Psalm 126, Psalm 126, the whole
tone of this psalm is that of rejoicing.
And you say, well pastor, I don't have
much to rejoice about today.
I trust you will before we finish the
ministry this morning.
Psalm 126, when the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that
dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter and
our tongue with singing.
Then said they among the heathen, the Lord
hath done great things for them.
The Lord hath done great things for us,
whereof we are glad.
Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the
streams in the south.
They that sow in tears shall reap in
joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious
seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him.
Psalm 126, now this psalm is talking about
something everybody is looking for and that's happiness.
I suppose you've seen all the posters and
the little peanuts books that are circulating.
Happiness is a warm puppy.
Happiness is a big brother who loves you.
Happiness is warm socks in your drawer on
a cold day.
After a while it gets to be just
a little bit silly because all of us
know that happiness is a lot deeper than
that and we're living in a city and
a world that's just craving happiness.
It's rather interesting you go down to the
library and begin to read through the great
thinkers of the ages and you'll find they're
all discussing this problem.
How in the world can people find happiness?
Aristotle devotes page after page after page to
defining happiness and figuring out how to get
it.
You finally get up to date to some
of our modern day thinkers who just throw
up their hands in despair and simply don't
know where happiness can be found.
Now you and I know from the Bible
that the first step toward happiness is to
know Christ as your Savior.
That's where it starts.
To give your heart to Jesus Christ, open
your life to him.
Jesus was a man of sorrows but he
was a very joyful person.
The night before he was crucified he said
to his disciples, I've spoken these things to
you that my joy might be in you.
That's the kind of happiness that Jesus Christ
wants to give us.
In Luke chapter 15, the lost and found
chapter of the Bible, the whole theme is
joy.
The woman loses her coin and she finds
it and she rejoices and calls all of
her lady friends together and says, rejoice with
me, I found my coin.
The shepherd finds his lost sheep and he
puts it over his shoulders rejoicing and he
goes home and he calls his neighbors and
says, come and rejoice with me, I found
my sheep.
And then there's that heartbreaking story of that
lost son.
Here's a father waiting and waiting and waiting
and watching.
One day down the road he sees the
boy coming and he runs out to meet
him and with joy he throws his arms
around him, with joy he kisses him.
Then he comes home and he says, let's
kill the fatted calf and let's have a
party because my son is home.
That's the kind of joy that salvation brings.
That's the beginning.
The first step toward happiness is simply coming
and saying, oh Jesus, I know I'm a
sinner.
I know that I have been drinking at
the shallow, polluted cisterns of this world and
I haven't found any happiness.
I haven't found any joy.
I believe that you died for me on
the cross.
I believe you are my Savior and right
now by faith I receive you.
That's the first step.
But it's only the first step because from
then on Jesus wants to change our lives.
When you receive him, you receive life.
But then he wants this life just to
grow and to blossom out and the Lord
Jesus wants to make something out of us.
You've discovered, haven't you, that happiness is a
byproduct.
You go out looking for happiness, you won't
find it.
But you go out and do the will
of God, you find happiness.
Happiness is like health.
The people who are constantly worried about their
health are usually sick.
But health is a byproduct of exercise and
cleanliness and clear thinking and good eating.
And happiness comes to us in the will
of God.
Now in Psalm 126, the psalmist is talking
about how you and I can be happy.
And we can be happy as Christians.
Now if you're not a Christian, you better
trust Jesus.
That's the first step.
But as Christians, you and I can find
happiness by receiving from Jesus Christ three very
wonderful gifts.
Now these gifts go right along with your
salvation.
You see, salvation isn't just one little thing
that God does.
When you have it, that's all there is
to it.
Not on your life.
Salvation, faith in Christ, this experience of being
born again is just the beginning.
You say, I didn't know that.
Now you know it.
It's just the beginning.
Birth into the family is not the end,
it's the beginning.
And when a child is born into the
family, he experiences day after day fresh, new
and wonderful things.
And your Christian life can be this way.
I meet people all over the city of
Chicago who don't know what it means to
really enjoy their Christian life.
They just endure it.
And because they aren't enjoying it, nobody else
is enjoying it.
And the unsaved husband doesn't get any joy
from it.
And the workers in the office or the
factory don't get any joy out of it.
