CONSISTENCY AND HAPPINESS
Jno. 13:17.

A. Sin alienates man from God, man from man, and man from nature Gen. 3:1?24 — and it also
alienates man from himself Gen. 4:1?15.
(2) We cannot be happy if we are not at peace within ourselves — and we cannot be at peace within ourselves if our actions are out of harmony with our convictions. There is no more miserable person than the one who is at odds with himself.
a. Freya Stark once said, “There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different
from the things we do.” That is an absolute truth. That’s been one of man’s worst problems
from the beginning.
(1) I don’t know all of the whys, reasons people don’t do what’s right. But, I do know that man is the most inconsistent intelligent creature in the world. There are many reasons for our inconsistency, why our practice is different from our principles, why we don’t practice what we say we believe. I do know some of the reasons this happens, some of the causes: Hypocrisy, Cowardice, Lack of determined will that brings commitment, and Carelessness.
(1) But conflict between “What you say you believe and what you do,” is never a good
thing. There are some things that simply must be kept in harmony with our
convictions or we will never have any real happiness in our lives.
What about pleasures? Pleasure itself is a good thing, a gift of God — but, ironically, pleasure can destroy the good life, if it is enjoyed at the expense of our principles and our belief in God.
Like many other inherently good things, pleasure can “breed worms and stink”
Exo. 16:19-20. Pleasure can bring what we want it to bring only if it is
pursued within the boundaries of our accountability to God ? Eccl. 11:9-10;
12:13-14. Our pleasure must be consistent with our principles.
Conflict between your principles and your work. All of us have a life’s work to do
and there may come a time when that work may put us at odds with our
convictions in many ways: The character of the work itself, The people and
situations involved in our work, Our conduct at work, Our attitude about our work.
You will be miserable if you live a double life as one person “on the job” and another “off the job.” You don’t have to have a double-standard conflict between your “career” and your convictions.
Joseph - Gen. 41:37?45. Fled from an immoral woman. He was wronged and Imprisoned. Still kept his honor and integrity. He ended up with the second highest place of power and honor in all of Egypt.
Daniel - Dan. 6:1?5. Evil men plotted against him. Lion’s Den. Honor God and He will reward you. Godliness does not impede the progress of anyone who truly has what it takes to succeed. That means Our work must be consistent with our character.
The same is true of the friends with whom we choose to associate. If you wish to be godly and your friends are ungodly. You will destroy yourself morally and spiritually,
Prov. 13:20; 1 Cor 15:33, Gal 6:7?8, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for
whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the
flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
You will end up losing your soul if you hang with ungodly and immoral creeps. You’ll
become just like them. Your friends must be consistent with your convictions. Or

else you won’t have any convictions.
The same is true of your speech---the way you talk. We sometimes make polluted springs of ourselves by the way we talk ? Jas. 3:8?12.
Ideally, the mouth confesses what the heart believes - Rom. 10:9-10.
You’ll be miserable, not happy when your heart believes one thing, but what
comes out of your mouth is something else - Jno. 12:42-43.
Perhaps the worst kind of misery is that which comes from disobeying our conscience when our convictions tell us we ought to be obeying it.
Living against conscience will destroy the conscience itself ? 1 Tim. 4:2.
Our conduct must be consistent with our conscience.
There is more than one kind of hypocrite. One kind is wicked on the inside but tries to appear righteous on the outside - Matt. 23:25?28. Bad heart -- good actions.
(A) Another kind has a basically good heart but fails to keep his actions “pure, in sync” with his convictions - Lk. 22:54?62. This is a person whose actions are bad even though his heart is good. Good heart – bad actions. Both are acting “out of character” and
neither will find happiness in this life nor in the life to come.
(3) True peace of mind comes from: Character based on true principles and Conduct consistent with character.
(1) We need to remember who we are — and be who we are!
(2) We need to do what we know to do ? Jas. 1:21?27; 4:17.
(1) We need, to finally, once and for, to gather up our will and determine to be the people we really want to be!
(2) Acts 20:32, “I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified

Spur - 06/09/2002 pm