National Geographic (NEWS)

Don't be fooled by the November National Geographic cover title, "Was Darwin Wrong?"

Their answer is a resounding, "No. Of course not."

If you can get your hands on a copy, read the article, then get an informed Christian viewpoint from the Christianity Today article, "Were the Darwinists Wrong?".

The creation debate is getting incredibly hot right now. I'll be featuring notes on it from time to time. Though occasionally dry for those who don't enjoy science texts, I would highly recommend Lee Strobel's new book, The Case for a Creator.

(RANT)

Anyone who loves me and who has $1242, can purchase one of these for me for Christmas. 

Ski Machine (DEV)

Ecclesiastes 5:8-20

[Friends of ours, Joe and Jamie are in Colorado skiing this week. In honor of them, I thought I could relate a story of mine, loosely tied to skiing. It’s the story of the Ski Machine.]

Good evening. I would like to welcome you to the Purpose-Driven Anonymous meeting.
Hello. My name is Rob. I am a purpose-driven addict.

“Hello, Rob.”

Before we get started, I would like to ask you to turn off your cell-phones and pagers. Jim, please put down your Palm Pilot…you can go over your calendar after we leave. Pastor John, drop the book. Donna, your husband requests that you please come home from church some night this week before 9:00. Now, let’s get started…

There has been a lot of talk lately regarding being “Purpose-Driven.” For the most part, it’s a good thing. Way too many people run around in a perpetual fog of meaninglessness and purposelessness. For people like this, God has jobs: Meaningful, fulfilling occupations of purpose. I really like the idea. In fact, like some others I know, I may like it way too much. There are people who try so hard to minister and to lead lives of purpose that they neglect the living of their life and they even end up doing a bad job of ministry. They end up getting unhappy in their ministry because they aren’t having fun with it and they feel too much pressure. They, me included, need to remember that fun is good. God designed fun. And sometimes that fun falls outside of the realm of their ministry.

Several years ago, I learned that valuable lesson from a video game. It was the Ski Machine at Tumble Drum. I’ve never skied. I would like to, but a good ski run in Missouri takes about five seconds from top to bottom. Plus, there are very few days with snow and there is often traffic at the bottom of the good hills. Then there is the problem of lifts.

We had taken the kids to Tumble Drum for a birthday party or something and I saw the Ski Machine and it looked like fun. Now, bear in mind, I had pretty much sworn off video games. Why? Because I was a purpose-driven snob. Video games have no purpose. I couldn’t be wasting God’s precious time by mindlessly moving some joystick around and by killing digital invaders with the push of a little red button. I was a Purpose-Driven Dad at Tumble Drum. My job was to bring a book and learn about how to reach lost friends and enemies while the kids had fun. But there was that Ski Machine, tempting me.

Okay, now I’m going to exit the realm of high theology for a minute and tell you that I think Satan learned the art of temptation from God. Not his twisted, sinful form of temptation, but the art of enticement. After all, God moves us to action when he wills it. The Holy Spirit is the Great Enticer, the Master of searching and winning hearts and minds. We know that we are "called" by God. We also know that God wants us to be happy, so I’m going to theorize (and I don’t think this is a stretch) that sometimes the Holy Spirit pushes us toward that which He knows we need to do, whether that is jump in a pit, board a boat (Acts 13:4), or get on the ski machine.

So, pushed as I was, I stepped onto the dual-footed platform of the Ski Machine and placed my quarters in the slot. I then did what all good indoor skiers do -- I moved my body back and forth in some kind of freakish dance based upon the animated images projected onto a big television screen.

And it was fun.

I was then on the road to recovery. Mindless fun seemed to have meaning on the Ski Machine. In fact, I kept going until some dumb kid made me get off because he wanted a turn.

So in light of my experience, I began to ask myself this question,

"Is there a place in our lives for that which has no purpose?"

Yes. Absolutely. We learn in our passage today that we should find joy in our work and we should be happy in the fruits of our labor and there is nothing wrong with it. Not every waking moment has to be consumed with purpose. In fact, I suppose one could say that there is purpose behind certain purposeless pursuits, such as naps and watching old reruns of Hogan’s Heroes. They both refresh us and therefore give us even more joy in the rest of our lives.

