Good evening. Oh come on good evening Calvary God bless you tonight. Hey man great summer. We're having right everybody enjoying it Okay Now I'll say that in winter great winter.
We're having you don't want it to be hot Wow, well praise God when pastor Don Don asked me to share on this subject. I said well, yeah sure I could do that and Then I started reading the material and then I listened to Randy Alcorn. I said okay, this is what I'm gonna do I'm gonna get up and go Let's go home Because he really goes deep into the subject and I read it and I studied I said well, you know what I think I'm just gonna do some cherry pickin tonight All right, and when I say cherry picking my part tonight is that we're hardwired for for happen has sent Randy does such an awesome job And what he just shared I go let me just find a couple things to talk about tonight Then I think will bless you and also to probably challenge you just a little bit tonight Stand with me if you would let's just change Upon just for a moment good to see my good friend pastor mace praise God. I'm gonna beat him Monday night I'm trying to make sure I'm being that Monday night to hear you preach man on healing praise God in your handout I think also Your handout, let's just read that decoration together if we could all right say with me I declare oh Come on come on I declare Yeah, good good.
I declare that I'm calm and peaceful. I will not let people or circumstances upset me oh come on and then get it sound good right there. I'm calm. I'm peaceful I'm not gonna allow people or circumstances upset me.
So come on with me because I am hardwired for happiness my choice to live in happiness will give me the security and strength to rise above Every difficulty come on every difficulty. Oh, no. No. No, I'm gonna just gotta sing this has to sink in all right to rise above Every difficulty knowing that God has given me the power to remain calm I choose to live my life I said I'm just gonna go up and have fun with this tonight and bloom Where I have been planted I will let God Fight my battles.
I will let God Fight my battles. This is my Decoration turn on look at somebody said this is my Decoration, amen. You may be seated now while you're seated I want you to ponder this just for a moment if you would see with me God is in a good mood Now that that's challenging somebody's theology right there as though God is moody or that one day he wakes up But he's angry at you or he doesn't love you anymore or he doesn't want you happy But God wants you happy. I believe that God's always in a good mood I can't read this and go to this scripture, but I think it's in some too says God laughs God laughs God has a sense of humor, you know, I just look around this room You just just just look around this room for a moment God is in a good mood now in some 89 and 15 it says happy are the people who know the joyful shout of Yahweh Happy are the people who know the joyful shout of Yahweh now.
No, no, pass it then good work on Sunday Okay But I was sitting there and I was thinking about I had one of those random thoughts when you were preaching You know and it was going crosswise at what you said in one area and I said what would happen in Calvary Church In Calvary Church not the one down the street not the one on in Calvary Church That happy are the people who know the joyful shout of Yahweh and just pretend Let's pray maybe hope one day there's a sovereign move of God that messes up everything on Sunday morning I mean where there is a demonstrative Shout a praise one of those David Sundays, you know, David when he was coming into Jerusalem and any any dance out of his clothes He had a little loincloth on but he was just dancing and he was shouting and there was order I don't know how it looked but there was order maybe there but I'm saying he was shouting and praising and dancing and the music I believe was loud. I said with me or maybe it's like what Paul talked about over in Corinthians And I'll get right to this but he talked about it currently So we come in the house of God and there's this powerful worship that is going on and it's so awesome It's so powerful gives of the spirit or an operation and they're in order I mean there's prophecy there's words of wisdom the gift of knowledge is working and activated all in one service He says and sinners would be in our midst and see that because it was powerful didn't take away from sinners coming in Falling down on their knees lifting up their hands and says of a truth God is in this place I'm waiting for one of those. I believe it's coming. I believe it's coming in a powerful way in Psalm 122 and 1 It says I am happy.
