Reliable Truth

How can I live a life that has purpose and meaning? That is the topic of today's podcast, Part 3.In Part 1, we talked about how many people see happiness as a feeling. We looked at all of the destructive tendencies that creep into a person’s life when they believe that pleasure is the source of true happiness in life. In Part 2, we considered the factors that lead to happiness, starting with God’s role. We concluded that God is the true source of happiness. But to really get this, I must ask myself: What kind of man do I want to become? We tend to focus on what we’re experiencing, but God is more interested in the kind of men we’re becoming. When you become a man of strong Godly character, then obedience to God becomes natural. So we talked about the importance of obedience. How does Christ play a role in helping you find purpose and meaning in life? Answering this question is critical. It’s the foundation of finding true purpose and meaning in life.This is Part 3 of my 3-part series. I hope you enjoy it!

*This episode has been updated to correct an error that occurred last week. Enjoy!What is it that satisfies the thirst of the soul? In Part 1, we talked about how many people see happiness as a feeling. We looked at all of the destructive tendencies that creep into a person’s life when they believe that pleasure is the source of true happiness in life.What is the role that God plays in the search for happiness? Why is He important in finding happiness? Let's start by thinking about the human desires of the body. When we enter into this life we have four basic desires - all physical desires. We get hungry, thirsty and tired, so we eat, we drink and we rest. Then we hit puberty and our sexual desire kicks in. These four basic desires of the body called the sensual side of life.Yet what is this desire that we have for joy and happiness, for peace, to love and be loved - not sex, but to love and be loved? It’s not a physical desire. It’s a spiritual desire. It’s a desire of the heart and the soul. Again, what satisfies hunger? Food? What satisfies thirst? Drink.So where I want to go with this today, guys, is to ask the question, "What is the role that God plays in all of this?" If he satisfies this thirst in our souls for joy and happiness and peace and love, how does that happen? What is His role in our lives? What is his role in this elusive search of happiness that people are having so much trouble with?This is Part 2 of my 3-part series. I hope you enjoy it!

I truly believe that many adults experience great unhappiness in life. A lot of them experience depression, which is not something that people want to admit, particularly men. We’re supposed to be on top of things, we’re supposed to be competent, together, and to acknowledge our unhappiness is something that we’d rather not do. This is a fascinating topic and I've found that it really is resonating with so many people that I’ve been sharing it with.So, the question is, where is happiness found in this life? Over the next 3 podcasts, we’re going to explore this. In our search for happiness, does God have a role to play? Why is He important in finding happiness?I believe that happiness is a byproduct of living in the center of God’s will. You see, God never intended for happiness to be the object of life. It’s a byproduct of living our lives in the center of God’s will. When we seek to be in the will of God, we will find we are living in harmony with our design. We’ll be living the life that we were meant to live.This is Part 1 of my 3-part series. I hope you enjoy it!

So much has been written on the issue of evil, but today I'd like to take all that I have read over the last six weeks on evil and try to distill it down into a 45-minute presentation. I pray that it will be enlightening to you. If at any point you get hung up with anything I’m saying, just hang on with me because we’ll keep going.I've taught a two-part series on “Why Does God Allow Pain and Suffering?” where I discussed evil in a general way. There’s a difference in natural evil, like a natural disaster or physical disease and what I want to cover this morning, which is human or moral evil.  The issues that I raise this morning about moral evil are crucial for any thinking person to understand. I ask you to hang with me as I go through this, and I think when we get to the end, you will see that there is a critical application to every single one of us. My prayer is that each of us would be open to see what God would show us about our own hearts.

Today I'd like to talk about something that's very important to me - I call it the Great Paradox of Life. The apostle Paul addresses this in I Corinthians 1:18-24, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Paul is contrasting the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of men to the wisdom of God. I am sharing this with you because I believe there truly is an art to living this life, and because life is governed by certain principles. Wisdom is seeking to live your life in harmony with these principles. So many of God's important truths are foreign to the world because they are counter-intuitive. Yet the truth and the wisdom of God is often paradoxical.

