HOW TO HAVE A HAPPY AND GOOD LIFE!
SCRIPTURE READINGS:
1 Peter 3:10-12
‘If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it. The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right, and His ears are open to their prayers. But the LORD turns His face against those who do evil.’
Psalm 34:12-15
‘Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cry.’
Does God want us to have a happy and good life? Yes!
– Somehow this message has become blurred in the eyes of so many Christians! Why?
– Well, may I suggest that this crept in during the legalistic dark ages.
– Ever since that time there have been streams that have believed that God’s people must operate under legalistic rules and it has become generally accepted that to be a Christian means hardship, sacrifice, poverty, difficulty, etc.
– This is not God’s idea.
– This is mankind’s twisted and warped idea.
– John 10:10b ‘…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’
– As a result, the church has greeted this message with opposition and even resentment.
– For so long they’ve twisted God’s Word and browbeaten God’s people that the church now suffers from an inferiority complex!
We are not an inferior people!
– We are God’s people, the greatest people on earth! – The apple of His eye.
– People who enjoy His provision, His protection, His eternal priesthood and intercession and His power.
– So let us… Believe God, Believe His Word and Believe His promises.
– Don’t believe the pessimistic prophets of the enemy.
– Remember, ‘The thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill and to destroy!’
– ‘I am come that…’
– Don’t have the ‘I’m hanging on’ mentality!
– Let me share with you a typical example of what the world has done to twist Scripture:
– Mark 8:34 ‘And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’
– For us to take up our cross is to fulfill and take up God’s purpose for us in being here.
– God’s purpose for us being here is for us to be the admiration of the nations.
– Balance is important! Preach the cross and the resurrection!
– A careful study of scripture always brings in the balance.
– This is true of our scripture!
– We have been called to live a happy and a good life, because we have the life of God living in us!
1. GOD PLANS FOR US TO HAVE HAPPY AND GOOD LIVES!
– 1 Peter 3:10a ‘For he that will love life, and see good days…’
– TLB: ‘If you want a happy good life…’
– AMP: ‘For let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days…’
– This seems abundantly evident that God has made it possible for His children to enjoy life and have good days!
– What do you understand by enjoying life and seeing good days? – Being exceedingly poor or rich does not necessarily make for enjoying life and seeing good days!
– (Balance: enough to give some away so as to meet great needs.)
– God’s plan for us to have a good life. Not sowing our wild oats – a good time serving God.
– God wants to bless His children.
– Let me illustrate this from the Old Testament:
– Deuteronomy 11:18-21 ‘Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.’
– What are good days?
– They are days as heaven upon earth.
– This involves: Deuteronomy 11:8-27
– a) Possessing our inheritance (Verse 8)
– b) Living a long time in God’s fullness (Verse 9)
– c) Rain – literal and spiritual (Verse 14)
– d) Days of heaven on earth (Verse 21b)
– e) Victory over the enemy (Verse 23)
– f) Faith in God’s promises (Verse 24)
– g) No fear of man (Verse 25)
– h) Blessing (Verse 27)
– Let’s briefly look at a couple of other scriptures.
Old Testament:
– Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.’
– God has got good things in mind for us.
– Joshua 1:8 ‘This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.’
– Surely if this was in God’s mind for the Old Testament people, should we expect even more in the New Testament:
New Testament:
– John 10:10 ‘The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’
– God plans for us to have happy and good days! That’s just like God!
– But there is a price ticket!
2. WE HAVE A PART TO PLAY!
– 1 Peter 3:10-11 ‘For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.’
– Here Peter puts five requirements on us, as being essential prerequisites to enjoying life and good days!
Requirement No. 1: ‘Let him refrain his tongue from evil.’
– Control your tongue!
– It works this way: – Influence comes through the mind, settles in the heart and finds expression through our words.
– If we are going to experience these good days and have a wonderful life, then we are going to have to bring our mouths into captivity.
– We are going to have to control the things we say.
– To control the tongue, you need to start by controlling the mind! (Then the heart and then the tongue!)
– A man who enjoys life and sees good days has his tongue reigned in!
– Remember, if we have our tongues in control we can have our entire beings in control!
– Don’t speak anything that isn’t fair, advisable, good, beneficial or useful.
– This is the pattern to enjoying life and seeing good days!
– One of the ways in which we undermine the good days is because of the negativity that flows out of our mouths.
Requirement No. 2: ‘Let him refrain…his lips that they speak no guile.’
– This is very closely associated with Requirement No. 1.
– ‘Guile’ – means a bait, snare, deceit.
– It has to do with craft, deceit, and subtility!
– If we want to see good days, we have got to keep our lips and our tongues from speaking evil and anything that is not appropriate.
– This is the gateway to loving life and seeing good days!
– A man whose mouth is breaking him down the whole time isn’t going to experience a good and happy life.
– Requirement No. 1 and 2 both have to do with our speech!
Requirement No. 3: ‘Let him eschew (shun) evil.’
– Eschew means to turn aside from something undesirable.
– To turn or bend away from it.
– Have done with evil!
– Therefore, it means to turn aside from evil!
– Evil word
– Evil actions
– Evil thoughts
– Evil attitudes!
– This is the gateway to loving life and seeing good days!
Requirement No. 4: ‘Let him…do good.’
– This is the positive side of it.
– Paul’s letter to Titus gives us a glimpse of what this involves!
– Titus 3:1 ‘Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work.‘
– May I suggest that being subject to principalities and powers (government) is part of what the Bible calls, ‘good works.’
– Titus 3:8 ‘This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.’
– I see God saying that if we are going to step through that gateway into abundance of life, then one of the things that we will have to do will be to do good. To do good starts with submitting myself to government. It is to submit yourself to church government and it is for us to be submitted to family government.
– It goes further, not only not to do wrong, but to do the right thing and be a blessing.
– In plain language, this is a reference to practical Christianity being lived out towards the government, the family, the church and the world around us.
Requirement No. 5: ‘Let him seek peace and pursue it.’
– The meaning here includes:
– Having harmonious relationships between each other.
– Having harmonious relationships with other nations.
– Pursuing a relationship with God.
– Pursue it… Run after it with the intention to catch it!
– With Jesus living in us and then allowing God’s life to be released through us, we can fulfill all of the requirements.
– If we obey God’s Word, we can expect to enjoy life and see good days!
– In the Old Testament those who obeyed were blessed and saw good days.
– In the New Testament those who obey also are blessed and see (enjoy) life and good days!
3. THE LORD IS LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP US ENJOY LIFE AND SEE GOOD DAYS!
– 1 Peter 3:12 ‘For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.’
– God is looking for opportunities to bless you, looking for opportunities to give you a wonderful life.
– His eye watches over us.
– His ear is waiting to hear.
– He longs to answer your prayers. ‘You have not because you ask not.’
– He loves us and He is concerned about us.
– This is the privilege of the righteous. ‘For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.’
2 things to note:
(1) We are righteous in Jesus Christ.
(2) We should therefore be careful to live righteously!
– By God’s grace, that righteousness that you have in Christ is beginning to be seen.
– As the life of God is released through you, you will enjoy life and see good days.
– The call is from God to live the most wonderful life ever.
– It’s a call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
– 2 Chronicles 16:9 ‘For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.’
Conclusion:
– God’s plan for His people, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, is to enjoy His good plan for their lives.
– You have a part to play.
– Do your part and He certainly will do His part!
By Pastor Ed Roebert
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