Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 7, 2022 | More than a Feeling - Happiness

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May 7, 2022 | More than a Feeling - Happiness · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody! Anyone else do the lawn and garden thing today?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect day to do lawn and garden.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ground still soft from the rain, so the weeds slip right out.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it's dry enough to mow.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not gonna be that way tomorrow.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry about that.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So um Theresa was right.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing happiness.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's uh the third emotion.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's called one of the six basic emotions.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've done anger, we've done envy, and uh I'm gonna do happiness for you out here.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I thought happy would be the right thing to talk about while we're outdoors like this.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: You feeling happy today?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're lying.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're not lying.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: You said no, right?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, some people are made happy by the strangest things.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Take those guys back up there who stayed up all night in the parking lot, chugging Red Bull, standing in front of their grills and smokers, trying to stay awake, turning the meat and telling stories.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor Alex told us on staff meeting that grilling makes them happy, and wouldn't I like to join them at the all-night smoking, meat smoking party and be happy too?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: He really said, I said, no, thanks, you're my hero, and I'm really big on barbecue.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: But what makes you happy and what makes me happy are two way different things.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing Alex and I have in common, and that we have in common with the nearly eight billion people in the world, is a desire for happiness.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: We all want to be happy.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And there's one book in the Bible more than any other that is the book of happiness.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs is the book of wisdom, right?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Romans is the book of salvation.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation is the book of the future, the book of happiness, the one book about happiness in the Bible is the book of Philippians.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can't read the four pages of that book, of that letter, without stumbling a dozen times over happiness words like glad and confident and happy and rejoice and stuff like that.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, that's the book where Paul says, uh, rejoice in the Lord always.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, and again I'll say it, rejoice.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says it again, four or five verses later, rejoice in the Lord.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, be happy in the Lord.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: He starts off the book with, in all my prayers, I'm really happy all about you.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says a couple verses later, it's right for me to be happy about you and to feel happiness.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And on and on.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's no wonder that one commentary on the book by Warren Wirsby is entitled, Be Happy.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I wondered, uh, as I was sitting there last week trying to figure out what to say, uh, because there's no one text in the Bible on happiness, I thought, so what is it that made Paul so happy when he wrote this letter to the Philippians?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided to do detective work and I opened up to the 104 verses and 2180 words of Philippians and tried to look for clues about what made Paul so happy, and I found the answer, actually did.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: That what made Paul happy was certain attitudes that he had, because attitudes produce happiness or unhappiness.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Happiness comes from attitudes.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's right.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have I have my own clicker here.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Feelings come from attitudes.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: It says it up there, so it's true.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna share with you uh the four attitudes that I found in this book, the four attitudes that Paul has, the four attitudes that produced happiness in him, the four attitudes I believe that if you have them will produce happiness in you.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one, uh, and it is up there, so it's true, happiness attitude number one, is it's not about me.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the opposite, of course, is it's all about me.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a common attitude.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know anybody with that attitude, you don't know anybody.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Everything's about them.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're at the sun at the center of their solar system, and and you're just one of the planets that revolves around them.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And because, like a number of my friends, I think in movie lines.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think of that movie where Alec Baldwin says, Christy, you're the only one I ever loved, and Elizabeth McGovern says, No, Davis, you're the only one you ever loved.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or I think of the Macaulay-Calkin movie where he says, Hey everyone, it's my birthday, time to pay attention to me.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or the famous movie Beaches, where Bette Midler says to her newfound uh girlfriend, she says, But enough about me.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about you.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think of me?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Good, I'm glad you got that.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you want to blurt out like Peter blurts out to Edmund in the Lion, the Witch, and the wardrobe, why can't you think about anyone but yourself?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're so selfish.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: So listen, in a world of egomaniacs, which is what Paul lived in and we live in, Paul's attitude was it's not all about me.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so beautiful in chapter one because the issue is he's stuck in a Roman jail and he can't preach.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what happens is he has these sort of enemies, people that don't like him.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And his disciples, Paul, I mean, Paul's followers come to him and they say, they're out there and they're disrespecting you publicly, and they're preaching, and they're like preaching your messages, but they're not giving you any credit.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says amazingly, what does it matter?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that really matters, it's not me, the only thing that matters is Christ.