How to be Happy and Secure
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WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE? Program 79 How to be Happy and Secure by Ernest O’Neill
We’re talking about the meaning of life, why we’re all here on this earth. We’ve been studying especially the explanation of the only human being who has ever got off this world and come back to tell us what is out there — that is, beyond our own spacemen, who, relatively speaking, have pierced into space a very small distance. This man that we’re talking about gave the kind of evidence that intelligent minds respect for believing that He actually did go beyond this earth, beyond the farthest limits of space. He did, in fact, communicate with the Supreme Being who has made our universe. Of course, he’s the man, Jesus of Nazareth.
We’re studying the explanation He’s given us of our present lives. Of course, what appeals to the common sense is that what He says matches our own experience. For instance, He does say we are just born of the flesh and flesh will never inherit the kingdom of God. Whether you believe in a heavenly kingdom of God or whether you believe in a God at all or not, you know fine well that you have inside you ideas of a kind of kingdom of God or heavenly existence that you feel you were made for.
You know fine well that it is true what this man says — that we never seem able to inherit that kingdom with just the aptitudes, and the abilities and capacities that we have at present. For instance, do you ever get enough love? Do you? Now, I know it depends on what you mean by love, whether you mean lust, or excitement or thrill, whether it means appreciation, or acknowledgment, but whatever it means, do you get enough of it?
You probably answer like the most of us, “No. No, I don’t.” Have you ever enough security? Probably even like Rockefeller you always say, “No, no. I just need another million.” Or you’ll answer, “Look, I don’t talk in terms of millions; I just need another pound. No, I never do seem to get enough security.”
Do you ever get enough sense of your own value and worth in other people’s eyes? You probably admit, no. No, they don’t seem to recognize the remarkable person I am. They don’t seem to appreciate me all the time. Do you ever get enough happiness? You probably say, “No. A lot of the times I am kind of depressed, and sad, and worried and anxious. No, I certainly don’t.”
What Jesus said was, “You see all those needs that you have? You’re trying to meet them from the things, from getting things. I mean, you try to build up stocks and shares. You try to build up insurance policies. You try to build up equity in your home to ensure security for yourself. It’s not actually security that you need.” Security is a by-product of something else, and that’s what you need. It’s the same He says with a sense of importance, or self-worth, or self-esteem, or sense of identity or significance.
You know this popular question we’re all supposed to ask, “Who am I? Who am I?” Well, the answer to that question doesn’t come from getting all the people you can to think you’re the greatest thing in the world, or you’re the guy in the “big picture” [movies]. That will never give you enough self-worth or enough self-esteem. That is a by-product of something else that you need.
Jesus said the same thing about happiness. I mean, you try to get a better vacation next year than you had this year. You think if you went at a different time maybe you’d be happier. You think if you went with some other people you’d be happier. Or, if your wife would only behave this way, you’d be happier. If your children would only do this, you’d be happier. But really, happiness is not what you need. It’s a by-product of something else.
Of course, what Jesus said was, “What you really need is love.” Of course, you may say, “Yeah, yeah, that’s right. That’s right, but my wife won’t love me enough. My girlfriend won’t love me enough. My friends won’t love me enough. That’s it. I can’t get enough love.” Yes, but Jesus said, “It’s not their love. I mean, their love is very limited.” Their love won’t give you security for instance. It doesn’t matter if they’re millionaires.
Finally, they can’t make you secure from cancer. It doesn’t matter if they’re the happiest people in the world. Finally, they can’t make you completely and absolutely happy. It doesn’t matter if they’re the most important people in your time. They can’t give you enough sense of your own worth. The only one who can give you enough sense of worth, who can give you all the happiness you need, the only one who can give you absolute security is one who has infinite resources.
That’s actually the person whose love you were made for. You were made for the love, Jesus said, “of My own Father who begot Me. He’s the one that made you. He’s the Supreme Being, the Creator, the Maker of the whole universe. You’re actually made for His love.” I know you will think to yourself, “Wait a minute. I mean, I’m a little fly on this earth. I’m a nothing and you tell me the Creator of the universe whom I have trouble even believing in, actually loves me?” Yup! That’s right. That’s right.
Here’s what Jesus said, “Even the hairs of your head are numbered. My Father has numbered the hairs of your head.” You remember, we said, we quoted it last week, “Don’t be anxious about your life, what you’ll eat, what you’ll drink or about your body, what you’ll put on. Is not life more than a body and food? Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. Look at the flowers of the field. They toil not, neither do they sow. And yet, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Look at the birds of the air. They don’t sow or reap, or gather into barns. Yet, your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you of much more value than they?”
Jesus assured us that you are not just a miniature little cipher in this world. You are not just a consumer. You are not just a statistic. You are not just a little fly on the world’s surface. You are someone that your Creator has made unique.
There’s nobody like you and never ever will be anybody like you, and never has been anybody like you. Your Father the Creator has made you, because He loves you. That’s why He’s made you. That’s why you exist. If you say, “No, no it couldn’t be.” You reflect for a moment. What’s the most precious thing in life? You know it’s not things. You know it’s not circumstances that are good. You know it’s not people talking well of you. It’s love, love; personal relationship.
That’s what is dearest to you about your wife, or your friend, or your father or your mother. It’s the personal relationship. It doesn’t matter what they possess or what they don’t possess — if you have a real relationship with somebody that is dear. That’s the thing that never bores. Friendship, a good friendship never bores. The love of a person for you is something that is the dearest thing in the whole universe.
That’s so with God, our Father. He made you because He loves you. He wants you for His friend, that’s it. He wants you to be His friend. Jesus explained that to one of His disciples, and this disciple wrote it in a letter that he sent to some people in the first century. He was called John. He wrote three little letters that you find in our Bible, in the New Testament, near the back of it.
In First John Chapter 1 verse 3, he said, “…so that you may have friendship or fellowship with us and our friendship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” That’s it. God, the Supreme Being of the whole universe does not delight primarily in Mars, or Venus, or Jupiter or the Milky Way. He does not primarily
delight in the DNA molecule. He does not primarily delight in protons and neutrons. He doesn’t even primarily delight in the theory of relativity, or the Ural Mountains or the Apennines. He doesn’t primarily delight in the Rocky Mountains or the Mississippi River. He delights primarily in you. He wants friends who love Him freely, and who enjoy His company. That’s why you were made.
That’s why the Father made you. Jesus says that that’s what will satisfy you, when you begin to realize that and begin to live in the reality of that. That’s the purpose of life.