Discover The Word

Friday, June 19, 2009

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17).

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Deuteronomy 5:21).

IDEA: It is not a sin to pursue happiness, but the pursuit of happiness can lead us into sin.

PURPOSE: To help listeners think biblically about the pursuit of happiness.

In the original draft of the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that we have the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of possessions. The committee changed the wording to “the pursuit of happiness.”

I. What do we mean by “happiness”?

Dictionaries differ in their definitions of happiness:

The American Heritage Dictionary implies that happiness is determined by our external circumstances “characterized by luck or good fortune.”

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines happiness as an emotional state, a feeling, a positive mood “expressing the mood of someone who is pleased or delighted.”

What is the difference in these two definitions?

II. How do people “pursue happiness”?

When Jefferson wrote the initial draft of the American Declaration of Independence, he wrote that we have the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of possessions. The founders changed the last words to “the pursuit of happiness.” Do you think many people would think that was a significant change?

We often believe that pursuing possessions is equal to pursuing happiness. Is it?

Armand Nicholi states, “No aspect of life is more desired, more elusive, and more perplexing than happiness. People wish and strive for what they believe will make them happy–good health, attractive looks, an ideal marriage, children, a comfortable home, success, fame, financial independence–the list goes on and on. Not everyone who attains these goals, however, finds happiness. Unhappiness appears to be at least as prevalent as happiness . . . In the United States more than a quarter of a million people attempt to end their lives every twelve months, and about 30,000 succeed.” (From The Question of God, pp 97-98)

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer concluded that “Man is never happy, but spends his whole life striving after something he thinks will make him so.”

When we define happiness as a feeling, we pursue experiences.

According to Sigmund Freud, that elusive thing called happiness is found in ecstatic sexual experience. People pursuing that feeling will seldom have deep, long-lasting relationships.

Friedrich Nietzsche said that happiness comes with power: happiness is, in his words, “the feeling that power increases, that resistance is overcome.”

III. The pursuit of happiness can lead us to break the tenth commandment.

If we pursue things to make us happy, we will end up coveting and planning to take what we do not have.

If we pursue experiences, we will pursue ecstatic sexual experiences.