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he says a couple of verses later, for to me to live is right, Christ.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's for him, for Paul, it's not all it's not about me.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about it's all about him.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, it's not only in this book, it's all about him.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, and when it's not about him, it's all about you.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I began noticing that, verse one, two, three.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I started to underline all the use in the book of Philippians, and I got tired because it was in verse 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just, it started off in every verse.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So listen, Paul's philosophy was it's not all about me, it's about God, it's about him, and it's about you.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then he turns to them, remember in chapter 2, that's that verse about Jesus, and he says, and you need to consider everyone else more important than yourself, too.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Be like Jesus who came who came down to earth.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not about me, it's about him and about you.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Chiefs fans are a little worried, right?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a big Chiefs fan like me, you're a little worried about the uh about the division, you know, becoming so much stronger, and even arch rival Denver, they get this great quarterback.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: My favorite player outside of the Chiefs in the NFL.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: They get Russell Wilson, Super Bowl winning, all NFL player, you know, from the Seattle Seahawks.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Nearly a god up there in Seattle.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a West Coast guy.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: They just they worshiped him.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and and one of the reasons, I guess the main reason that Russell Wilson's my hero, I like him better than anybody outside the Chiefs, is because he's such a fervent follower of Jesus.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's just crazy.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, a few months back, somebody at his church took a picture of his family, him, his wife, and so forth during music.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, they were both all in.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And his wife had her hands up and so forth, and they're loving the Lord.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: There was, and they got some pros, but they got a lot of cons on it.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you're too cool to be doing that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're such a superstar.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, you know, why would you do that?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the amazing thing is when they approached him, he said this.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You guys look up to me because I'm a quarterback, but I have a quarterback.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is my quarterback.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I may plan my steps, but he orders my ways.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's in charge of my life.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about me, in other words, it's about him.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, you have a choice in life, and your choice is this the attitude it's all about me will drain your life of happiness.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: The attitude it's all about him, and you will fill your life with happiness.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's happiness attitude number one.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, look at that.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's copying me.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's just what I said.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Happiness attitude number two that I found in this book.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, so cool.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: God's got this.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now the opposite attitude is woe is me, all is lost, everything's falling apart.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Common attitude, right?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Common attitude, especially if you got health problems that are not getting resolved, or if you have a family member who's starting to do weird things, or you look at politics and it looks like the world's going to hell.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And in a world full of woe is me, helplessness, hopelessness, Paul's attitude was confident.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he starts off the book.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm for Philippians 1, 6.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm confident that God who started a good work in you and in me is going to complete it on the day of Jesus Christ.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then a few verses later, he says, You guys are all depressed because I'm in prison.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not depressed that I'm in prison.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's all working out for God's glory.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: God's got this.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And in chapter 2, in the verse that's uh right up here in verse 17 and 18, he says, I know it appears to you like I'm slowly dying here in prison, year after year, and I'm not able to do anything.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: But my view is that I'm a drink offering to the Lord and God's slowly pouring me out.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he's got this, and I'm good with that.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm fine with that.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we say God's got this, we, you know, I don't like it because it's so prosperity type.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's like God's got this means God's gonna solve all my problems.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna give me a, you know, cushy condo on the Mediterranean.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what Paul was thinking.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: It just meant that the Lord was his shepherd.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: It meant that he trusted that the Lord would give him exactly what he needed.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the words of that old hymn, sung most famously, I guess, by Aretha Franklin, be not dismayed, whatever be tied.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: God will take care of you.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Beneath his wings of love abide, God will take care of you.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: He will take care of you through every day or all the way.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: He will take care of you.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: God will take care of you.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's what God's got this means.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it meant to Paul.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it meant to means to you.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Last month, Johnny Erickson Tata, paraplegic.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Paraplegic.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Last month said this.