Reliable Truth

Is your sexuality sacred to you? I contend that one of the most meaningful and powerful sources of joy in this life is our sexuality, particularly in the context in which God designed it. But when it's abused and misused, I believe, and I have seen, that it can be a source of unbelievable pain and guilt.In our last episode we discussed getting wisdom for handling our money. Well, the way we regard our money and material wealth and the way we regard sexuality says a lot about us and what's going on in our lives. It says a lot about our culture. Today I'd like to lay out and make a case for the Christian biblical view of sexuality.

Do you need wisdom for your finances today? Blaise Bascal once said, "Human beings find life to be unsatisfying and incoherent as time goes by, because they have false beliefs and false ideas on matters important for living a high quality of life." He goes on to say, "Therefore it is critical that gain genuine wisdom by uprooting false beliefs and replacing them with true insights and perspective."We often are not aware that what we believe is false until we get burned by the belief.

What will life in heaven really be like? Will we just be spiritual beings floating around in heaven? The Bible teaches that heaven is a place of joyous celebration, and that we will each have a physical, glorified body in heaven. Philippians 3:20-21 says, "For our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body."In Matthew 22:2 Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Revelation 1:9 "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb." Have you accepted God's offer of heaven for you?Today's message follows up on a recent podcast series that Richard taught on Jesus' parable called The Rich Man and Lazarus. 

Do you know what life is like if there is no God? ​It’s kind of like the view that John Lennon wrote about in his song, "Imagine." He says, “Imagine there’s no Heaven, it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us, only sky. Imagine all the people living for today.” Lennon is saying, just imagine what it would be like if there was no God and no Heaven and no religion.​Solomon says that life "under the sun" leads to a life that is empty and meaningless. And so, what do we do? We look for ways to divert the mind and tend to center our lives on pleasure and our work. But then we discover that it doesn’t keep emptiness out of our lives. It doesn’t permanently satisfy.Dallas Willard said, “Meaning is one of the greatest needs of human life. One of our deepest hungers. Perhaps it is in the final analysis, the most basic need in the realm of the human experience. Almost anything can be born if life as a whole is meaningful. As Albert Camus, the very famous Nobel prize winning Christian novelist says, ‘The foundational question about life is the question of meaning. Everything else is secondary.’ And until you answer this question, you cannot give answers to the other questions of life. And what Camus was saying was, this is life’s most pivotal question.”Why do we have this desire and this sense of wanting permanence to our lives? Join us for this final lesson in finding wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes!

What is the purpose of work? Jeffrey Salkin in the Wall Street Journal said this, “Americans work so hard that we often put work at the emotional and spiritual center of our lives.” And then Sigmund Freud who, in all that I’ve read about him, lived a miserable life -  he said, “Work is the most powerful deflector to keep us from having to face the unhappiness of our existence.” Last week we looked at the problem of making pleasure the highest goal in our lives. This week, we’re looking at a second very natural diversion - our work. Our labor, as Solomon calls it.Work is good. Work is ordained by God. In fact, II Thessalonians 3:10, Paul says this, "If a man is not willing to work, don’t let him eat!" Your work has the great potential to give your life a certain sense of meaning. The problem with it, just like pleasure, it doesn’t last. It’s just temporary. Join me as we look for wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes!

What is the modern secular view of life? You might say it is the same as Solomon’s conclusion in Ecclesiastes - if there is no God, life is meaningless. Your pursuits and your endeavors are temporary, and nothing more than chasing after the wind. Solomon concluded that life "under the sun" means there is no God who stands behind you and existence. There is no God sustaining the universe. No life after death. There’s no judgment. There’s no eternity. When it comes to all the big questions the philosophers and intellectuals have asked over the centuries, there are no answers, and no one to give you the answers to those questions. Solomon concludes life is meaningless.If there is no God, if there is no meaning to life, what should we do? 

"Do you find yourself unsatisfied with things in your life?" Warren Wiersbe asks in his commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes. He continues, “If so, you are in good company, because dissatisfaction is a part of the human condition. That’s why God gave us the book of Ecclesiastes — to remind us that satisfaction in life is not an external issue that can be appeased by amassing more stuff, or having certain life experiences. It’s an internal condition of the heart,” He goes on to say, “I believe for the satisfaction of this life is possible, but to only the extent of my personal relationship with God. This is the big idea that runs through the book of Ecclesiastes.”Join us today as we study the book of Ecclesiastes together!

Jerry Leachman of Leachman Ministries joins us again today to share a special message about Christmas. His focus is on the shepherds, the first people the angels told about Jesus' birth. They were the first to see the baby Jesus. They knelt and worshipped him. They were the first to worship and on the way back to their sheep, they witnessed to everybody. They were the first missionaries. They told everybody, the Messiah has come. We saw Him and we praised Him. These humble shepherds. Don’t we all need a bigger dose of humility? And our pride, and our sense of entitlement today?Jerry is a favorite speaker at The Center's events. Along with being an associate Chaplain in The NFL for many years, Jerry has done ministry in Guatemala, Scotland, Russia, Europe and Africa as well as all over the U.S. He and his wife Holly have been on Young Life Staff and continue to be involved with Young Life here and also internationally. Learn more about Jerry here.

What are you living for? A few years ago USA Today did a poll, asking their readers this one question, “If you could ask God one question and get an answer, what would that question be?” And interestingly, the overwhelming number one question that the readers answered was ‘What on earth am I here for?’ Why am I alive? Why do I exist? What are you living for? Because the way we answer that question will ultimately determine if we will ever find meaning in life.French novelist and Nobel prize winner Albert Camus once said, “The fundamental question about life is the question of meaning. Anything else is secondary. Until the question of meaning is dealt with, I cannot give answers to the other questions of life.” I think Camus is telling us that the question of meaning is the most pivotal question in life. Life can be full of meaning... but it can only truly be found in Jesus Christ.

How much of your life have you wasted trying to impress others? How much different would your life be if you were delivered from the fear and worry about what others think of you? Today we're looking again at what Solomon has to say about our work in the book of Ecclesiastes.Solomon says this, “What does the worker gain from his toil? I’ve seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the heart of men.” Solomon is saying that our lives are linked to eternity because we are eternal beings. And he says, because of that, we desire a permanence to our lives. We would like to think that our lives are going to have a permanence and a stamp and a significance in this life that I’ve lived.If Jesus were standing before us today, and if we asked Him to make a comment about our work and success and the fruit of our labor, I wonder what would He say to us? I believe that out of love, He might tell us the same thing He told his disciples. Now Jesus always told them not what they wanted to hear, what they needed to hear. And this to me is a powerful, powerful verse from Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”