Okay, but don’t use this as an excuse to be lazy. You may be spending too much time in the Land of Purposelessness and you really DO need to find your purpose. Please stop reading and go find it.

There are a lot of great messages that come out of today’s reading. I would challenge you to list some of them in your quiet time with God. If I could pick one, overarching theme, I think it would come from verses 19 and 20.

“…when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work-this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.”

What an outstanding picture of the joy we can find in life with God.

Faith and Work (NEWS)

Below is an interesting article from last week's Washingtonpost.com. I appreciate any article that doesn't slam faith efforts, and this is one. I've included the entire text because I think there is a sign-up involved with reading their articles. The link is provided if you wish to see the actual article.

Prayer Breakfast Draws Strong Tech Turnout
By Shannon Henry
Thursday, November 18, 2004; Page E01

The guest speakers appearing before a sold-out breakfast of 600 tech executives usually hold forth on such topics as cable communications and early-stage venture funding. But on this morning in the well-appointed ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton at Tysons Corner, Gary T. McCollum, vice president and general manager of Cox Communications Northern Virginia, and April Young, senior vice president of Comerica Bank, have a different topic: their spiritual journeys.
"They will be baring their souls before you," said Carl Grant of the Reston office of Cooley Godward, co-founder and board president of the Washington area's annual High Tech Prayer Breakfast

The personal testimonials -- and a turnout that has doubled since the first such breakfast three years ago -- reflect the growing number of technology executives who believe that their Christianity should be part of their work as well as their private lives.
The event is hosted by a 90-member who's who of players in the local technology industry, including XM Satellite Radio Holdings Chairman Gary M. Parsons;WebMethods founder Phillip Merrick; VeriSign's executive vice president, Robert J. Korzeniewski; and venture capitalists Hooks Johnston of Valhalla Partners, Kim Cooke of Blue Water Capital and Mark A. Frantz of Carlyle Group.
Nestled among the centerpiece flowers on each table at the breakfast, held Nov. 11, are stacks of brown paperback Bibles. A man outside the ballroom door gives out free religious videos.
In her remarks, Young tells of being "reborn" in 1980 when her life was in turmoil and she was deeply depressed. "I believed God had a plan for me," she said. The beginning of that plan, she said, was tithing to her church.
McCollum tells of growing up in a Richmond housing project, of losing his mother to cancer at age 10, of the breakup of his first marriage. "On the inside, I was a failure," McCollum said of his life before he found God, even as he was earning A's in school, quarterbacking a football team and attending church. "I was a 2 percent Christian," he said. "I don't like anything that's 2 percent."
In a conversation before his speech, McCollum said he tried to separate his religious and professional lives but concluded he couldn't. "You don't check half of yourself" when you go to the office, he said. "I bring my faith to work." McCollum said his beliefs shape the way he reacts to problems at Cox. "I stay stable and content and patient," he said. "We need to live this and show it every day."
Alland Leandre, president of management consulting firm Vyalex Management Solutions in Columbia, said he has come to the prayer breakfast for the first time because he wants to talk to other people in the technology industry who share his beliefs. "If I meet a salesman who is a disciple of Christ, we have something in common," he said. "It breaks the ice."
The nonprofit group that puts on the event, High Tech Prayer Breakfast-DC Metro, holds smaller meetings and study groups during the year. Its inspiration was the High Tech Ministries in Atlanta. In October, the Atlanta group held its 13th annual prayer breakfast, which drew more than 2,000 people and featured Intel Chief Technology Officer Patrick P. Gelsinger as keynote speaker. The Atlanta breakfast has attracted other nationally known Christian technologists to tell their stories, including executives from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; Apple; MCI; and Cisco Systems.
At the Tysons Corner breakfast, the hosts have set out to recruit a few new Christians. Each person, who pays $600 for a table, is asked to invite some guests who are not Christians or not practicing their religion, Grant said.
Guests are given cards to fill out, inviting them to put a check mark next to comments such as "Please contact me about hosting a table next year," and "This morning, I decided to commit my life to Jesus Christ." Grant said someone from the ministry will follow up on the responses. Next year's breakfast already has been booked at the Ritz-Carlton and, if the group moves to a larger space in the hotel, will be able to accommodate 1,000 people, Grant said.
After the speakers finished, Jennifer Trax, senior manager of marketing and business development at law firm Shaw Pittman in McLean, stopped to pick up a free video and CD copies of speeches from the past two breakfasts. She was pleased to be invited by Grant, who is one of her competitors. Grant and Trax both work at attracting start-up technology businesses to their respective law firms. Trax describes herself as a Christian but "not an evangelist" who talks about her faith often. Today's event, she said, "put things into perspective for me."
Andrew Sherman, a lawyer with McDermott, Will & Emery in Washington, said that when his client Mike Bruce, chief executive of InScope Technologies in Leesburg, asked him to be his guest at the event, he thought he might feel out of place because he is Jewish. Sherman said he ended up taking notes from the speeches and brought home one of the Bibles in which he circled passages from the New Testament. He said the morning's message that there's more to business resonated with him. "My thought is we need to do something like this at the synagogue," Sherman said. "We need to bring more spirituality into the workplace."

