Circumstantial Happiness — Jack Hyles

The Emptiness of Selfish Pursuits

Could I have your attention this morning every bit of it? Could I have every child and every teenager listening carefully this morning. We live in a world of Selfishness, but he has the idea that He can get something else.

He'll be happy. That dress in the window At the corner store is exactly what I need. She says Make me happy. Or that boy that is the captain of the basketball team He's exactly what I need To make me happy.

Or that Olympic gold medal. By the way pray for Jim Ryan. Pray for the White Sox too, but That's exactly what I need to make me happy. Teachers Or even teach school because they want more money and What they don't realize If they forget the money and think about the pupils that find the happiness They think they'll get when they get the money.

Firemen Go on strike. They want more money. Policemen Leave their posts They want more money. Hospital nurses Go on strike. They want more money. Ever grasping ever longing ever searching ever seeking for that elusive thing we call happiness.

And Never finding it never finding it. Could I help you this morning? You know did you ever did you ever want to help somebody so bad that you just hurt to do it? That's the way I feel about My people on this subject when I get to this subject.

I want to cry and I want to. I want to beg and I want to get on my knees and I want to plead. There's nothing. There's nothing as empty as the self-life. Nothing. There's nothing in this world that will leave you swinging at the air as did the wise King Solomon.

And Nothing that'll leave you as void of what you're looking for as the self-life. What's in it for me? How did he treat me? What did she do to hurt me? What has he done to ruin me? Me ever searching ever grasping ever reaching ever seeking.

Something we'd never find and will not find it until we lose ourselves. Please let me help you this morning. Apostle Paul says I've learned in whatsoever state I Am there with to be content. Somebody said he'd never he'd never been to the state of Kentucky.

You can even be content in Kentucky. If you'll find This truth this morning. Both I've learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content. Now the word content. Are you listening the word content means?

Inside sufficiency. That's what it means. Paul said my happiness is not determined by where I live. Or what I have. Or how much I own. Or how I'm treated. He said there is not one whiff of my happiness That is caused by Circumstances.

Your head about it. How you do it? Oh pretty good under the circumstances. So the little officers get on top of them circumstances. Dr. Rice says not under circumstances. You're under grace under Circumstances, I'm we have a lady in this church.

I'd never dare ask her how she feels. You know, I wouldn't I did. How do I have time to find out again. Paul said I have a he said that which makes me happy is on the inside. He said I have a sufficiency internally that over our counteracts are.

Our over balances. Any inconvenience of the outside. He said my happiness is on the inside. My peace is on the inside my joy is on the inside. You said I could just get a season ticket to Chicago Bears games.

Oh good night. They got a quarterback. You won't have them have fun in here. Hey, if I could just if I could just get me a wardrobe like so-and-so I can just get me a nice house like so-and-so if I could get that that car like so-and-so.

No, you'd be as miserable as so-and-so when you get all so-and-so. Scott Paul said Content what is contentment? It is inner Sufficiency. Not the condition on the outside, but the condition on the inside.

Sometimes I think I said this other night you stop to realize sometimes how little Paul ever talked about where he was. He rimmed the Mediterranean Sea and the most beautiful sea in all the world I guess and never one time even told us of its beauty.

Now if I had written if I had written these letters I'd have said boy ought to see what I've seen today Paul. Paul saw that I think the most beautiful spot on the face of the earth at my eyes. They're feasted upon if you GMC in the Grecian Isles and Paul literally spent days and weeks and months.

And never one time that Paul stopped to describe the beauty of the GMC of the Grecian Isles. Paul preached within a stone's throw of the of the Starts a Pentagon the can't think of it all of a sudden.

Parthenon, yeah Pentagon. I Preached in a stone's throw the Pentagon last week. In fact, I feel through through a few stones. So I know it's true but Parthenon Paul preached on Mars Hill and there was a Parthenon right across the street just from a stone's throw.

Paul didn't even is it he didn't say whoa, man. What. No didn't say a word about it. What Paul said it's on the inside. I can be in prison and I'm happy. I can be in jail and I'm happy. I can be beaten and I'm happy.

