The Good Life

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This sermon address the issue of good life. What is the good life? How to have a good life based on God’s word? Read and see how the good life is in our attitude and not in our possessions.

Full series on 1 Peter at http://www.cityharvestagchurch.org/category/sermons-and-sermon-series/1-peter/

1 Peter 3:8

Good life is the pursuit of our generation. Everybody wants a good life. The whole value system are geared toward the good life. We talk to each other, “Have a good day.” What is a good day? Should Christians love a good life? How do you lead a good life? How can you make the best out of our life and love life?

Today I want to speak to you on the worldly aspect and the Christian aspect of good life.

Illustration

Michael Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer, dubbed the “King of Pop.” He was one of the most popular entertainers in the world and one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of over 66 million copies worldwide. He had popularity, fame, pets, homes, and mansions, private jets. What he wanted he had it. After Jackson’s death, Forbes ranked Jackson as the top-earning deceased celebrity for the fifth consecutive year in 2017. Yet all this could not satisfy him. Michael Jackson died of overdose in 2009.

For the world, the good life is basically synonymous with over-indulgence. Sin is the good life for the world.

In a worldly sense Solomon had a good life. He could have competed with any person or celebrity on every level. MJ had the money. He had power and women, yet he hated life.

Ecclesiastes 2:17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes reminds us that people who had the most hated life.

Let us see Solomon, how a man who had everything that constitutes a good life hated life. Solomon tried to evaluate life, try and have at everything under heaven to pursue the good life. This is his conclusion:

1. Good life is not found in education.

Ecclesiastes 1:13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens.

Ecclesiastes 1:16-17 16I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. Good life is not in education. Solomon was wiser than anyone and still there was no satisfaction.

2. Good life is not found in great accomplishments.

Ecclesiastes 1:14 KJV I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Good life is not found in having a great career. All the work accomplishments are vanity says Solomon. Do we need them, yes but that will not satisfy us.

3. Good life is not found in pleasure.

Ecclesiastes 2:2 “Laughter,” I said, :”is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?” The good life wasn’t in pleasure.

Ecclesiastes 2:3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. Good life is not in pleasure, alcohol, drugs or substance abuse. It provided nothing.

4. Good life is not in possessions.

Ecclesiastes 2:4-6 4I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. 7I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. 9I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

The good life wasn’t in any of those possessions. Here is the richest man that ever lived, the wisest man that ever lived. He had the best education, he had all possession but he was not happy.

See the commentary of Solomon’s life which he wrote as a poem in the Bible.

Ecclesiastes 4:2-3

2And I declared that the dead,

who had already died,

are happier than the living,

who are still alive.

3But better than both

is the one who has never been born,