Shannon Henry writes about Washington's technology culture every other Thursday. Her e-mail address is henrys@washpost.com.

Volatile, fragile, remarkable planet (DEV)

Isaiah 24

You may or may not remember Gavrilo Princip from your sixth grade history class. Most of us probably don’t, but we should. The 19-year-old Princip was an assassin. Over 88 years ago, Princip stepped out from his position in a parade route in Sarajevo, pulled a pistol from his coat and shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.

This one moment touched off a series of events that led to World War I, a catastrophic war that claimed over 15 million lives. The idea that a shooting of two people on a street corner in Sarajevo could touch off these kinds of events should remain at the forefront of our thoughts throughout our lives. Our world is volatile and fragile. During any one moment, some significant aspect of our world might change, bringing our social world or our political world, or even our physical world to the brink of disaster.

Isaiah touches on the fragility of our earth in the passages you’ve just read. We see it as the rock solid foundation upon which we live, but listen to Isaiah’s words when he foretells the story of our earth.

“The floodgates of the heavens are opened,
the foundations of the earth shake.
The earth is broken up,
The earth is split asunder.
The earth is thoroughly shaken.
The earth reels like a drunkard,
It sways like a hut in the wind.”

Isaiah isn’t worried because he also sees the triumphant return of God. In the midst of catastrophe, there is going to be a miracle.

“O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name,
For in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things,
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces;
He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.
In that day they will say,
Surely this is our God;
We trusted in him and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

Triumph and glory, protection and salvation. We have nothing to fear. (Proverbs 3:25) Though we live on a volatile planet, God is in control and he is looking out for us. Thank God for his protection today.

It's What You Crave...and Shouldn't (RANT-SCRPT)

I just went to lunch at White Castle. When I was a kid, my Dad would work late some evenings. Missing dinner, he would stop at White Castle. Afterward, he would walk in the door of our house, take off his suit jacket, lay on the couch and groan. Mom would say, "Did you stop at White Castle?" He didn't have to answer. We all knew that he had by the groaning.

I have to sit in my chair at work and groan instead.

"Why do I always do what I know I shouldn't do?" asks Paul, the Apostle. He must've eaten at White Castle, too. (Romans 7:14-20)

I think I just now noticed that the Pennzoil logo uses the Liberty Bell. How many years have I lived in ignorance? 

Confession

Psalm 51

Saturday morning, 10:30 a.m. I’m laying flat on my back on the driveway, staring up at the underside of my aging Ford Windstar. I am really happy. This is as good as it gets. I have a clean oil filter sitting next to me and I have my wrenches and I feel like a man because I’m getting ready to change my own oil.

Nope. I don’t need some high school kid from my local Swifty Lube to change it for me and then make me feel guilty for not buying the new wiper blades. I’m a man! I can do his job for half the cost and I’ll make sure my plug gets put back in the oil pan the right way.