The topic that I want to address this morning is fascinating.  And, I believe that it will be of real benefit to you. One would think this concept is just common sense.  Unfortunately, many modern people don’t seem to use common sense. I'd like to start with some words that I know you’re familiar with: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  These are the opening words of the Declaration of Independence.  Of course, that was 1776.  From those words, we in America as a nation seem to have this foundational belief that there truly is a connection between liberty, or freedom, and the pursuit of happiness, and finding happiness. Now, fast-forward 13 years from the signing of the Declaration to 1789, when George Washington gave his first inaugural address. In that inaugural address, he added a little something to that thought.  Washington said, “There exists, in human nature, an indissoluble union between freedom, virtue, and happiness.”  He threw in that word virtue.  So here, 13 years later, Washington realized that in order to have a free society, there has to be a certain character quality in the people.  There has to be an ability to have self-restraint.  He says, “This is necessary for any culture to flourish.”  But, as you know, we seem to have lost this understanding of what it really means to be free.

What is it about the human condition that causes us to want to “one-up” someone else all the time? What is it that causes us to, and it makes us feel superior to others? What causes us to always compare ourselves to other people and why is it we’re always worrying about what other people think about us? This is what’s called the pride of life. C.S. Lewis says that each of us have this great flaw within, and though we see it in other people, and we loathe it, we have a hard time seeing it in our own lives. He says it’s like a spiritual cancer that eats up our souls. It keeps us, he says, from being able to love, or ever find any real contentment in life. You’re probably thinking, isn’t there a positive side to pride? Yes! There are two definitions. The first is, “justifiable self-respect”. It’s the idea of taking pride in what you do. Seeking to be the very best you can be in what you do, and that’s a positive definition of pride. But what I’m going to be talking to you this morning about is, the simple definition of pride as arrogance or self-conceit - the Greeks called it hubris. To have a too high view of yourself. And Lewis goes on to say that pride, if you really want to get to the heart of it, is really kind of, it’s competitive, so to speak. He says it’s rooted in comparison, where a person wants to be better and superior to you. We all face this dilemma deep within our souls. So, what does a person do? What am I supposed to do?Tim Keller says that all of us are starved for glory because we have this deep sense in our souls that our lives just don’t really matter. He says the worst thing for a human being is not to be disliked, or to be vilified. He says the worst thing for us, particularly for us as men, is to be ignored. To be overlooked. To feel like my life is just not very significant. And he says, this is why, in the deepest recesses of our hearts, we are seeking for glory out in the world. Out in our sphere of influence. And this is why so many men have instability in their hearts because they are desperately seeking to impress and win the approval of others. And, for this reason, and we see this often in our work, we as men are constantly looking for ways to convince the world, and ourselves, that we matter, and that our lives are really important.

Today I am discussing Jesus' parable about the pearl of great value, taken from Matthew 13:44-46."Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid, and, for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”Is there anything out in the world that you would sell everything you have for: your house, your cars, any investments you have, liquidate your retirement account, take all of that and sell it so you can get something of great value? You know, in order to do that, it would have to make everything you own pale in comparison to whatever that object is.So today, I want to look at two things 1) What does it mean, to sell everything you have in order to get this treasure? and 2) What is the parable of the pearl merchant all about?Then we’ll look more specifically at the parable of the pearl merchant and what that parable is all about. One thing in context to the parable - pearl merchants were wealthy people. They had to have some degree of wealth because they were always buying and trading pearls which had great value. And so, they had to have some degree of financial wealth in order to stock their inventory.

Today is the last message in my 4-part series on pride and humility. I want to look at how God has special regard for the humble, and then I want to look at how to integrate this life of humility into our personal lives. I want to share a few verses with you and look at how God has special regard and honor for the humble.Psalm 10:17. “Oh, Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline Your ear.”Psalm 25:9 “He leads the humble in justice. He teaches the humble His way.”Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes dishonor, but, with the humble, there is wisdom.”Proverbs 29:23, “A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.”And lastly James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you.” God has incredible regard and honor for the humble, and what’s interesting is, He doesn’t have that kind of regard for anybody else.This is Part 4 of my 4-Part series. I hope you enjoy it!

This morning, I want to share a few more words with you about pride so that we can truly see how destructive it is in our lives. And then I’m going to share some words on humility. As I’ve said before, pride is so insidious and that it slowly grows and develops in our lives and becomes well-established without our knowledge. God hates it because of what it does to us. And I want to look at one more aspect of pride and how it impacts our thinking in how we regard other people.This is Part 3 of a 4-Part series. In these final two episodes, we’ll look at God’s promises to those who live humbly as they walk through life. There will be a major application in Part 4, so you don't want to miss it.