It is easy to become disillusioned in this life. Life seems to not to work. Dreams remain unrealized. Hopes dashed. Heartaches come.
Our world is full of unhappy and dissatisfied people. We will try anything to rid our lives of emotional, and psychological disorders. Anything goes for satisfaction & happiness, pleasure and enjoyment, power and prestige. religion, materialism & wealth, Self seeks to satisfy self. Culminating in eating disorders, alcohol abuse, drug dependency, sexual impurity, prostitution, pornography, divorce, criminal behavior, thoughts of suicide, suicide,. We’re spiraling out of control.
For a lot of people, winning the lottery is the American dream.
William "Bud" Post
- Won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988
- Loving Life
- BUT
- Now lives on his Social Security.
- "I wish it never happened. It was totally a nightmare," says Post.
- Post even spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector. Within a year, he was $1 million in debt.
- Now he lives quietly on $450 a month and food stamps.
- "I’m tired, I’m over 65 years old, and I just had a serious operation for a heart aneurysm. Lotteries don’t mean anything to me," says Post.
Evelyn Adams
- Won the New Jersey lottery not just once, but twice (1985, 1986), to the tune of $5.4 million.
- Loving Life
- BUT
- Today the money is all gone and Adams lives in a trailer."I won the American dream but I lost it
A Southeastern family
- Won $4.2 million in the early ’90s.
- They bought a huge house
- They helped family requests for paying off debts
- Loving Life
- BUT
- The house, cars and relatives ate the whole pot. Eleven years later, the couple is divorcing, the house is sold
- They have to split what is left of the lottery proceeds.
- The wife got a very small house.
- The husband has moved in with the kids.
- Even the life insurance they bought ended up getting cashed in.
Jack Whittaker
- He grew up very, very poor in Putnam County, W.Va.,
- They never had a lot of luxuries. They never had a car. They didn’t have a TV until later in life."
- His wife Jewell adored him, & a granddaughter Brandi Bragg was the apple of his eye
- He enjoyed his construction company which had become successful was doing $16 million to $17 million worth of work.
- (55) on Christmas Day 2002 he won the Powerball lottery worth $315 million. The largest single winner in US history.
- Whittaker gave away at least $50 million worth of houses, cars and cash.
- He tipped the woman who worked the biscuit counter at the convenience store where he bought the winning ticket by buying her a $123,000 house, a new Jeep and giving her $44,000 cash.
- Loving Life
- BUT
- He had no way of knowing that he was embarking on a journey that would lead to tragedy and the loss of everything he held dear
- Less than a year after winning the lottery things began to change.
- Lawsuits on his company caused him to began drinking heavily to console himself
- He got into fights because he couldn’t tolerate what was happening to him
- He was arrested for drunk driving
- While parked at a strip club thieves stole $545,000 in cash
- In 2004, Whittaker was arrested for misdemeanor assault after allegedly threatening the life of a bar manager
- Whittaker became alienated from everyone causing him to be friendless and lonely
- His wife filed for divorce in 2005
- He continues to be sued repeatedly
- His granddaughter 17-year-old granddaughter, Brandi Bragg (the love of his life) became a drug addict and was found dead wrapped in a plastic sheet after being missing for 2 weeks
- Today he says "I just don’t like Jack Whittaker. I don’t like the hard heart I’ve got. I don’t like what I’ve become."
- Scripture sums up this pursuit
* Proverbs 14:12."There is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end, it produces death,"
* John 10:10KJV "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: .....
- Similar Lives in Scripture
Rich Farmer - Lk 12:15-21
- Called a rich man
- Was this just one of his enterprises?
- v. 17 Barns full all ready had what he needed
- v. 19 One thought ease, eat, drink and pleasure
- Loving Life
- Note the personal pronouns
- No thought of anyone but himself
Prodigal Son Lk 15:11-24
- Prodigal = Wasteful
- He received what he thought he deserved and wanted it now
- v. 13 He lived how he wanted - No restraints No accountability
- Loving Life
Rich Man & Lazarus -- Lk 16:19-24
v. 19 He was rich,
- clothed in purple (Purple describes a fine, expensive dye used on luxurious clothing -- the latest fashions )
- fine linen, lived in luxury
- who feasted sumptuously - partied [wasted his days]
- Every day - Not a day was missed that was not enjoyed
- Loving Life
- Contrast with Lazarus
- Beggar
- Laid at the door - Abandoned & forgotten
- Laid at the door - Disabled
- Full of sores - Diseased - Ulcers
- Hungry v. 21
- "dogs" wild dogs
- Licked his sores - Unclean
Women At the Well -- Jn 4:1-42
- Jn 4:18 She had 5 husbands and now was living with another man
- Loving Life
- Jn 4:6 Lost her friends
- Ostracized from the community as she was considered unclean (sleeping with other men) unabled to be in the company of other women
- Everything changed when she meet Jesus
When they got what we want for themselves they did not like what they got
Secret to Loving Life
Each had a chance of changing by:
1. Honest Look at yourself
- Galatians 6:3KJV "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself."
2. Instill disciplines that bring honor to the Lord
- Christ is to be Lord
3. Appreciate what I have
Luke 9:13KJV But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people.
4. Put people first
I must CARE -- Communicate, Affirm, Recognize, and Exemplify
- Believing what the Word says and acting on what the Word says
James 1:22KJV "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. "
John 10:10 "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: .....
..... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