I look over at the feet standing at the front of the car. They’re speaking to me.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

What could she possibly mean by that? I’ve done this dozens of times. Every time she asks the same question. It’s as if I’ve let her down before or I’ve previously broken some things that I was trying to fix. Okay, maybe that’s happened, but I’m better off because of it. I’m older now. I break less stuff. I’m changing my own oil. Don’t ruin my moment.

“Yes, honey. I know what I’m doing. In fact, send the boys out here. They need to see how to do this!”

If you’ve never changed your own oil before, it isn’t brain surgery. But there is a crucial moment in the process that can make the oil change either reasonably clean or really messy. It is the time when the oil plug is just about to come completely out. That is the point when the (usually warm or hot) oil is going to shoot out and you have to anticipate where it is going to land and get the drain pan properly placed. Also, if you are a fumble-fingered fool, you can very easily drop the plug into the pan of hot oil. If either happens, your body and your wife’s driveway will probably end up covered in oil. Now, if you won’t tell my wife, I’m going to be honest with you…most of the time I end up covered in oil. I get the driveway messy and I don’t even save that much money. The satisfaction of doing it myself is occasionally lost in the moments that I’m scrubbing the oil stains from the driveway with Comet and a scrub brush.

Since birth, many of us have been trained in the fine art of self-reliance. We are told how to do many tasks of life all by ourselves and we revel in attempting to do them. We are shown how to be independent and strong, how to conquer through adversity, how to survive in the world of business, how-to, how-to, how-to…

God appreciates our self-reliance and a good work ethic. (Prov. 13:4) But He doesn’t want us to carry it as far as many of us have. We have cordoned off our lives and told everyone to “Keep Out” including God. But God wishes to be a part of your efforts and he longs to be involved in your mistakes. You are going to get your life messy and dirty and at times the oil of your labor is going to drain all over you and you will look and feel and be, bad. Doing things your own way will sometimes cause you to sin. Your heart will feel black as night and your thoughts will be impure and your words will be garbage. Those times are when Jesus Christ will be there to clean up your mess. He is the King of Restoration and the Chief Mechanic of the Garage. There is nothing you have done that can make you un-washable. But getting clean takes breaking the rule of self-reliance. It takes confession. And it takes a heart that desires to be holy.

Confession humbles us. And that’s a good thing! When I’m humble and I come to a difficult moment, I can envision God alongside me, asking, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” More often now, as I get older, I just say, “No. I really don’t. Can you lend me a hand?”

Hostages

1 Peter 1:13-25

Imagine yourself for a moment, a captive in a cell, in the middle of a hostile situation such as those that are happening weekly in Iraq.

You have nothing. You have no future because you know that more than likely you will be killed. You have nothing with which you can purchase your freedom. Even if you had money, your captors probably wouldn’t take it. Your government isn’t going to bargain for your release because it is a time of war and the government shouldn’t back down for your one life.

Your family? They love you. They want to secure your release, but they don’t have any power either. From almost any perspective, your situation looks grim and hopeless. It would take divine intervention…

And it did.

If you are a follower of Christ, you WERE a hostage. Your eternity WAS on the line…not just your life on this earth, but your life that never ends. Your government couldn’t help you. The family who loved you couldn’t save you. No amount of money was going to buy your life. In fact, money wasn’t good enough. It took a substance more precious than gold and a person more powerful than mankind to rescue you and move you to eternal safety. Only a sacrifice of blood from the perfect lamb could buy your freedom.

Followers of Christ have a different world-view for a reason. We’re outside the cell of captivity. We see (or we should see) those hundreds of hostages still caged in their cells around us. We walk through them and talk with them and we even hold the keys that will release them. But we don’t often ask them if they want to be free. We often live in fear of ridicule instead of living in “reverent fear” of our powerful Hero.

I am convicted in my own heart over this one issue: Fear of sharing. Peter says that we are to have “sincere love for (our) brothers, lov(ing) one another deeply, from the heart.” Freeing hostages is love.