He said I was glad David said I was glad these are Psalms of ascent not Psalms of descent and depression and boredom, but his Psalms of ascent he was going up to the high place He was going up to the house of God He says I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord are you with me? I was glad when they said it I was happy when did you come tonight saying you know I'm just can't wait to get to the house of the Lord tonight or Sunday morning You know I can't wait to get to church pastor's gonna have a powerful word for us You know your nothing is gonna be there. Yeah, it's gonna be worshiping the worship. It's gonna be powerful I just can't wait to get there now travel quite a bit in my life and in my last position about every Sunday I was somewhere preaching with a group of people given their testimonies and we were in one of the northern churches I got to cook this we were in one of the northern churches in Chicago land and This this lady was standing at the door.
She was a greeter now. I'm glad we don't have any greeters like this in Calvary church Now, let me make sure I say that because people here what they want to hear sometime You know I'm glad we don't have any greeters like this in Calvary church. You got that let me say one time Just go to the pastor mark. Maybe livestream in this or something.
You know make sure I get you as a preacher I'm glad we don't have any greeters like this in Calvary church. So this lady. She was about 92 years old This church is older than the Assimmons of God She was 92 and so we just celebrated a hundred years and that may have been ten years ago Well, she met me at the door and I said well good morning I'm John Harper and I'm come to share a ministry with you today. She says well, let me tell you something I've been here since I was a kid and They better get a pastor in here real fast go this places follow pot.
I went okay This was a greeter. This is a green. I said okay I guess she wasn't really saying I was glad when they said it to me. Let us go into the house She had a position she was there But oh boy her attitude man her face told a story that she was not happy I'm glad to be happy tonight now the great Apologist historian Kenneth Lotta Rhett.
He said this he said that inside every man woman boring girl there is a vacuum shaped like God and No one can feel it but God There is a vacuum shaped like gone and no one can feel it but God Alcohol can't feel it sex can't feel it money can't feel it the only one that can feel it is gone So I started thinking about this and in 2014 there was a song called happy. I don't know if you remember it or maybe you're so spiritual you didn't get it Okay, you didn't you didn't get to hear it but there was a song called called happy and it was I love that song I was tempted to play it tonight just to put the minions on it just to get us to do a little rockin You know just I said well, I'm still trying to figure out all the rules, you know, so But I said you remember that song just tell the truth be honest. Oh, see there's a lady out here hands way down I'm not raising my hand. You can forget that That's okay Nothing can bring this is this was one of the lines from the song It says nothing can bring me down because my levels are too high My levels are are too high.
I would only say that I'm in a room without a roof You know, but I like whenever he says nothing can bring me down because my levels are are too high And the question I want to ask tonight is what is your level of happiness tonight? And how are your levels? Maintain and that there is a difference between happiness and joy in 1972 I think I was like 19 years old and in June I had that vacuum and it was a hollow thing only inside of me My testimony is really long, but I'm not even here to give testimony tonight as much as I want to just share this little snapshot with you I remember going to the ticket Travel agency remember those travel agencies and we're gonna travel agents and I bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco I I was in the hippie movement picture that now black hippie in the minority again, you know and Afro bandana dog chain psychedelic vest black leather pants 28 waist haven't seen that in a long time Moccasins up to here, you know, I mean I got pictures to prove this stuff And I got I got a plane one-way ticket and I remember went to see a friend that I knew and I just had an address 48th and Gary I never forget it and first night couldn't find him so I suck on the beach. It was here, you know love Rockin sex rockin roll drugs rockin roll sex all that kind of stuff was going on I said but I'm in California.
I finally made it flower child, you know, so went there and found my friend I kind of you know stayed with him for a while and Still trying to feel that vacuum still trying to feel that place that only God could feel and this is what happened And I remember it so vividly when I was there went to hate Nashbury, you know, and Berkeley the whole deal and then I went to come home And I was dumber than a box of rocks 1972 with me hitchhiking from San Francisco back to Connecticut hitchhiking Cut a ride from Sacramento to Reno, Nevada Cut a ride from Reno, Nevada to the George Washington Bridge. That's crossing the United States I can't tell you everything that I did on that trip But one thing happened to me that was still that's still astounding in a few months Because I was on probation and I just kind of said I flipped the probation off Can I say flip the probation off is it okay? I said no way am I going so in up coming back? He says you gotta get a program.