But I tell you folks, if you and
I will just receive these three very wonderful
gifts that are given to us in Psalm
126, oh, how different life is going to
be and God will make us happy.
Gift number one in verses one through three,
freedom.
Freedom.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of
Zion, we were like them that dream.
Now what's he talking about?
He's not talking about the 70 year captivity
of the nation of Israel.
That was no surprise.
They knew for years it was going to
end.
Jeremiah told them it would end.
He's talking here about one of the most
amazing events that ever happened in Jewish history.
Now you've read all about the six day
war and some of the other things that
have happened down there.
In about 700 BC, the city of Jerusalem
experienced the most amazing miracle.
In one of those rooms in the British
Museum over in London, there is a six
-sided clay tablet.
I stood and looked at it one day.
An amazing thing.
A six-sided clay tablet.
It's the record of the Assyrian army when
it surrounded the city of Jerusalem.
Sennacherib was the king of Assyria and Hezekiah
was the king of Judah.
And right there in lines 20 and 21,
I can't read the Assyrian markings, but the
translation was there.
Right there in lines 20 and 21, Sennacherib
said, I shut up Hezekiah like a caged
bird in his royal city of Jerusalem.
And he did.
The Assyrian army moved in upon Judah, devastated
the crops, wrecked the villages, surrounded Jerusalem.
And every day, a loud-mouthed general came
out with his bullhorn and said, are you
trusting Jehovah?
The other nations trusted their gods.
Their gods failed.
No one can stand before the army of
Sennacherib.
And here was Zion, the city of David,
walled in.
Food was scarce.
The crops had been completely ruined.
They were hungry.
Hezekiah prayed.
He went down to Isaiah the prophet and
said, what are we going to do?
And Isaiah said, don't pay any attention to
that loud mouth, because I can take care
of him.
And do you remember, God did take care,
because the army of God moved in, and
the armies of the enemy were completely devastated,
and the city of Jerusalem was set free.
It all happened like that.
One night, the mothers were putting their children
to bed, and the kids were crying because
they were hungry.
And mothers were saying to their children, now
go to sleep.
Maybe tomorrow, God will send some food.
And they went to sleep, and they woke
up the next morning and discovered the army
of the enemy was done for.
Overnight, just like that, God delivered the city
of Jerusalem from the enemy.
That's what he's talking about.
And they were like people that dreamed.
Enemies threw their arms around each other, neighbors
who hadn't talked to each other for months,
threw their arms around each other and wept
and cried, and said, isn't it wonderful what
God has done for us?
They were free.
Now you just pick that up from 700
BC and move it into 1973.
Here's the city of Chicago.
And there is more bondage today in the
city of Chicago than there was in Jerusalem
those many years ago.
Just open your eyes and look.
Here comes someone in bondage to some habit.
His heart crying out and saying, do I
have to live like this?
Here comes some person who outwardly seems to
be very, very cultured and have character, but
inwardly is in the bondage of some horrible
thing.
We are living in a city that's in
bondage.
Bondage to habits and bondage to fears.
My, the fear that's written on people's faces
today.
Week in and week out, our pastoral staff
is counseling with people.
Some folks just walk in off the streets
and they're scared and they're running away and
they're in shackles.
Some are in bondage to circumstances.
The mail that we get through our songs
and the night ministry would break your heart.
I had a letter this past week from
a lady in Detroit describing a situation in
her home that is just heartbreaking.
In bondage to habits and fears and circumstances
and sin and Satan.
Now, when you give your heart to Jesus
Christ, He sets you free.
When you come to Jesus Christ and trust
Him as your Savior, He sets you free.
And then those old shackles want to get
back on again.
And this is where we receive the gift
of freedom from Jesus Christ.
I was telling my campus Sunday school class
this morning that our job is not to
find our freedom.
Our job is to find our master.
You find the right master, you'll have your
freedom.
I meet young people over in Old Town
and up in New Town and they say,
we want freedom.
Liberty is the watchword today.
And yet they are in the worst kind
of bondage.
They call it freedom.
When you give your heart to Jesus Christ,
when you surrender to Him, you receive this
gift of freedom.
He sets us free.
Over in John chapter 8, Jesus says, you
shall know the truth.
The truth shall set you free.
Lies always lead to bondage.
Always.
Anyone who believes a lie is in bondage.
A lie gives Satan a foothold in our
lives.