As you pray today, pray for the hostages around you. Pray that you will have opportunities to share and then take advantage of them. And, daily, remember to pray for hostages and soldiers in Iraq and their families around the world.

Thanks to friend, Mark Powers, I'm reveling in a new subscription to Science & Theology news. Several interesting articles this month, including an interview with Dr. Timothy Johnson, whom you will recognize from ABC News. Many good articles can be found at www.stnews.org

Refined by fire

1 Peter 1:1-12

As always, read the passage...then the notes.

I've always liked the term, "refined by fire." It gives meaning to pain. It rejoices in poor circumstances. Being refined by fire is very simply, growth through testing. No longer do we have to be depressed over a difficult review at work. We can learn from it. No longer must we think that a month of auto repairs and desperate pleadings with God for rescue was all for naught. We now know that it was the fire, surrounding us, purifying our faith and building our reliance upon God.

Our trials are nothing, really. Peter says that we were chosen for obedience to God. Simple obedience results in 'seeing God' even though he isn't visible. Seeing God leads to believing more fully. Because we believe, we are then "filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."

Fire ---> Joy. Hmm.

Has this proven to be true in your life?

Can you think of a time when you came through "fire" with faith and experienced unspeakable joy?

It is difficult to do, but there will come a day in your spiritual life when you begin to see difficult circumstances for what they really are: God's allowances of testing upon our lives to build faith. When the next difficult situation confronts you, challenge yourself to remain bold in faith. Call upon God to get you through it, thanking him for accomplishing it in advance...because He will.

I Can't Get No...(SERMON)

(This is my sermon notes from 11/7/04. They are 90% complete, but unedited.)

I Can’t Get No….
Wrestling with God over our desires.

Notes before beginning:

Thanks to the people who worked Atticfest. Tremendous success.

The Election, my cautious sneak up to the television. My Ralph Nader joke.

I’d like for you to do a little something different with me this morning, because, I like to do things a little differently and so I’d like for you to stand with me for one more moment before we all sit and listen.
When I was a kid, periodically we would pray The Lord’s Prayer. It was often called the model prayer, because it is the prayer that Jesus said we could model our prayers after. He said, you don’ t have to pray big elaborate prayers like the Pharisees do, you can just pray like this, in your own house, in your closet.
It’s a powerful prayer. It is powerful because Jesus said it, and it is powerful because there is more in these few words than we can get in a thousand of our words. So, I’m going to ask you to pray it with me, out loud, before we get started today. If you know it, you can close your eyes. If you don’t, look with me up on the screen and you and I will pray it together. It goes like this:

Matthew 6:9-13
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
Amen. Thanks. Thanks for indulging me. This message isn’t about the Lord’s Prayer, but there is a reason that we opened with that prayer and we’re going to talk a little bit more about it in a few moments.

There are some of you who are undoubtedly thinking. “I’m satisfied. I don’t have any harmful desires. I am joyful. Why do I need to hear this message?”
Well, I’m going to tell you why. This very moment, you may be the most satisfied, joyful person on the planet. But the desire of Satan is for you to live an unfruitful, unsatisfying life. His schemes are designed to make you think you will be satisfied if…
But, they never truly satisfy.
But this book has more to say about how to live a joy-filled satisfying life than any other. I could teach for an hour using only the words found in the Bible to describe for you the wonderful life God envisioned for you. But today what I want to do is to wake you up to the types of dissatisfaction you may be allowing to enter into your life and then show you God’s RECIPE for lifelong satisfaction.
I want to get to the heart of what God says about our satisfaction, desires, and joy.

How many of you have noticed a growing media preoccupation with personal satisfaction. If you haven’t, praise God, you’ve been keeping your television off more than the rest of us.
Over the last two years, I have been noticing some cultural trends that we should be very worried about…not because they are extremely dangerous to us (which they are)…but because we are highly susceptible to falling into the trap they are creating for us.
Their message, “Don’t be satisfied with your life.”



What leads to dissatisfaction in our lives?
∑ A sense of urgency.
The majority of us live busy, cluttered lives.

