Youniversity Part 3 by Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Pursuit of Happiness

All of our lives are controlled by the desire and pursuit of happiness. Everything we are doing is either to pursue happiness or to remove unhappiness. Every choice — what you eat, how you dress, who you marry — is driven by the belief that it will make you happy.

The problem is not that happiness is important. The problem is how you go about it. Many people become so desperate to be happy they will pursue it anyhow, and at the end of the day they end up miserable because of the method they chose.

The Deception of Things

Happiness is seductive because it paints pictures that are not true. The rich man in Luke 12 thought if he stored enough grain he could finally eat, drink, and be happy — but God said to him, "You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you." That is human nature: chasing happiness through accumulation.

Many people think that if they had enough money to never work again they would be happy. But people already have those things and are deeply depressed. Things only promise happiness — they never deliver it. Marriage, a new job, a new house, a new child — these promise happiness but cannot sustain it on their own.

There are many things people are postponing happiness to: "When I get there..." But those things in themselves never give happiness — they only promise it.

Taking Direction from Other Pilgrims

All of us are pilgrims — visitors on this earth. When you follow another person's wisdom about how to live, you are taking directions from someone who does not live here either. He is just as much a visitor as you are. Philosophers, entertainers, celebrities — none of them actually know how to live. They are figuring it out like everyone else.

An iPhone cannot describe Steve Jobs. A creation cannot fully comprehend its creator. Trying to define God and life through human wisdom alone is equally futile.

There are only two alternatives to following other pilgrims: relying on your own limited experience, or submitting to the wisdom of the One who created life itself. Your own experiences are too narrow — you have not lived every reality. The one person whose perspective never changes is God.

Happiness Cannot Depend on People

Your happiness cannot depend on other people because you cannot control how others treat you. God never tied his decisions to whether people appreciated him. Jesus died for people who were killing him. If he had made his decision to die contingent on their appreciation, he would never have done it.

People — even pastors — are just people. They have weaknesses and limitations. Looking to a human being as the source of your happiness places unbearable pressure on them and guarantees disappointment.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith — not a pastor, not a spouse. Jesus never disappoints.

The Baseline

If you want to be happy, start reading the Bible and obeying it. The Bible addresses how to treat your husband, your wife, your children, your parents, your enemies, your friends, and money. It addresses everything.

The Bible says labor not to be rich — not that you should not be rich, but that the purpose of your work should not be to get rich. You must differentiate what is popular from what is right. Most people are living for what is popular, not what is right.

Freedom is not the ability to do whatever you want. True freedom is the freedom to do what is right. Anyone who has told you that you can do anything you want and be fine is lying — because unchecked desire eventually destroys.