A little lie gives Satan a beachhead.
And then he gets more territory and more
territory.
Forgive me, friends.
I have seen Christian people give way to
a lie, believe something that simply isn't true.
It's not scriptural.
It's wrong.
And before long they surrender to that lie.
Then they have to defend that lie.
And little by little, Satan gets a beachhead
and they're in bondage.
The first thing they think of in the
morning is this bondage.
And the last thing they think about at
night is this bondage.
And all day long, they cannot fulfill their
lives because they're in bondage.
Don't do it.
Today, just simply by faith reach out and
say, Jesus Christ, the only way to have
freedom is to have a Master.
And right now I'm yielding my life to
You.
Take all out of my life that's wrong.
Deliver me.
And He'll do it.
For if the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed.
Happiness is freedom.
Freedom to serve God.
Not freedom to do whatever I want to
do.
That's bondage.
Freedom to do what He wants me to
do and to be what He wants me
to be.
Happiness is freedom.
In verse 4, the psalmist gives us another
gift.
Happiness is not only freedom.
Happiness is fullness.
He says in verse 4, turn again our
captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the
south.
Now, what's he talking about the streams in
the south?
Well, over in the Holy Land, as you
go from the top to the bottom, from
Dan to Beersheba, if you keep on going,
if you keep on going past Beersheba, going
down toward Egypt, you run into an area
that the Jews call the Negev, the south.
It's a dry area.
This is the area that the Jewish people
are now irrigating and making the desert blossom
like the rose.
And this southern area, this Negev, during the
dry season, all of those riverbeds lie there
like so many corpses.
It's as though the earth has completely died.
Ah, but then the rainy season comes, and
the waters begin to flow, and these once
dry riverbeds, a trickle comes in, and then
it gets wider and deeper, and before long,
these dry riverbeds become mighty torrents of rivers.
You know what the psalmist is saying here?
He's saying, Lord, I have freedom, but now
I want fullness.
I don't want to be a dry old
riverbed.
I want that the water of life shall
flow through me.
Now, I trust that you'll forgive me for
saying this, but some Christians are dry.
You say, well, some preachers are dry.
Well, that makes us even.
But some Christians are dry.
And God never meant it to be this
way.
God didn't set me free from the captivity
of sin to have me lie there like
some dry old riverbed.
He wants my life to be a channel
of the fullness of His blessing.
He wants your life to be a channel
for the fullness of His blessing.
He wants our homes to be bubbling over
with the joy and the fullness of the
Christian life.
Turn to the Gospel of John, would you
please?
You know, we so often tell unsafe people,
now read the Gospel of John.
That's good.
I think it's time Christians began to read
the Gospel of John.
John chapter 1, verse 16.
John 1, 16.
And of His fullness, that's Christ, have all
we received and grace for grace.
You see, back in verse 14, Jesus Christ
came to earth.
The word was made flesh.
He dwelt among us.
We beheld His glory, the glory as of
the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.
Jesus Christ is full.
Now, you say that's wonderful, but verse 16
says that I should be full.
Oh, my friend, on this hot summer day,
did you know that Jesus Christ wants to
share His fullness with you?
He doesn't want me, He doesn't want you
to be a dry riverbed, sandy and dirty.
He wants us to be filled with all
of His fullness.
Now, John 1, 16 says, of His fullness
have all we received.
Have you received of His fullness?
Now, John goes on to picture this.
In John chapter 2, Jesus gets a hold
of some waterpots and He has the servants
fill the waterpots with water and He turns
the water into wine.
It's fullness.
The fullness of waterpots.
And most Christians live this way.
The church is a waterpot and I come
and get a little bit of blessing and
the midweek service is a waterpot and I
come and get some blessing and I listen
to WNBI and I get some blessing and
we're glad for these things.
But God never meant for me to get
my fullness out of a waterpot.
In John chapter 4, Jesus talks to a
woman by a well and she's going to
get some water out of the well and
Jesus said, you know, if you'd ask me,
I'd put a well right down inside of
you.
So that wherever you go, you don't have
to have a canteen.
You don't have to run back to the
waterpot.
Oh, how many Christians come panting into church
on Sunday morning and they drink some of
this blessing of the living water and they
go back home and boy, by Wednesday night,
they're panting again and they come in.
God never meant it to be that way,
friends.
