1 Psalm 1

Happiness is…

Announcements:

There is a lot of growth in Apollo Beach, our church is growing in this community. It is a good problem to have.  Starting September 11, we are going to two services.  Those who are not currently serving, we encourage you to sign up to serve.  You can serve one service and sit in the other.  Become a part of our Serve Team and get involved in one of these ministries: Parking, Cafe, Children, Greeting, and Ushering.  Many hands make light work and many will benefit from your work.

We are starting a Waters Early Learning Center in Apollo Beach. We want to make use of the building God has provided us.  If you are interested in working or helping getting it started, please email info@waterschurch.org and specify it is for Apollo Beach.

Psalm 1

There are 7 types of Psalms – Praise, Lament, Trust, Hymns, Royal, Wisdom, and Thanksgiving.  Psalms means Songs.  The Psalms are  a Song book of ancient Israel. Singing is one of the healthiest things we can do as human beings.  It expands and strengthens the muscles around our lung cavity and it also releases the serotonin in our brains (the happiness hormone). We should not follow our feelings, but feed our feelings.  We sing to feed our feelings and it changes our mood.  The Psalms give us words to sing to God for every emotion.

Ice-Breaker:

Q. What songs do you sing that change your mood, or make you happy?

Psalm 1 starts with the word: blessed.  Blessed means assured.  Translated to happy.  Very first Psalm is happy.  Where is happiness to be found?

First, Where Happiness is NOT found:

1. THINGS.

Proverbs 17:1 (ESV)

Getting more things makes us temporarily happy, but not happy inside.

2. TRYING to find IT.

Searching for happiness is what scholars call ‘destination addiction.’  Always believing something else, someone else, or somewhere else       will make us happy. There is always an aim that is going to make us happy, always chasing the next thing.

Ecclesiastes 2:10–11 (ESV)

3. CIRCUMSTANCES.

This is what leads us to destination addiction.  I will never be happy until….

If we don’t learn to be happy on the inside with God, nothing on the outside will ever do the job.  There is only one source of happiness. 

Q. What is something, or some aim you thought was going to make you happy that ultimately was not something you thought it would be?

Second, What is a HAPPY life?

1. A life DISCONNECTED from the WAYS of the WORLD. 

Psalm 1:1 (ESV)

If we want to be happy it is more about what we don’t do than what we do.

It comes down to who are we walking with?  We are living in a culture that curses God’s ways as never before in this country.  The things in the Bible, are offensive to the people outside of the church. We may need to cut some people out of our life.  We should not avoid sinners, that is the way they hear about Jesus but there are some we need to stop walking with.  

Q. Who or what  (ie social media, news…) are you be walking with that may be drawing you more toward the world rather than closer to Jesus?

2. A life DELIGHTED by the TRUTH of God’s Word. 

We need to make choices that lead to life.  It is not just cutting off the negative, but we must embrace the positive. God’s word brings truth to our lives.  It is not always what we want to hear but it is what we need to hear.

Psalm 1:2 (ESV)

“Law” – Hebrew: Torah = “INSTRUCTION”

God’s law is not “don’t do that”  but God wants to bring instruction into our lives. We need to let God speak to us and not be stubborn.  Laws don’t empower us but an instructor helps us learn.  God wants to empower and instruct us in the way we should go.

 Psalm 32:8–9 (ESV); Psalm 25:8-9 (ESV)

Q. How has God instructed and humbled you when perhaps you were being stubborn about something (examples: money, relationships, gossip…)?

3. A life DEDICATED to God

Psalm 1:3 (ESV)

Planted  =  stable, dedicated, in it.  A tree takes a long time to grow. It is long term with God.  We need to root ourselves in God’s word, root ourselves in Church.  God can do greater things that we can think through the Holy Spirit that works in us.

Q. What are some remarkable things God is doing in your life as you continue to root yourself in His word?

4. A life DOING what God wants

Don’t just listen to it, hear it or say: ‘amen’ to it, but do it.  We are only blessed if we do it, if we actually follow the principles of God’s word.

James 1:22-23 (ESV)

We are only blessed if we follow the principles of God’s word. 

Psalm 1:3b (ESV)

This is a person that has been planted in streams of living water to produce fruit because he has delighted in the law of the Lord.  We do what God wants because we delight in doing it after we have negated all the negative voices of the world in our lives.  We root ourselves in God, we dedicate ourselves to God and then he brings blessing to everything that we do. 

Ecclesiastes 2:24 (ESV); Psalm 128:1–2 (ESV)

There is a happiness that comes from doing life with God.

Sermon in a Sentence:

When we DISCONNECT from this world, DELIGHT in God’s Word, DEDICATING our lives to Him, He makes us HAPPY in what we DO.

Challenge: Read over the Psalms through the summer – one and a half Psalms a day.