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: She said, absolutely nothing is outside of God's sovereign control.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's COVID, cancer, any other trial, nothing takes God by surprise.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, God's got this.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And your choice in life, choice number one is woe is me, it's all gone wrong.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can't help it.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: That drains life of happiness.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: The attitude that leads to happiness is say it with me, God's got this.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, happiness attitude that I found in this book was what is it?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta find out what it is.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's I'm so grateful.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so relieved.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: The opposite attitude is poor me.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a victim, which I'd have been saying if it hadn't come up right.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because we know everybody, right?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: We even have people in our family there that play the victim role.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that right?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: They use freedom, they they seem to use freedom of speech as a freedom to whine.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: No one likes a whiner.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we sympathize with people who are in deep emotional pain, but a whiny victim who's always consumed with the fact that life is unfair to them and other people are unfair to them, we get so tired, right?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yucko, nauseating.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: We get tired of listening to them.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in a world of poor me, I'm a victim, hopelessness.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Paul had an attitude of gratitude.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: His attitude was, I'm so grateful.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe how blessed I am.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter two, he goes, hey, and this is the only verse like this in the Bible, chapter two, verse 14.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's on the screen.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Says, stop complaining, don't complain, don't grumble, don't do it.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Makes no sense and it'll make you unhappy.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Don't whine.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And in the chapter 4, I've learned to be content with whatever happens.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Stop whining, start whistling, stop whining, have a beautiful life.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think gratitude is the single attitude.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't just think.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: The results surveys indicate this too.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: That gratitude is the single trait more than any other that determines whether people are happy or are unhappy.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: An ungrateful person's always an unhappy person.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: A grateful person's always a happy person.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: I love the quote from Willie Nelson.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: He said, When I started counting my blessings, Willie Nelson, you know the theologian, Willie Nelson, right?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Willie Paul, they say the same thing.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you have a choice in life.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Poor me, I'm a victim, will lead you straight.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Drain your life of un of happiness.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: The attitude that leads to happiness is I'm so grateful.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Start practicing that one tonight.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, the fourth happiness attitude that I ran into was really interesting.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: It dominated chapter three.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, I'm galvanized by a purpose.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: The opposite attitude, you know.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: You see people who are always going, forget it.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: I give up, forget me.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we know people, even perhaps family members who have that attitude.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Got no reason to live, you know, like Roger Miller's song in 1964.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Dang me, dang me, they ought to take a rope and hang me.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody else knows that song?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: You do not know that song.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: That was before you were even a thought.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: In a world full of full I love it.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Forget me, I give up, surrender to in a world full of forget me, I give up, surrender to circumstances.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Paul had a purpose and he had a passion that galvanized him and drove him on.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: What was it?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: His purpose and passion was to know Jesus more and to become like him.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3 goes, I'm forgetting the past, I'm looking toward the future, I'm pressing on for to just to know Jesus better and to fellowship in his sufferings and to know the power of his resurrection, to go through all he did to and to become like Jesus.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: For to me to live is Christ.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or to quote the God spell hit.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Day by day, oh dear Lord, three things I pray.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sing it with me.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: See thee more clearly.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: I won't try it.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: To see thee more clearly, to love thee more dearly, to follow thee more nearly day by day.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Accidentally happened across the Psychology Today article, uh, yeah, magazine article this week entitled The Power of Purpose, which whose opening line was get this, the need for purpose is a fundamental need every person has.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: We crave purpose and suffer serious psychological difficulties when we have no purpose.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Living with purpose is essential to happiness, unquote.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we sense that.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's why when Rick Warren entitled his nonfiction book, Purpose Driven Life, that it started flying off the shelves, that it's one of the best-selling nonfiction books of all time.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: 50 million copies, 85 languages.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: We know we need a purpose.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: You win, buddy.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, you have a choice in life.