Examples: Gave examples from Better Off: Flipping the Switch on technology. Urgency that technology creates upon our lives. Mennonite-type community.

Most of us have very few base needs like food, that aren’t easily met, yet we still find ourselves urgent as if the world is going to come crashing down if we don’t do whatever it is we need to be doing.

We see this in the rush hour and in how people drive. You know you feel impatient in lines. You’ll walk out of McDonald’s if it looks like you’ll be inline longer than five minutes, mostly because you don’t have five minutes to spare. This sense of urgency tugs at our level of satisfaction and it is difficult to overcome.

∑ Regret(s)

∑ The horizon effect. What is the next cool thing?

∑
My old Macintosh.
The boat effect
What’s next, and next and next
The same thing applies with experiences. First there were sports, now there are extreme sports. Why? Because the regular sports got old after a while and we decided it wasn’t fun unless you could get maimed or killed while doing it.
Living for the thrill of the adrenaline rush.

∑ Allowing ourselves to harbor expectations.
We all carry expectations around with us…but the problem comes when we set those expectations higher than we should.
Who are we supposed to be and what can we expect?

Expectations are dangerous things.

I believe that God’s day-to-day working with us should help us to slowly remove ourselves from the realm of personal expectations. About the only really meaningful expectation for us to have is that God will provide for us and we can expect him to do an incredible work in our lives.

∑ Visions of grandeur.

(What is on the other side of the pretty picture.)

∑ A lack of restraint.

We don’t voluntarily limit our lifestyle s we should. If we had a Great Depression, this world would come crashing down. We are not thrifty people, for the most part. We spend and spend.

Jesus’ RECIPE for living a satisfied life.

R – Relationships

Much dissatisfaction is found in our lack of good relationships and the power to relate to one another. Our culture has been breeding the attitude of individuality for so long that many people live isolated, solitary lives. Ironic that the Internet, a largely personal medium is now making it easier for people to actually come together in community.

(Mention Meetup.com)

Jesus spent his time building relationships. He didn’t choose to live the life of a loner.

There is something wonderful about making friends and living in community with one another. Friendships satisfy. If they don’t, they aren’t working properly. I don’t mean that you are to seek happiness in other people. No one can make you happy. But we can see that New Testament believers sought the truth of Christ together. It was a satisfying bond.


E- Exercise restraint -- Learn to say no to self.

For many of us, and this includes me, the one tremendous difference that Jesus Christ has made in your life is the power of restraint and the ability to live a satisfied life because of that restraint. This is counter to everything the world and popular culture teaches and I’m sorry, they’re wrong.

Proverbs 13:18,21
18 He who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame,
but whoever heeds correction is honored.
21 Misfortune pursues the sinner,
but prosperity is the reward of the righteous.

The Christian who wakes up to the fact that he/she will be penalized for not exercising restraint has just acquired the most useful bit of wisdom on our planet. God is just. Wrong does not go unredressed.

Willpower – “I don’t have enough.” You’re right. You, personally don’t have the willpower to keep away from those things which tempt and entice you. You must fully rely upon God to give you the power of restraint.

Personal restraint leads to satisfaction by allowing you to live unrestrained by a life of sin. Sin entangles us and shackles us…Personal restraint is the best preventive medicine for avoiding pain and dissatisfaction.


C - Count your blessings daily.
Recount

God’s desires>Our desires.

He knows how to bless us.

Blessings are the good things that are given to you and that happen to you and they come from God and they are gifts from him. They will give you fulfillment and satisfaction, but you have to recognize what you have been given.

Wait, there’s more to it than that. Blessings can also be the things you have been given and that have happened to you that you didn’t really want.

He knows what will satisfy us. And he knows it better than we do.

Justin Gallman were cleaning up from AtticFest a week ago Saturday night….Jeep story.

Recounting your blessings takes the focus off of your expectations. If you live life based on your expectations, you WILL be disappointed. Your spouse will disappoint you. Your children will disappoint you. Your home, your job, your social standing and everything surrounding you will disappoint you and you will live a life of pain and broken dreams.
Replace your priorities

Isaiah 55:1-2; 8-9

1 "Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD .
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I - Introduce Yourself to the Real You

Getting to know yourself better allows you to see yourself clearly and not to dream about what you know isn’t going to happen in your lifetime.