I got whole new programs are not for me I'm like Amy Winehouse. They said I had to go to rehab, but I said no no no anyway some of you you really don't get out much and so You know going to the rehab which was teen challenge and it was only six blocks away from my house And here is in the nuts and bolts of that I went like three thousand miles looking for happiness and I found it six blocks away from a house in a place where someone Introduced me to the saving delivering keeping power of all my God of all my God So that vacuum that vacuum was feel so here. Here's the things I think we need to take note of tonight is your happiness based on what happens in your life That's a good question isn't it of what happens in your life? I've been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer and I love going to the cancer center last two weeks ago I was into the indicator paper big story on on my life in the cancer journey Tomorrow I'll go and film a documentary and some other things about my journey with cancer and every time I go into the cancer center indicator I light it up.
I come here and sing in the happy song, you know Nothing can bring me down my levels are too high But my levels are measured by the power and the blood of Jesus Christ and the finish work of Jesus make no mistake about it And the reason why they chose me says no one comes into the cancer center like you do I come in good morning It's a great day people on key my life It's a great day God is on his throne. I come in. I'm happy. I introduced happiness into the place and literally God through me changes the atmosphere Listen to me just for a moment.
So is your life based on what happens to you? Or is there some kind of internal reality who is personable who says I want you happy? And it's not because of what happens to you Circumstance and situation you can rise above all of that with this internal happiness that God has placed there and he wants it there Number two, how do you maintain a proper balance between Godly happiness? Hmm worldly happiness?
This is not on your notes, but church happiness Are you ready? Say yes, okay? Listen to this how you maintain a proper balance between Godly happiness when I first got saved I'm I got excited for Jesus. I went into the mall and I started asking different people about happiness and I'm all I talked to the lady at Walmart about happiness.
How happy are you? What determines your happiness? How happy are you right now? And I got all kind of Responses, but how do you maintain a happiness when you see the world and their prosper?
But then when I came into the church looking like they were sucking on limits a place where you should experience happiness on every turn Amen, I mean it should be a place But then they got me into the do's and the don'ts and the legalism and all that kind of stuff and God is a holy God And we're gonna make sure that we don't disturb him like God can be disturbed When we look at this Passes a scripture and we look at what God is saying here the world he happiness the church happiness We look at the world and we see people prosper you. I'm not prospering. So that's not gonna make let me happy I'm not happy because I see the world prospering. There's a guy in the song who said that too He says why does the wicked prosper?
He says but when I went into the sanctuary of God into the interchambers I understood therein but I understood also that God has hot has hardwired me to be happy To be happy he said I understood therein now when I look at this Here's my number three that Christians should be the most secure and the most happiest people in the world Let me try to don't did you hear what I just said? That Christians should be the most secure and the most happiest people in the world But but when I meet Christians today, they're all some one-all but most are very insecure Something happened them that happened to them that stopped them from reaching their level of God happiness to be hardwired into that One great point that Randy Alcorn made when he was talking about the stuff Concerning happiness cannot be found in objects of worship. He talked about it over in Acts 17 22 and 23 It cannot be found in the worship of objects or things or stuff The answer cannot be found can I go here tonight in this election system that we are in right now Isn't that crazy huh isn't that crazy? It can't be found in that I had a Facebook friend who told me says John I don't have to buy many Christmas gifts this year.
I said what he said because I'm talking about politics to my friends I said I got that I might even try that myself But I started thinking about this though now think about this crazy world that we live in and the materialism and and I am not against prosperity By the way, I'm not hurting anybody just you know what I was wanting to live in poverty Unless you a monk or Catholic priest or something like that I believe that God loves us so much that he will give us stuff And he doesn't care about us having stuff as long as the stuff don't have us So I'm gonna try to conclude this and surprise my wife tonight We are hardwired for happiness and what I love about that acts 17 the answer is in this particular passage in him We live and we move and we have our being and once you resolve the difference between Being and doing you'll understand what true happiness is all about when you resolve the difference between being and doing and people Pleaseing you will understand how you are hardwired for happiness and you will live an awesome line I just had my two grandsons with me 10 and 4. I Know why I got married at 22 now now. I know some of you grandparents out there. You are program parents I am a little bit my wife is more than I and they were with me And I just started having so much fun with them.
