God Bless Us With Happiness
Luke 12:15-20
15And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” 16Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ 20But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
INTRO.- Where is happiness to be found? I can tell you where it is not to be found. In material things.
ILL.- Steve Shepherd writes, The last time I bought a new car was 1988. It was a Buick Skylark. Admittedly, a Buick Skylark is not the most popular or luxurious car in the world, but I liked it. It was on sale. The sticker price was $14,000 and the sale bill on the windshield read: St. Patrick’s Day special: $12,000.
I got a good trade and drove the car home. It was a two-door, sporty-looking Skylark. Burgundy color, auto, AC, power windows, power brakes and it had that new, powerful quad-four engine and was quite peppy.
I was in hog heaven driving that car. That is, until it broke down the first time with a blown head gasket. I thought that was something of a fluke until it happened a 2nd time on the way to St. Louis and had to have it towed in to a nearby garage. Fortunately, it was still under warranty, but they had it two weeks before I got it back. WHAT A HEADACHE!
A. I have discovered that the joy of material things don’t last.
Haven’t you? And it really doesn’t matter what it is: car,
house, TV, clothes, boat, dresses, etc.
There will always come a time when these things WILL NOT SATISFY.
Luke 12:15 Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
I. WE MUST FOCUS ON ETERNITY, NOT EARTH
ILL.- Two Christians lived very good, and also very healthy lives. They eventually died and went to heaven. As they are walking along, marveling at the paradise around them, one turned to the other and said, "Wow. I never knew heaven was going to be as good as this!"
"Yeah", said the other. "And just think, if we hadn’t eaten all that oat bran we could have been here ten years sooner."
A. None of us know how great and glorious heaven will be! If we did, our focus would be different
and our lives would be different! We might not stop eating oat bran but we would change some
things that we do.
I Cor. 2:9 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for
those who love him.”
B. Paul is talking about the glory of heaven. And we do believe that it will be greater or grander
than anything we have ever known, seen or felt in this life
Rev. 21:1-4 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
The best descriptions of heaven is this:
1. No tears
2. no crying
3. no pain
4. Nothing hurtful from this life.
5. Nothing negative or nasty from this life.
6. No SORROW
7. No Funerals
8. No caskets
9. he presence of God our Father, soothing us, loving us.
Col. 3:1-3 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
C. To find any happiness in this life then we must realize there is more to life than this life.
1. We must focus on that which is eternal!
2. We need to change our focus from earth to eternity.
3. We must anticipate, not dread what is going to happen.
4. Prepare for it. Sing about it. Dream about it. Live for it.
To find some happiness in this life and be effective as a Christian, we must set our focus on eternity and heaven!
II. WE MUST FOCUS ON PEOPLE, NOT POSSESSIONS
ILL.- Comedian Jay Leno said, “They say John Kerry is the first Democratic presidential
candidate in history to raise $50 million in a three-month period. Actually, that’s nothing. He
once raised $500 million with two words: ’I do.’"
A. Money and material possessions are the great goal of most people in life.
B. We often gauge how a person is doing by the size of their bank account, the size of their
house and the accumulation of their possessions.
ILL.- Take Jay Leno, for example, the host of The Tonight Show. He may be one of America’s funniest comedians, but he is also a serious car enthusiast. His three garages near Burbank, CA, are packed with sports and special-interest cars, antiques and classics, old motorcycles, oil company signs and "automobilia."
He hasn’t counted everything up recently, but he owns more than 50 cars and about as many vintage and modern bikes. No car or bike in Leno’s collection is a museum piece; he drives everything and nearly everything runs at all times. Blessed with an assigned parking space at NBC Studios, Leno takes a different vehicle to work every day.
Leno would rather hang out in the garage than do almost anything else--except write and tell jokes. So his spare time is spent tinkering with his cars, or riding his bikes.
C. Cars are just cars.
1. They can’t hug you.
2. They can’t cry with you.
3. They can’t laugh with you.
4. They can’t share life with you.
5. They can’t encourage you.
6. They can’t love you. They can’t appreciate you.
BUT PEOPLE CAN DO ALL OF THESE THINGS AND MORE!
D. Material things were not meant to be our all-consuming passion in life.
1. If they are, then we have certainly missed the boat on what God desires of us and we will miss
out on a great deal of happiness in life.
Phil. 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
1. People are eternal.
2. Our pleasurable interests are not.
3. TRUE JOY IS FOUND IN PEOPLE!
4. Therefore, our focus must be on people rather than possessions if we are to find greater joy in
life!
III. WE MUST FOCUS ON SERVICE, NOT SELF
Gal. 5:13 “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”
ILL.- Mother said to her son Bobby, “Why Bobby, you ate all that cake without thinking of your little sister.”
Bobby replied, “I was thinking of her all the time. I was afraid she would come in before I finished it.”
A. Many people are like Bobby.
B. More self-oriented than service-oriented.
C. More interested in getting than in giving.
We are called by Christ to serve others, not self. God put us here for others!
ILL.- John D. Rockefeller is an example of the benefits of giving. He achieved what our culture calls success. Rockefeller had amassed more wealth than he could ever spend. By the time Rockefeller was fifty-three years old his life was a wreck. Throughout his business career he said, “I never placed my head upon the pillow at night without reminding myself that my success might only be temporary.”
He was the richest man in the world and yet he was miserable in every sense of the word. He was sick physically, mentally, and emotionally. There was no humor or joy in his life.
Then a transformation occurred. He determined to become a giver rather than an accumulator. He began to give his millions away. He founded the Rockefeller Foundation, dedicated to fighting disease and ignorance around the world. He lived to be ninety-eight years old and was a happy man in those years because of his new and revitalized definition of success.
Giving worked for John D. Rockefeller, but does it work for us?
The way to greater joy in life is not though self. It’s through service to God and others.
Gal. 5:13 “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”
CONCLUSION--------------------------------------------
ILL.- William Lyons Phelps stated, "If happiness truly consisted in physical ease and freedom from care then the happiest individual would not be either a man or a woman; it would be, I think, an American cow."
There is a certain amount of happiness available to us in this life, but the ultimate happiness will come after this life.
Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (or have it more abundantly).
Only Jesus offers any lasting happiness at all. It’s a matter of following Him, doing His will.
1. It’s a matter of focusing on eternity, not earth.
2. People, not possessions.
3. And service, not self.
Parts of this sermon came from a similar sermon from Steve Shepherd.