I can be hated and I'm happy. I can be forsaken and I'm happy. I can be alone and I'm happy I can be broke. And I'm happy I can be hungry and I'm happy. I can be a wall and I'm happy. Well, why Paul because my happiness doesn't come from how much I have to eat or how much you don't have to eat and my happiness Doesn't come by how pretty the house or if I live in a pub tent and my happiness doesn't come by how much money I have in the bank or if I'm flat-busted, and my happiness doesn't come if I'm more likely the most popular boy of the senior class or don't have a single friend.

My happiness doesn't come from where I live or what circumstances under which I live or how much I have to eat or how much money I have in the bank. Paul said, I have learned, and whatsoever said, I am therewith to find an inner sufficiency, something on the inside that'll make me happy.

Inner Sufficiency Beyond Circumstances

Now listen to me, listen to me. You have no control over the outside, but you do have control over the inside. And so if you can learn to be happy from the in, because of the condition of the heart, not the condition of the body, because of who lives in you, not what you live in, you can learn to be happy because of the inside.

That means if you have to wait tables at school, and if you don't have enough money to make ends meet, you can't even afford the ins, you can be happy. And that means if you live in a shack somewhere, if you've got to live in an attic apartment in Indiana Harbor, and breathe shut instead of air, you can be happy.

If I just had what she had, I'd be happy.

You miserable wretch, you wouldn't be happy if you owned Fort Knox. Paul said, I have learned, and whatsoever said, I am therewith to be... Where is he when he writes this? Where is the Apostle Paul when these words are penned?

Come with me for a few minutes to a little place just near the Forum in Rome. Not far from where the great Caesar spoke, and not far from the Forum itself, to a little place that you go down some stairs now, it's under a building now.

It's a place called the Mamertine Prison. You walk down some stairs and you come to a little dungeon-like thing beneath the ground. And there's no light there where Paul is, and there's no company there where Paul is, there's no crowd where Paul is, it's a seeping kind of a damp place.

There's a hole right in the middle of the floor, and down, they let the prisoner down through that hole, and if you'll go down, you'll find an inner prison way down deep right there by the banks of the river.

And you'll find the Apostle Paul in a dark, damp place, and he's lonely, and he's thousands of miles from home. And the Apostle Paul picks up his pen to write us a few words of exhortation, and he says to the Philippian people, he didn't tell where he was, he didn't say, I'm in jail, he didn't complain about his circumstances, he didn't talk about whether it was raining or cold or hot, he didn't talk about whether he was damp or dry.

All the Apostle Paul said from that dark, damp, seeping, cold prison, the Apostle Paul says, I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. The Philippian people knew that. Was he not in Philippi in jail one time, down in stocks and bonds in the bottom of the jail, and he did not pause to sing with Silas in what he sang, and praises to God, the prison doors shall open, earthquake came, and he won the prisoner and his family, the prison keeper and his family to Jesus Christ.

And the Apostle Paul's about to send Timothy away, but he still said, I'm happy, I'm content. He's about to send Epaphroditus back to the church in Philippi, and about to be as lonely as he's ever been, and he's facing death.

He's about to die. And yet the Apostle Paul learned what most people never learn. If I can get that new car, if I can get that new suit, if I can get that new dress, if I can get that new boyfriend, if I can get that new girlfriend, if I can get that little transistor radio, if I can get that color television set, if I can get that next house, if I can get carpet on my floor, if I can get drapes on my windows, if I can get a new furniture to go up my carpet and drape, that's what I need.

Give me the next thing. Give me the next thing. The Apostle Paul said, no one of them brings happiness. He said, it all comes from the inside, the condition of the inside. Now notice this. He said, I've learned.

I've learned. Let me give you the meaning of those words. Carefully listen to this. The word learn means to initiate into mysteries. To initiate into mysteries. Here's a fellow that joins the secret order.

I don't belong to one, have no plans of joining, but that fellow joins the secret order. And he is initiated into that order. And he comes into some mysteries that nobody else knows. He's initiated into some truths that the average person outside that order doesn't know.

And Paul said, I have been initiated into a secret order of people that know something the world knows nothing about. Now what is that something? What is it? Paul, what is it? What have you learned? Now bear in mind this.