And Jesus said to this woman, look, if
you'll just turn your life over to Me,
I'll put a well down inside.
And wherever you go, there will be a
constant flow of living water.
But now it doesn't stop there.
You say, oh, I thank God.
I know that.
Pastor, I have turned my life over to
Jesus Christ and I have that well of
living water down inside.
And I know I was in the hospital
and I drank of that well and oh,
it satisfied.
And we were going through bereavement and difficulty
and I drank of the well.
But my friend, God didn't put that well
there just for you.
Your next door neighbor is thirsty and the
other people in the carpool are thirsty and
the girl at the next desk is thirsty
and the elevator operator is thirsty and these
dear old people living aimless lives in little
hotel rooms are thirsty.
That's why in John chapter 7, Jesus says,
if any man thirsts, let him come unto
Me and drink and out of his innermost
being shall flow rivers of living water.
Not just a well that I drink at,
but a well that turns into a river
and I am not a dry water course.
The river of life is flowing.
That's what He's talking about in verse 4.
Happiness is freedom and happiness is fullness.
And my friend, if you want to be
happy, just start spilling over.
Don't sit and look in the mirror and
say, oh, nobody has worse troubles than you
have.
Oh, you poor thing.
You sit down and feel sorry for yourself
long enough, you'll get miserable and dry and
critical and sharp and abrasive and most of
us are sick and tired of people who
are sharp and abrasive and God, we don't
want to be that way.
But if we draw upon the fullness of
Christ, the water of life begins to flow
through and the water of life touches the
next door neighbor and some life begins to
appear and the water of life touches people
at work and the office atmosphere changes and
touches people here and there.
What is happiness?
Happiness is fullness.
Are you empty?
If you're empty, just remember this, all of
the fullness that you'll ever need is in
Jesus Christ and He satisfies.
Happiness is freedom and happiness is fullness.
But you get to the end of this
psalm, happiness is fruitfulness.
He changes the picture completely.
He starts off with captives in a city
set free.
Then He moves down to the desert, a
dry riverbed, filled up.
And now He gets a hold of a
sower, just an ordinary sower and He says
in verses 5 and 6, they that sow
in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, you say,
wait a minute pastor, you're talking about happiness.
Where do these tears come in?
He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious
seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him.
My friend, did you know that everybody in
this church auditorium is a sower?
Every child, every teenager, every college student, every
mother and dad, every widow, every widower, every
senior saint, every one of us is a
sower.
This last week as you walked through life,
you were sowing.
Some were sowing seeds of discord, criticism, backbiting.
Oh, but you can't do much damage with
a little seed.
Did you ever watch the roots wreck your
sidewalk?
Ever have to call in one of these
expensive machines to clean out your drains?
A seed is one of the most powerful
things in the universe.
Hidden in the heart of a little seed
is enough power that if you translated it
into atomic energy, you wouldn't believe it.
A seed gets into some concrete and begins
to germinate and before long, crack.
A root starts to go through your foundation
or your sewer and crack.
A seed.
Oh, you say, pastor, I was a little
bit critical, but it can't do much damage.
No, it'll sit there for a while, then
it'll germinate and then somebody will water it
and before long, some sour fruit.
You sowed something this last week.
Some people sowed hatred.
Some people went through life with their hands
on the holster, just daring anybody.
Just sowing hatred and sowing criticism and sowing
selfishness.
Ah, but thank God there were many people
who went through the city of Chicago sowing
patience and sowing kindness and sowing love.
You say, pastor, I've been sowing love to
my neighbor down the street and it hasn't
done one bit of good.
You're planting the seed.
Every one of us is a sower.
Now, the only difference between one sower and
the other sower is what are you sowing?
Because happiness is fruitfulness.
And one of the greatest sources of happiness
in my life is to see the seed
that's been planted bear fruit.
I had a phone call, a long distance
phone call this week from a young man
who in a previous church I pastored gave
me fits.
I tell you, trying to untangle that young
man's life was like unscrambling an egg.
You'd no sooner see him get out of
one thing, he was into three others.
Unbelievable.
And we wept over him and prayed for
him and prayed with him.
And oh, the mess.
He called me up this week.
I said, are you in Chicago?
No, he said, I'm at my job.
But he said, I want to call you.
He said, I know that in past years
I gave you so much trouble.
