HOW TO HAVE A HAPPY AND PROPEROUS NEW YEAR

Psalm 1:1- 6

(January 4, 2015 – SUN a.m.) (December 28, 2016, – WED p.m.)

Introduction:

Everyone longs to be happy

Happiness is important to us, and God wants us to be happy.

 

The word Happy is found 20 times in the Bible and there are several important suggestions concerning how to be happy.

1. Trusting the Lord brings Happiness--Proverbs 16:20; Romans 5:1, Romans 1:17

2. Obedience brings Happiness--John 13:17

To be happy Christian:

1. Obey Him and receive believer’s baptism

2. Give the Tithe back to the Lord

3. Soul-winning and church attendance

4. Bible reading and prayer

 

Reader’s Digest writes: Head (Father); Heart (Mother); Happiness (Children).

 

I- THE WAY TO HAPPINESS--Psalm 1:1-2

A. Godly living produces happiness--v. 1 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

II Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Titus 2:11- 12 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Hebrews 12:28 “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:”

B. Meditating in the Word of God brings happiness--v. 2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

 

Man needs 3 things to make him happy:

1. Someone to love--1 John 4:19

2. Something to do

3. Something to hope for

 

 Psalms 119:15 “will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.”

Psalm 119:23 “Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.”

Psalm 119:48 “My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.”

Psalm 119:78 “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts.”

Psalm 119:97 “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”

Psalm 119:99 “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.”

Psalm 119:148 “Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.”

 

II- THE WAY TO PROSPERITY--Psalm 1:3 “whasoever he doeth shall prosper.”

God lays down 4 simple things:

1. a man is not to take advice from the ungodly –v.1

2. he is not to stand in the way of sinners –v.1

3. he is not to sit in the seat of the scornful –v.1

4. he is to delight in the law of the Lord and in God’s law meditate day and night –v.2 

 

The Bible has much more to say about prosperity:

1. Joseph--Genesis 39:23 “ The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.”

2. King Uzziah--II Chronicles 26:5”And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.”

3. Daniel-- 

 

A. Giving produces prosperity

Luke 6:38 “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”

II Corinthians 9:6 “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”

 

B. Obedience to God’s Word brings prosperity

Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Deuteronomy 11:26-28 “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.”

 

C. Honesty with God about our sins brings prosperity

Proverbs 28:13“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 

D. Material prosperity must not exceed spiritual prosperity

III John 2“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”

Luke 12:19-21“And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

 

 

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