Paul did not have a human reason why he should be content. Health? He was in bad health. Money? He was flat busted. Friends? They had forsaken him. Bottom of the Mamertine prison. Future? About to die.

Pleasure? Paul didn't belong to the bowling league. Paul didn't go to Tebles to eat lunch once a week. Paul didn't have the normal thing. You say, well if I had more time with my kids, or if I had more time with my dad, or if I had more time.

Oh brother, Paul said those things are not the things that make me happy. Paul said I've got something on the inside. He said an inner sufficiency. It's a secret order. It's something that not a few know anything about.

If I could give you one thing that would change your life completely. If I could talk to you. Listen to me young folks. Hear me when I preach. If I could give you one thing that would change your life completely, I would ask you to lift yourself out of yourself.

And do not try to be happy finding happiness where nobody has ever found it in the history of this world. Nobody is going. Well, Paul said I found some things. Paul, what did you learn? And I want to share with you what he learned.

Knowing Christ Personally

The first thing he learned is that you find contentment by knowing Christ. Oh, I don't mean being saved. Let me read for you. And I'll ask you not to turn to it because of time. Let me read for you Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10.

You know it. I know it. But I'll read it for you. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. Paul, how in the world can you be happy down in the Mamertine prison?

No friends there. Maybe Luke is with you. Timothy is leaving. Papadatus is leaving. You're sending him back. Demas is forsaken. You have him love this present world. How can you be happy? No wall-to-wall carpet.

You have no French provincial furniture. You're in poor health. You're about to be killed. You're chained between two prisoners, even now. How can you be happy, Paul? How in the world can you say, I've learned to be contented?

First place, Paul said, listen to me now. Paul said, I'm happy because I know him. Listen to me. They can take away your house. Young people, you listen to me while I preach. That girl with the long hair, about two seats in front of that cabine.

Look at me while I preach. And don't you move the rest of this sermon, or I'll move you. I'm not going to rear a bunch of heathen around here that go to public meetings and can't even behave. Look at me.

Paul said, I've learned. He said, I've learned it because I know him. I don't mean knowing in salvation. I mean I know him. I know him. We walk together. We talk together. I know him. Paul said, I'll say it again.

They can take away that house. They can come and foreclose your house and move you out of it and take it away. They can take away that car. They can take away that money. But Paul said, there's something in my breast.

They can never take away. They cannot take away the fact that I know him. If your happiness is wrapped up in a someone rather than a something, then you are as happy as that someone is permanent. If your happiness is wrapped up in a something, the Bible says, all of these things shall pass away.

If your happiness is wrapped up in a someone, then you will be happy as long as that someone lives. And is it not true? He was alive. He was dead. And he's alive forevermore. I know him. I walk with him.

I talk with him. I know him. Paul said, he ever lives. And because he ever lives, I'll always be happy. Because my happiness is built on someone who always is alive. Paul said, I know him. How can you take it, Paul?

How can you take it? Paul said, I can take it because on the Damascus road, I saw a light. And I looked up and I saw someone. And I said, who art thou, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecuted.

And I said, Lord, what would you have me do? Paul said, I met him. I met him. And I can take it because at Lystra, they stole me outside the city, but I was caught up in the third heaven. And there I saw things unlawful to utter the glories of God in the presence of Christ himself.

And I saw it. That's how I can take it. How can you take it, Stephen? With stones cut by a falling off your head and knots on your head and blood streaming down your body. And you're about to die outside the walls of the holy city.

How can you take it, Stephen? Stephen said, I can take it because I know him. I know him. I see the glory of God in Jesus standing at the right hand of God. That's how I can take it. How can you take it, Isaiah?

With them hissing, stoning you and calling you dirty names and stiff-necked people. Their words are like briars and thistles and thorns. How can you take it, Isaiah? And Isaiah said, I can take it because I know him.

Back yonder, I saw the Lord high and holy lifted up in his train, filled the temple. And I said, woe is me, for I am undone, for I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and mine eyes have seen the Lord.

Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen. Now you hear me and you hear me well. This is a heart-sick old world this morning. This is a world of tears and sorrow and heartache and unhappiness and misery and cancer and leukemia and wayward daughters and sons and war and riot.

Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, the reason you don't take it is because you have not learned to know him. To know him. How can you take it, Paul? The power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.

Paul, what Paul was saying is, I'd rather have Jesus in here alone with me than the whole world without him. How can you take it? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The fire heated seven times as hot as it was, and there you are in the fiery furnace.

How can you take it? They said, we can take it because we know him. There's one in here with us who's the son of man himself. How can you take it, John? On the isle of Patmos alone, exiled, away from friends and loved ones and all that materially and temporally is dear.

How can you take it? John said, I can take it because I know him. I've seen the glories of the millennium. I've seen the rapture of the church. I've seen the marriage of the Lamb. I've seen the judgment seat of Christ.

I've seen the blessings and glories of God's future for me. I can take it because I know him. How can you take it, Moses? Moses said, I can take it because I endure seeing him who is invisible. Oh, you hear me this morning?

You'd better learn to know him. You'd better learn to know him. You'd better learn to spend some time with him. This is not the kind of world that you're going to enjoy unless you know him. Hey, here's a couple.

They just got married. They're in love with each other. They just fell in love. They just got married and they got about $25 for a honeymoon. That's all they've got. And so they go on a one-day honeymoon to the rescue mission down here.

They don't have any money. They've got enough money to pay for a week's rent and an apartment somewhere. He's got to find a job. Are they happy? Yeah. You know why they have each other? Oh, I counted a privilege here, his cross to there.

Tis heaven to me, where 'er I may be, if he is there. But honeymoon's in. And wives die. And husbands pass away. And wives have to go to cemeteries and watch them as they lay the box that contains the remains of the husband that she's loved.

He's gone. She can't be with him anymore. But blessed be God, Jesus is always there. If you know him, if you know him, if you know him, you can be happy. A tent or a cottage, why should I care? They're building a mansion for me over there to know him.

Finding Joy by Investing in Others

Paul, how do you take it? There's another reason, Paul, that I can take it. And Paul said, I won't invest in others. I'm going to read for you Philippians chapter 4, verse 1, one of the sweet chapters in all the Bible.

And here's that inner contentment Paul is talking about. Paul says, therefore, my beloved, dearly beloved, my brethren, dearly beloved, long for my joy and my crown. Paul said, you're my joy. Paul, how do you make it?

I make it because I know him. Paul, how can you have this contentment, this inner sufficiency? I can have it because I've invested my life in others. Ladies and gentlemen, nobody, nobody is happy who lives for himself.

The only way you'll ever find happiness is live for somebody else. Almost everywhere I go, almost everywhere I go, I meet people that bring joy to me. You know why? I've invested in their joy. Last week up in Washington, D .C., I had a little tough time in some respects.

The situation wasn't quite what I thought it should be, and I preached a little harder than I usually do. I was real mean. Man, I was mean. Can you feature that? I was mean. I know it's hard for you to understand, but when I'm away from home sometimes, I get pretty rough.

And I was mean. And after the service, I went back to the book table, and I felt a bit lonely. And I tried to help. I really did. I tried to help. I wanted to help some people so bad, but to do it, I had to give them some medicine.

It didn't taste good, and they didn't like it. And a couple came back, and they said, Brother Hiles, we have something for you. I said, What is it? And they gave me a package. I thought it would be a bomb, you know, or something.

They gave me a package, opened it up, and it was a big jug of honey. They thought I was a sour. I needed all the help I could get, I guess. Big jug of honey. Here's somebody to whom I've been a blessing years before, whose family I've tried to help.

And they said, Thank you for helping our kids. And they gave me something. The other day, I was in a distant state. Oh, I preached hard that night, and I was tired, and I was weary. And I wanted to eat a bite.

I hadn't had a bite all day. Not one bite all day long. And I wanted to eat a bite before going to bed. And I went down to the restaurant to eat a bite in the motel, and the thing was closed already. I thought, Good night.

And I said, Well, where is the candy machine? I thought I'd fall from grace and eat something with granulated sugar. And where's the candy machine? And they said, We don't have a candy machine. I said, What kind of a backwoodsy place is this?