I thought I owed it to you to
call you up and be a blessing to
you.
He said, things have straightened out.
He said, our home is happy.
We're serving the Lord.
I'm even out doing a little bit of
preaching.
He said, Pastor, it's amazing God could use
such a wretch like me.
And when I hung the phone up, I
thought, well, it pays to sow.
Pays to sow.
Happiness is fruitfulness.
Now, the sower doesn't sow just for his
own sake.
I feel sorry for these people who come
to church and say, well, what am I
going to get out of it?
Well, I hope you do get something out
of it to give to somebody else.
The sower goes out and he gives to
other people.
Now, it's called precious seed.
You see, back in Hezekiah's day, they had
a famine.
And now the city was delivered.
And they said, let's go out and sow
some seed.
And here's a dear man who takes out
his seed.
And he says, I can grind this seed
up and make flour and feed my children.
Or I can take this seed out and
I can plant it and wait for a
few months and have more seed.
That's why it was precious.
Every seed was important.
He was taking food out of his own
mouth.
You see, the seed that we sow as
Christians is very precious.
The Word of God.
This is the most expensive seed in the
world.
You take your burpee catalog, it beats the
burpee catalog.
For those of you who aren't farmers, that's
a seed catalog.
Precious seed.
It cost Paul his life to give me
some of this seed.
It cost Jesus' calvary to give me this
seed.
And what's my job this next week?
You say, Pastor, I want to be happy
this next week.
Great.
Just take the seed and go out and
sow it.
Wherever you have a chance, just drop some
love and some truth into some heart.
And one of these days, the harvest is
going to come in.
Now, the harvest is not the end of
the service.
And the harvest is not the end of
the church year.
The harvest is the end of the age.
And he says here, the sower goes out
and he's weeping.
You say, how is it possible to be
happy and to weep?
Jesus did.
Do you think that those who are seeking
to serve the Lord in freedom and fullness
and fruitfulness never weep?
Paul wept when Paul said farewell to the
Ephesian church.
He said, I was among you with tears.
Jeremiah wept, wearing a yoke around his neck,
walking the streets of Jerusalem, weeping.
Jesus wept.
That's the beautiful thing about being one of
God's sowers.
You sow with tears, you reap with joy.
Unless we water the seed with our tears,
there's no harvest.
And one of these days, the harvest is
going to come.
This is why we must be very careful
about church statistics.
The harvest isn't finished yet, folks.
Paul said, judge nothing before the time.
I'm willing to just keep on sowing the
seed.
I'm happy sowing the seed.
Sometimes God gives the harvest, sometimes He doesn't.
But one of these days, we're going to
come again with rejoicing because His promise is
this, let us not be weary in well
-doing, for in due season, we shall reap
if we faint not.
Don't give up.
What is happiness?
Well, happiness is freedom.
Not doing your own thing, doing God's thing.
Do you have that freedom?
What is happiness?
Happiness is fullness.
Receiving of His fullness, grace after grace, and
then being a channel of blessing to other
people.
What is happiness?
It's fruitfulness.
Sowing God's seed and being a part of
the harvest.
Are you happy today?
Many of you are.
Many of you, in spite of difficulties and
trials, can say, Pastor, I know what you're
talking about.
I've experienced this freedom in Christ.
It's wonderful.
I've experienced this fullness in Christ.
My life is not dry and barren.
There's a channel that's blessing other people, and
I've experienced the fruitfulness in Christ.
Oh, what a joy.
But some of you don't know it yet.
You can know it by coming and surrendering
to Christ, and then day by day, getting
into fellowship with Him, following Him, and the
blessing comes.
To put it in one simple sentence, happiness
is yielding to Jesus Christ, and the rest
will come.
Heavenly Father, we confess our desire to have
happiness in this life, and we believe that
You want us to be happy.
Lord, may we never be happy with sin.
Oh, Father, I pray that when we sin,
make us miserable.
May we never be happy with sin in
the life of somebody else.
Give us that compassionate heart.
Father, people here today need to experience freedom.
Help them to come to Christ.
Some need to experience fullness.
Help them to yield to Christ.
Some need to experience fruitfulness.
Help them, Father.
Help us all.
To follow Christ.
Speak to our hearts now.
Those who need the Savior, those who need
the Lord, help them to come.
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.