asked them, how would you describe successful people? What makes them that way? And they use words like passion, focus, driven. They said the successful people are those who work and serve in their sweet spot. They're committed to excellence.

They know who they are. They're full of contentment. They're generous. They're good time managers. They make time for the most important things. They're creative. They're visionary or inspiring. They're able to build a team.

They're selfless. They deflect the credit onto the team. and onto God, they have endurance, they know how to recover from failure. I mean, there are so many good traits and successful people. And as you might imagine, the drive to succeed, to achieve, to compete to win, to have influence to make a difference, those are all healthy, God-given desires. God wired us all up like that, and he is pleased, even blesses our efforts when we work hard and use our gifts and pursue those things with a healthy perspective and a God-centered

passion. However, and you knew a however was coming, right? You know as well as I do that that drivenness can easily get out of whack. Like we said earlier, desires, appetized were created by God, but distorted by sin, and there is a shadow side to success, and it's lurking there to wreck your life and mind. So I asked that same group of people about the shadow side of success, and I asked them to describe the kind of people who go way beyond just doing their best in a God-honoring way to becoming absolutely consumed with being successful.

And they used some of the exact same words, but in a negative context. They said, oh, they're driven to an unhealthy extreme. They're super intense. They're focused, but they're so laser focus that they're blinded to anything else. They're totally consumed. They're insecure. There's some unmet need in them. They get paranoid.

They feel threatened by the talents of other people. They're suspicious, always looking over their shoulder. There's a lack of trust. They become narcissistic. The world revolves around their needs, their need for a problem. applause and headlines, they become disloyal, they will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat in order to make themselves look better. They're terrible time managers because they're way too busy, they're workaholics, they really miss the important things, they have super high stress levels,

are lonely, they're distant, they can't sleep, they can't shut it down, they don't know how to play, and they're always thinking about what's the next hill I'm going to take. And I started looking at a list like that, thinking, man, there really is a shadow side. To the healthy desires and passion that God has given us. And if we're not careful, All of us can begin to drift 10 degrees, 20, 50, 180 degrees off course, and find ourselves absolutely consumed with success running on this endless treadmill of approval seeking. And I'm telling you, gang, that kind of living can and will wreck your life. So Solomon Volnery writes about all of his travels to the shadow side so that you and I don't go there.

We're talking about a guy who the world saw is absolutely on top of his game. Other kings fell all over themselves to be in his presence. The way it appeared was this guy is a huge success. He's got more money, more power, more wisdom, more fame, more of everything. I want to be like him. And Solomon honestly says, um, no you don't. No, you don't. We've seen how his pursuit of unbridled pleasure left him frustrated.

It was like trying to cram a square peg into a round hole. We were introduced to the Hebrew word that Solomon uses 38 times in his journal, Habel, which means meaningless, futile, a vapor, chasing after the wind. This wise man, this man blessed by God, empowered by God, this king, who, like all of us, had so much potential and so much promise, got more than just a little sideways with this whole achievement success thing as well. He writes this in the second chapter of Ecclesiasis, beginning in verse 17. So I came to hate life, because everything done here under the sun is so troubling.

Everything is meaningless. like chasing the wind. I came to hate all my hard work here on earth. All my success has felt so meaningless. So let's just hit pause there today, and we'll pick this up tomorrow, but let me just urge you today. Live for your Heavenly Father's approval. Go to work with him today. Feel his smile today. And as you work, as you achieve, as you relate today, let everything you do be done to the glory of God. And I'll see you back here tomorrow. Have a great day.

Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint. com.com slash daily drive.