You close at 10 o 'clock, don't have a candy machine? I'll tell you how hungry I was. I'd have drunk a cup of coffee if I could have found it. And so I wanted something, and I went to my room, and I was so hungry, and I was so tired, I thought I had to eat or I couldn't change clothes for bed.

And so somebody knocked on the door, and I said, Who is it? And there was no answer. Who is it? And there was no answer. And I went to the door and opened it, and there was a sack. And in that sack, all kinds of precious fruit, plums and peaches and oranges and grapes and dates and so forth.

And a little note said, You don't know me, but you did something for me one time that nobody else has ever done, and I heard you like fruit. And I sat up in the middle of the bed and said, Thank God he loves his children.

Oh, I wish I could get this over to you. I wish I could get you to quit thinking about what you have. And Paul said, I invested in others. I was thinking last night. And I don't know why I thought about this, but when I was a kid, I used to love gym class.

That's all I ever liked, Dr. Evans' gym, and didn't care a thing about the rest of them. Greek was always Greek to me. And trigonometry, I looked for X for eight years, never found it. Tried it in algebra and trigonometry, never found it.

Cosine, cosine. To me, all that trigonometry is all about tangent all the time anyway. Tangent, cotangent. And so I, but gym I like. I like sport. I like gym. And I can recall sliding over during the class, you know.

I'd slide over to the seat right next to the door. You know why? I was trying to get there first. And boy, that bell would ring. There's the stairs I'd go. And ah, get in there. And we'd break our full necks trying to see who'd get the ball, you see.

Who'd get there first. And when lunch time came, I was the same way. You know why? I wanted to get there first. Did you know that's where most of us live all the time? Oh, you don't do it. I mean, you adults don't.

You're too nice. Unless you're in a car. And when you get behind the wheel of a car, we find out you really haven't grown up. You've just gotten chickens since you were kids. Isn't that a sorry way to live?

Honestly, isn't that a sorry way to live? I want to get there first. Why shouldn't I want everybody else to eat first? I'm going to say a word about that tonight. Why shouldn't I want everybody else to have it first?

Do you know who the happy people are? The happy people are the people that don't live for themselves. They live for others. Lord, let me live from day to day in such a self-forgetful way that even when I kneel to pray, my prayer shall be for others.

Others, Lord. Yes, others. Let this my motto be. Lord, let me live for others that I may live. Like thee. What is this non-circumstantial happiness? What is this inner contentment? What's it all about?

No carpet and no furniture and not good food and you're in bad health and everything has all gone bad. What are you talking about? You can be happy there, Paul, so I can be happier because I know Him.

That's one reason. But it's the second reason I can be happy is I've got memories filling my soul of a lifetime live for others. A lifetime live for others. Doctors, you know, I don't guess I ever go anywhere.

I don't guess I ever go anywhere. What's something nice isn't done for me by someone whom I've tried to help in years gone by. Others. Others. What does it matter if I have clothes on my back if others have clothes on their back?

You say, you wear pretty nice clothes. Yeah, that's all. Well, my clothes aren't so nice. It's my physique that makes everything look so nice. I haven't bought a stitch of clothes other than what folks have given me for 13 years.

Thirteen years ago this week, I had two suits of clothes I could wear to church. A fellow walked in the office over here, didn't have anything to wear except old ragged clothes. I went into Christ and gave him the other suit.

And I walked in the pulpit of this church the first Sunday morning as pastor. If that suit had ripped, I'd have had to go home. I didn't have another suit. From that day to this, I've not bought myself one stitch of clothing.

I mean not a pair of socks. I mean not a pair of underwear. I mean not a shirt. Everything I have, folks have bought for me. Five years ago, they voted me one of the ten best dressed men in the city. I want to walk up and, yeah, yeah, yeah, the Lord can take care of you.

He's pretty good too, can't he? Others. Others. Others! That's how you get happy? You think I don't get happy when I see these kids turn out right? How do they have that in things? The other day I read again.

Oh, I want you to get it so badly. I read again the other day. And Jesus mentioned His glory. I can't say it easily. What was His glory? I can't understand why He thought this. He said the cross was my glory.

The cross. If I'd been the Lord and talked about His glory, I'd have said the time when I was transfigured, when I got my glorified body and communed with Elijah and Moses, and there Peter, James and John saw me in my glory, I'd have said that's my glory.