If you have a false image of yourself, you will never be satisfied with yourself. This is the one self-indulgent thing I would ask you to do…examine yourself and your life thoroughly by using any means possible.

WARNING: Do not use this as an opportunity to beat up on yourself. There are a substantial number of people out there who aren’t thinking through inflated egos like I am, but you are looking through the lens of low self-esteem. You need to discover those strengths in you that will help you to boost yourself up and show you where you will find success in your life.

When you know yourself and act upon that knowledge, you won’t go chasing the wrong jobs, the wrong relationships, and the wrong ministries. God wants you to know who you are so that you can understand the gifts he has given you and you can stay away from the ones he hasn’t given you.

Resources on Screen

P – Produce instead of Possess

People who work hard and who see the fruits of their labor are more satisfied than those who labor at things that don’t seem to matter.

I’m going to spend more time on this one issue than on any other because I believe it is the one we are most hung up on. We should think more about how the fruit of our lives than on what we want to own. Frame of mind issue. We spend far too long thinking about what we want to possess.

Say it again: We spend far too long thinking about what we want to possess.

Okay, we’ll come back to that in a moment.

First of all, God makes it very clear we are to work Hard and prosper.

Live long and prosper Spock used to say. He was almost right. The Bible says, work hard so you can live long and prosper.

Proverbs 13:4
The sluggard craves and gets nothing,
but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

Be diligent, work hard, and you will find satisfaction. There is satisfaction in work.

“I work 60 hours per week and I’m still not satisfied.” Well, Solomon even says here…work hard, but don’t work too hard. You’ll burn out!

This is his caveat right here.
The champion verse for Workaholics Anonymous
Proverbs 23:4
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.

People work so hard to get rich because they value possessions and prestige more than anything in this world. Unfortunately it is a treadmill that leads to pain and sorrow. Stories of men who say, now that it’s too late, “I was worried about my job more than I was about my family.”

Valuing Possessions = Worry
Worry = Dissatisfaction

Jesus calls us to think about our focus. Our focus will determine our level of satisfaction. Remember we talked about visions of grandeur, and we just talked about knowing who we are. God wants us to keep in the front of our minds those things that are wonderful so that we won’t be distracted by things that we either have and don’t need or things we want but don’t need. Let’s read what Jesus says.

Treasures in Heaven
Matthew 6
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other…

I want to go back to that part about the eyes for a minute. This is so relevant to our satisfaction. To kind of get the picture of what Jesus is talking about here, it helps to imagine yourself with only one eye. Are you ready?

I’d like for you to take your left hand and cover up your left eye with me for a moment. Like this. Take your right hand and make it like one of those horse blinders for a minute, right along the side of your right eye. Now, inch the two together until you only have a little bit of what is shining in front of you showing through. Okay?

You can’t really see much, can you? This is the mental picture Jesus is showing us. Keep your hands up there.

Guys, look at the screen with me for a minute. What fills your vision? Where is your focus? It’s on whatshername. Can your focus be on your wife and on her at the same time? No. Can your focus be on any other woman and your wife at the same time? No. Women…if you aren’t married you have to pretend with me for a minute. Look at the screen. Can your focus be on Orlando Bloom and your husband at the same time? No. Can your focus be on any other man and your husband at the same time? No. You will be dissatisfied.

Everyone, look at the screen with me. Keep those hands up. Can your focus be on winning the lottery and your own finances at the same time? No…if you choose to focus on living the pipe dream, some other area of your life is going to suffer and you will be unsatisfied. I hear this all the time, “Well my dollar allows me to dream a bit.” I have to ask, “Why dream that dream?” If you are dreaming about how life will be when you win the lottery, can you also be thinking about how God is blessing you right now?