They made me laugh. I said my god. I'm so glad you're here Now, when are you leaving again? Just want to make sure that's what I make sure we understand that we got understanding You have come but you have not come to stay I was so glad we sold the big house indicator.
We're living a nice house on the west side now little place you know I said you see this is uncomfortable. You cannot be comfortable here. You must go back home to Marron But I looked at the happiness in those kids face when I did something for them when we went out to eat or we went swimming or Whatever we did and they would come and wrap their arms around me and say grandpa You know, I think God does that and we should do that to God just wrap our arms around and says Papa Abba I just so love you. Thank you for the happiness and the joy and the blessings that I get to have because of you Something will shout the praises now.
I hope you don't get too upset that when I'm here. I might go hallelujah Amen Praise the Lord Pastor Mark your preaching and out that's good. I'm gonna eventually show you I don't think that disturbs the atmosphere if it's done not demonstratively, but just oh pastor Now listen to this Happiness is your choice God grants the resources if you believe in the God of the Bible and have place your faith in Jesus Christ to atone for your sin There is no reason for you not to be happy last but not least Choose how you think and act Choose how you think and act I choose to be happy. I get up in the morning I said good morning Lord.
How about you? Oh Lord this morning or good morning? What it's a great day people ask me how am I doing? I said spectacular Spectacular and I do I go in the bank and I scare people I'm not I don't have a mask on or anything like that I just scare me because they how you doing?
Spectacular it's a great day This is the day that the Lord has made and I will be glad and rejoice in it I will to be happy. I will to be glad I will to rejoice in this day Amen, no matter what takes place go to the doctor again in a week or so What do you got for me doc? Well, we need to do this we need to do that we this is rising now and you know what doc I say not I'm gonna believe the report of the Lord and his report come on stand with me says I am healed His report says I'm free his report says he's given me victory his report says I am happy amen. I want to close with this thought I want to close with this thought and I want you to catch this in Your spirit come on Sam with me everybody be gonna be gonna be dismissed in just a moment just stand with me Yeah, just stretch a little bit listen to me.
You will always move in the direction of your most dominant thought Whatever's dominating your thinking that is a direction your life will take so you know what I just believe I want to do one of those blessed happy as the peacemaker, you know happy of those who mourn for they shall be comforted happy blessed I Want to enter into those be attitudes and let those things dominate my thinking because that's the direction and the end result of each One of the beatitudes that you're gonna get because if God's dominate your thinking and your thoughts and you're thinking the thoughts of God You're gonna start to feel I'm gonna say that I'm gonna get in trouble say now you're gonna feel enthusiastic That means that literally means God like in the Greek God like how many would lift up your hands right now before the Lord come on with your hands up You can do that in church. You can really do that. It's we do that a lot the Bible says this is okay And I want you to say with me in closing I declare come on I declare that I'm calm and peaceful I will not let people or circumstances upset me because I am hardwired for happiness my choice to live in happiness will give me the security and the strength to rise above Every difficulty knowing that God has given me the power to remain calm I Choose I choose to live my life Happy and bloom where I've been planted I will let God fight my battles This is my Decoration now father. We thank you for your goodness.
Thank you for this great church and pastors and to support team I pray God about a power of your spirit that there would be an overwhelming aroma of happiness that flows through Calvary's church Like never before greeters would greet with anointing and the power of God would flow in this place like never before but individually each one of us as containers would take this happiness into the marketplace of Springfield and surrounding areas and spread it and everyone that sniffs on us will sniff the aroma of the anointing and the happiness That you placed in our lives in Jesus name and I bless you