If I'd have been the Savior talking about my glory, I'd have talked about that day when the stone was rolled away and death could not contain Him, the grave could not keep Him, Satan could not conquer Him, but out from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph over His foes.

He arose a victor from the dark domain. He lives forever with His saints to reign. I'd have said that was my glory. The hour of my resurrection. Or I'd have looked out, John, to that day when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair.

And I'd have said that's the glory. Or I'd have looked out to the day when I would ascend the royal stairway of Mount Zion, become King of kings and Lord of lords and be King of all the earth as Jesus conquered the whole world.

I'd say that's my glory. But Jesus said His glory was the cross. Was the cross. I wonder why that was His glory. Because anybody's glory is when they forget themselves and die to self and live for others.

Readiness for Death and Eternal Hope

Paul, why can't you be happy without the circumstances that used to make us happy? You don't have a new... They have mustangs now, still? Cougars? Lions, elephants, some kind of animal? Gremlins? Spooks?

Witches? Paul, you don't even have a new cougar. Paul, you don't even have a Hart, Shaffner, and Marx. Or J .C. Penney. Or Robert Hall. Or Goodwill. Why can't you be happy? Paul said, I'm happy because I know Him.

He said, I'm happy because I've invested my life in others. The third reason he said he's happy is because I'm ready to die. I'm ready to die. Paul said in the first chapter of this book, he said, For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.

That's why Mrs. Gifford, your husband, could lie in St. Margaret's Hospital with cancer, eating his body up and about to go and smile and say, To live is Christ, to die is gain. Oh, you poor, poor, poverty-stricken people who think you're going to be happy.

Some of you fellows, that's why you wear your long hair. You can just get in front of the mirror and go like that. You'll be happy. I wish I could get in front of the mirror and just do it once. I had a crew cut, but the crew all bailed out.

And you girls think you'd be happy if you just get long, flowing hair. Or if you can just get that guy. No, you'll be as wretched, as miserable as the last gal that got him was.

Oh, learn it! Learn it!

You're not happy because of how handsome they are. That's the case. Billings would be the most miserable wretch in the whole world. Happy because of how much money they had in the bank. Nobody got happy because they had a new car.

The truth is, you think, If I can get that new car, I'll be happy. Oh, if I can get that new car, I'll be happy. And what do you do the first night you can't sleep? You're afraid it's going to rain on your new car.

It's out there in the weather. You don't realize it's been out in the lot for six months. The kind of guy that's trying to sell it. You get a scratch on it, you're miserable. I'm simply saying, if we could ever learn this blessed truth, Circumstantial happiness is temporary.

Inner happiness is eternal. I'm happy today and the sun shines bright. The clouds have been rolled away. For the Savior said, Whosoever will, they come to him. Are you happy, Paul? You don't have the thing I'd like to have.

I wouldn't want to live in your house. I wouldn't want to wear your clothes. I wouldn't want to be as lonely as you are. Paul, how can you be so happy? Paul said, I've learned. I've been initiated into a society, a fraternal order.

I know some secrets. What are those secrets, Paul? I've learned that the way you get contented and happy is to know Him, to live a life for others, and to know that if you died, you'd go to heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what the heck of life is all about.

If you will know Him and live for others and know you're ready to die, you will have found the contentment about which the Apostle was speaking. I long for you to have it. I long for you to have it. Our Heavenly Father, there is another truth that most folks will never understand.

Most folks don't even want it. Most folks will never understand it. I pray that a few of our people will grasp it this morning. Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. You have longed for sweet peace and for faith to increase and have earnestly, fervently prayed that you can only be blessed and find peace and sweet rest when all on the altar is laid.

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Your heart, does the Spirit control? You can only be blessed and find peace and sweet rest when you yield Him, your body and soul. Hear it again. Hear an old man.

He shouldn't be happy because he's old. He shouldn't be happy because he's poor. He shouldn't be happy because he's sick. He shouldn't be happy because he's alone. He shouldn't be happy because he's in jail.

He's a fool to be happy. How could it be possible? Because he knows Him. He's lived for others and has a lifetime of happy memories and he's ready to go. Are you ready to go?