The Pursuit of Happiness | Andy Elmes | 18th June 2023

Family Church Portsmouth

Pastor Andy Elmes starts a new series titled ‘Pursuit’ today. This is part 1, dealing specifically with the pursuit of happiness. The second sentence of the American Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. A pursuit is what we set our heart or our desires hard at work over.

The Declaration of Independence stated the United States no longer wanted the rule and reign of England, rather to be autonomous and self-governing. Ps Andy goes on to look at how effectively mankind moved away from the rule and reign of their Lord God in the Garden of Eden, believing happiness (amongst other things) to be found in the tree of knowledge of good and evil. History tells otherwise! Humanity turned its back on a position that it had, to go on a pursuit of something that could never be achieved, because we know that happiness, life and liberty aren't found in places outside of God. Since Adam, we have all been looking for those things in places where we can't find them when all the time God is there, omnipresent ever-present saying, “hey return to me, why don't you walk away from your statement of independence of me and my kingdom and come back into my kingdom, where you will find all those things”.

When we don’t have a relationship with God, we unknowingly draw things we think will create happiness from our wives, husbands, children or friendships. This makes relationships a lesser experience than God intended them to be.

Ps Andy asks “what's the answer to all this”? Basically, have a healthy relationship with God, then all other relationships in our lives will become beautifully balanced as they were meant to be. Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) states “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”. The context of this statement comes from Jesus speaking to his followers saying, don't be like unsaved people, don't be like heathens or pagans, or people who don't know God and seek other things to bring them happiness. Rather, Jesus said that if we seek first the Kingdom of God, make a relationship with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, making this the greatest pursuit of our lives, then our striving will cease. Our Father will add these other things to our lives and put His blessing upon them. However, if we look at other things outside God’s Kingdom for our pursuit of happiness, we effectively make them idols in our lives…..