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: The attitude, forget me, I give up.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Drange life of happiness.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: The attitude that leads to happiness is what is it?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Say it with me, I'm galvanized by a purpose.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me summarize this.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let me, let me, let me, so this is Philippians, this is the book of happiness.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I recommend that you, especially if you're college age or if you're dating, you memorize the 104 verses of this book with a friend.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Really great thing to do together if you're dating.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I confess I really wanted to memorize books of the Bible when I was in my 20s, but I needed a motivation, so when I date a girl, we'd memorize a book of the Bible together.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Short one, like this one.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I guarantee you something that putting the book of happiness, these 104 verses, in your mind and heart will make you a happier person.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: When you get to my age and Doc Grendel's age, you know the verses just slip through now when you're trying to memorize them.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: But do it, try it.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let me summarize what I've said so far.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Unhappiness says it's all about me.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Happiness says it's not about me, it's about God and you.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's humility.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Unhappiness says, woe is me.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Happiness says, God's got this.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's trust.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Unhappiness says, poor me.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Happiness says, I'm not a victim, I'm so grateful.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's gratitude.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Unhappiness says, forget me, I'm toast.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Gratitude says I'm galvanized by a purpose.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Humility, trust, gratitude, purpose.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: If y'all want to come forward to accept Jesus, do it right now.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Buses will wait.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kidding.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's happiness, humility, trust, gratitude, purpose.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I learned something.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let me close this way.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I learned something reading a newspaper this week.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a while since that happened.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I learned, uh, I learned that everybody in the Eastern European country of Romania is familiar with a book entitled The Happiness Diary, which I'd never heard of.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a famous book in that country because it's a journal, it's a diary that was written from a concentration camp in the 1960s by a Romanian intellectual Jew.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nikolai Steinhart grew up a good Jewish boy in Romania, and he was an intellectual Jewish boy in Romania, a really smart guy.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, he had traveled all over Europe.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: He knew Paris and London like the back of his hand.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: He knew a lot of people.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: When the communists took over, uh, the Jews had been filling the concentration camps just a half a dozen years before.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Nazis had filled the concentration camps with Jews.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now the communists were in control, and they were filling the same concentration camps with Christians, especially Christian pastors, Christian leaders, and so forth.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And because uh because he because he was an open-minded intellectual and so forth, Nikolai, when they told asked him to come to court and testify against Christian leaders, he said no thanks.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they threw him into the concentration camp in 1959 with all these all these Christian leaders as well.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And to his absolute surprise, that's where he got to know Jesus Christ.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he asked if he could be baptized because he trusted Christ as his personal savior.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, they had to avoid any of the communist leaders seeing them, but they actually baptized him there in the concentration camp.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he started a journal, he started a diary.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: He said, that day, the day I became a Christian, my heart changed, and I've been happy ever since.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he entitled his diary, The Happiness Diary, and because he's a he's a great writer, he's later after he got out, he's written other books, it's become a famous book.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Hold it.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: They tortured you horribly.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I tell you the truth, once I trusted Jesus, I was happy even while I was being tortured.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's astounding.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it's no different than the Apostle Paul.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if you say to Nikolai as others did, Nikolai, I'm so sorry for you, his answer is don't feel sorry for me, because I don't feel sorry for myself.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: I am so, so grateful that I went to jail, I went to prison, went to concentration camp, went to the gulag, and that I met Jesus Christ, and that he's given me a reason to live.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's given me a purpose, and I'm not a victim.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so happy.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, happiness is so, so much more than a feeling.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we're praying for happiness right now.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's something we all want.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: The whole world wants happiness.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: But we need Jesus for happiness.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: We need a purpose, we need to stop feeling like a victim.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: We need to realize that you've died for our sins, and we should be grateful for that and receive that.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the fact that you want us to be happy, not sad, that you're not this uh kind of a mean, vindictive God, or even a God who doesn't even care about us, that you care deeply for us, and you sympathize with us, and you want us to smile and be happy and rejoice and enjoy each day.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we're so happy about that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Make us happy Christians and happy people.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name and all God's people said amen.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.