Last one, look at the screen with me. Can your focus be on your saving’s account and Jesus at the same time? No. No. No. No. No. No. You should know your money and understand your money, but if you spend more time checking your portfolio balances and stock market numbers than you spend in God’s word. Let’s say you’re a paycheck to paycheck person. This applies to you, too. If you spend your time worrying about the next payday, you are going to live a life of worry that you don’t need to have.

If you are focused on how beautiful you should be come, can you be thinking about how beautiful God made you right now? Can I just tell you, those of you who might have self esteem issues, God loves you and he sees your beauty and he knows how beautiful you are.

The lesson of Peter walking on the water toward Jesus. Focus on Jesus. Everything else will work itself out. God will help you to act upon the things you need to act on.

Matthew 6:25
…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Focus on what??

His Kingdom
His Righteousness


What does he say here about worrying about possessions?

It’s what pagans do. Whether it’s the possessions you have or the possessions you don’t have, if you are worrying about them, you will be unsatisfied.

Example:

Not long ago, Tammy and I decided to remodel our living room. My aunt and uncle gave us their leather sofa and chair and we had some other furniture. I spent a couple bucks on paint and Tammy bought a rug. But there was one thing missing. What useful piece of furniture is missing from this picture.

A Coffee table. This could be a homework room for the kids if only we had a great big coffee table. We went out and we splurged and we purchased the world’s nicest coffee table. It is wood. It is beautiful. It is functional. Look at this. It opens up and the kids can do their homework while kneeling at the coffee table.

The first day rolls around. Zach pulls his homework out of his backpack to start doing it. He lays down his paper on the table. He begins writing on the homework, on the table. I look down and I said, “Stop!! You need to write on something else. You’re going to write right through your paper and scratch the table.”

We need pads for the table or something. The other day the boys were counting out their change on the table. “Those coins will scratch the table.”

Tammy had to bring me back to reality. We bought the table to be used by our family to get our family a comfortable place to study and play games and I had soon become more worried about the aesthetics of the table than the function it provides.

Guys, when it comes to possessions, God has given the world and everything in it to us for our use, not so that we can worship its beauty, but so that we can lead fulfilling lives that are satisfying and that ultimately bring glory to him.

Accept God’s invitation to follow him, serve him, and be satisfied.

E - Enjoy the Now

Stop wrestling with your past. Stop wrestling with your future plans. Stop wrestling with your desires.

How many of you have ever watched a high school wrestling match.

Many of you constantly feel like you are Wrestling with God over your desires, wrestling with God over your level of satisfaction, wrestling with God over your joy.

You know what. In reality, you aren’t wrestling with God at all. You are wrestling with Satan and your own sin on the mat of life. You are struggling at playing a game you don’t even need to play. God exists outside of this game. If you will focus on him, and ask him, he will life you up out of your match and declare himself declare you the winner because of his glory and power and righteousness. If you wish to have your face down on the mat, getting beat up and slapped around, getting your face ground into your sin and desire, that’s your choice.

Some of you are still wrestling with the guilt of something you’ve done wrong. You can’t live a satisfied life if you are still wrestling with that.

But if you want to say, enough is enough…I can’t handle my own desires, Lord. I can’t handle my guilt. I’ve never been able to find the secret ticket to satisfaction on my own and I don’t seem to be hitting the satisfaction lottery either…

If you want to say enough is enough, Jesus Christ, who went to the mat for you a long time ago will pick you up and you will win.

You want to know how I know? I read the book of Romans. Read with me.


Romans 8
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man[5] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind[6] is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you….you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.[7] 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Future Glory

18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

More Than Conquerors

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[10] who[11] have been called according to his purpose…35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[13] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


That love, ladies and gentlemen is the main ingredient in the Recipe for satisfaction in our lives. No matter what we face. No matter where we’ve been. No matter who we are…we hit the jackpot because we can be more than conquerers through Him. Nothing can separate us from his powerful, awesome love that he proves to us over and over again. He will satisfy you while you live on this Earth and he will give you total and complete fulfillment in his home in Heaven when you arrive. Praise God, he is greater than our desires.

The water of life that he gives quenches all thirsts. The blessings he gives are better than those we can ever long to hope for.

Let’s pray.