Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Short Shelf Life of Stuff | Ep. 358 | Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Don't ignore what actually has the power to give you joy: our relationship with Christ. We will never find contentment if we slip into endless "if only..." statements. Contentment comes from a proper perspective and rejecting the lie that external pleasure could satisfy us. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.combe. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drop. I'm Mike Bro, and we are currently looking in a famous guy's journal, examining five easy ways to wreck your life. It's a book in the Old Testament of the Bible called Ecclesiastes, and it is actually the journal of a powerful and wealthy king named Solomon, who was looking back with honesty and regret, basically saying, if you want to really thrive in life, if you want to really experience deep soul satisfaction, don't do. what I did. Yesterday he introduced the first of the five easy ways to wreck your life by telling

us if you want to really screw up your life, you ought to let pleasure drive you. We stopped at verse three in chapter two yesterday. Let's pick it up. Solomon goes on to say this. I also tried finding meaning by building huge homes for myself and planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks and filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. In other words, he turned to HGTV, said, I got to have that. Got to get those countertops, that kind of view,

a nice reservoir over there, flowing into an affinity edge pool, flowing into a 20-person hot tub, overlooking all the horse tables and all the vineyards, oh, that would be perfect. He became totally obsessed with all the comforts of life. Real estate, projects, and stuff all became little G gods to him.

I thought it was interesting that it took Solomon seven years to build the amazing temple for God. You can read all about that, what went into that in First Kings. An incredible seven-year construction project working on God's house. But it took 13 years to build his own palace twice as long than for God. Maybe an indication that his priorities were a little bit out of whack. The regret train rolls on as he confesses, I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds, herds, and flocks more than any of the kings who had lived in Jerusalem

before me. I collected great sums of silver and gold and the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, had many beautiful concubines. I had everything a man could desire. Dion Sanders, who is now known as Coach Prime, the football coach at University of Colorado was an incredible football player. If you've never seen footage of Dion playing, it's like watching a video game, along with lots and lots of flashiness. Well, I heard and read how the whole primetime thing

was really a mask for insecurities he felt as a kid. He was a very shy kid with a whole lot of pain in his life, so he created this alter ego, so to speak, this superhero to kind of hide behind. And I'm not sure how many years it's been now, but over a decade at least that Dion finally surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. and in a segment of his autobiography he writes this. Everything I touched turned to gold,

but inside I was broken and totally defeated. I remember sitting at the back of the practice field one afternoon away from everybody, and tears were running down my face. I was saying to myself, this is so meaningless. I am so unhappy. We're winning every week and I'm playing great, but I'm not happy. I tried everything. Parties, women, buying expensive jewelry and gadgets, and nothing.

helped. There was no peace. I had everything the world has to offer, but no peace, no joy, just emptiness inside. The Bible describes it in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes as chasing after the wind, and that's exactly what it was like. And it is. It's a square peg in a round hole. Solomon goes on to say this in verse nine, so I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me. and my wisdom never failed me. Anything I wanted I would take. Let me read that again. Anything I wanted I would take.

He never looked at a price tag in his lifetime. I denied myself no pleasure, totally unbridled. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors, but as I looked at everything I'd worked so hard to accomplish, it was also meaningless, Habel, like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. So in the most preventative kind of way, he's trying to tell you and me, you're not going to find happiness the way I search for it.

Don't let pleasure drive your life. Apart from God, it's all Havel. Meaningless. It's like chasing the wind. Dr. Henry Cloud wrote a book a few years back called The Law of Happiness. In it, he records all kinds of different research that's been done on happiness throughout the years. And he says this, when we are pursuing the things, things that don't have the power to make us happy, we're ignoring the ones that do. Let me read that

again. When we are pursuing the things that don't have the power to make us happy, we're ignoring the ones that do. When we get caught up and pursuing all the things that Solomon talks about, all these things that just don't deliver what they promise, we miss out on the ones that do. Gang, we have so much to be grateful for, so much that God has done for us. But if we don't live with that heart of gratitude every day, we will go through our life saying, if only. If only I could make a little more money, then I'd be happy. If only I could just find the love of my life and get married, then I'd be happy. If only I could get that promotion.

If only I could own a home. If only I could sell my home. If only I could move to a different city. If only I could get a different job. If only I could lose those 20 pounds, if only I were better looking, if I were just more popular, if only I was famous. It's almost like back in the garden where the serpent slithers into our life and says, I know that God has given you all these trees and all this abundant fruit, but that one,

that one right there, yeah, that one. That one holds the keys to your happiness. And if only you could have that, you know you want it. Your appetites are screaming right now. Come on, God is so cheap. He is so stingy, dude, he's holding out on you. So we go through life chasing after fruit that will not satisfied. There has been a bunch of research done in recent years on happiness,

and it shows that none of these things have the power to bring lasting happiness. In other words, Solomon is right. And I love it when research supports Scripture as it so often does. Happiness based on circumstances does not last. Got an extremely short shelf life. Studies show that our circumstances count

for about 10% of our happiness. They have the power to make us feel happy for a while. I mean, you get a promotion, you get an A, you make the team, you get a new car, you're ecstatic for a while. But like that gallon of milk in your fridge this marked July 15th is as an extremely short shelf life. Walk into your kid's room. That toy they just had to have last Christmas lies broken in the corner, right?

That game that brought them such happiness that morning hasn't been touched in eight months. Totally bored with that now. And you can look back at the things where you said, man, I would just die to have one of those. And now they're stored in the garage or a basement or next to the ab blaster collecting dust. Our happiness is not dependent upon our external. In his book on Haptingness, Dr. Cloud lists the findings of research, chapter by chapter, and here's what it says. Happy people are givers.

They're generous. They live beyond themselves. Happy people are not lazy about happiness. They're proactive. Happy people don't wait for someday. They're just grateful for today. Happy people pursue goals, dreams bigger than themselves. Happy people fully engaged.

They don't sit on the edge of the pool. They jump in. Happy people connect. They refuse to isolate themselves. Happy people don't compare themselves. They're not competing in that game. Happy people think well. They pursue wisdom and think good thoughts. Happy people are grateful people. They reject entitlement and find a reason to thank.

Happy people forgive. They don't carry bitterness around through their life. Happy people have a calling. They know what they want to accomplish. And happy people have faith. They walk with God. Gang, happy people don't chase happiness. They chase after God and happiness finds them. So let's take Solomon's advice. Let's get intentional about chasing after God. Let's live with great intentionality today.

Let's live in the awareness of God's goodness and grace. You see, deep within our hearts is a God-like shape. A perfect fit for Jesus in every way. No heart is too big, no heart is too small. Jesus is the answer. He fits them all. Have a great day. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services. on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.