What do you want out of Life?
Philippians 3:12 - 16
July 31, 2011
How many of you have really stopped and asked yourself that question? What if I could have all that life could give me, what would I want?
In Tolstoy’s Man and Dame, Fortune the hero is told he can have the right to all of the land around which he can plow a furrow in a single day. The man started off with great vigor, and was going to encompass only that which he could easily care for. But as the day progressed he desired more and more rights. He plowed and plowed, until at the end of the day he could in no possible way return to his original point of departure, but struggling to do so, he fell, the victim of a heart attack. The only right he secured was the right to 18 square feet of land in which he was buried.
Matthew 6:24
24 “No one can serve two masters. The person will hate one master and love the other, or will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. You cannot serve both God and worldly riches.
If you’re not happy or content have you ever asked yourself why?
Today we live in world where there are more options available to just about everything imaginable. We have become accustomed to constant change, in fact that seems to be the motiving factor behind so many of the objects available for consumer purchase. What is new today will be out dated or at least not as user friendly as it will be tomorrow so you will need to purchase the upgrade to be in style or satisfied.
The really sad thing about having all of these new options constantly available is brand loyalty is not even what it used to be. ABC may invent, but then XYZ makes it better or faster or simply sleeker.
What is happening? Why are people so easily moved from one thing to another?
I think if you look deep enough into the motives behind all of this movement, you will find an emptiness that people are trying to fill.
People have three basic needs that need to be filled on a constant basis; physical, emotional and spiritual. These three areas need to be equally and constantly filled for a person to be balanced and in today’s world it is far from being a reality. Due to this unbalance, we see an increase in hunger, drug use and religion.
Where does this cycle start?
Let’s take a quick look at the three components on what a person needs to be balanced.
Physical Needs
This area entails having food, clothing and shelter for the physical body.
Food for the physical body can cover anything from Honey and locust to Caviar and escargot.
Clothing can be something as simple as fig leaves to designer wear by Gucci.
Shelter can be a cave in the side of a mountain or a marble floored palace.
Emotional Needs
Emotional needs is tied with how we think about ourselves.
How do I think about how I fit in with the norms of the society in which I live?
Am I smart enough, to thin or too fat.
Spiritual Needs
This is how do I fit into this universe?
What’s the purpose of it all?
What’s the purpose for me?
I know that these are very simplistic and very broad statements, but the underlying fact is they all play a role in how we go through life.
I think for the most part we have been going about being satisfied or content all backwards.
Most people spend their waking hours trying to satisfy or making a purpose or meaning out of physical needs. Now I am not saying that meeting physical needs is not necessary, but that we are putting way too much emphasis on it by thinking that by filling this we will ultimately fill our emotional needs, which will in turn fill our Spiritual needs.
When Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, they had all of the best that God could provide and they ended up not being content, why?
Genesis 3:1
1 The snake was more clever than all the wild animals the Lord God had made. He asked the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must never eat the fruit of any tree in the garden’?”
They were not satisfied for lack of contents or things, but when they had stopped believing in God and His word.
As a result of this lack of trust, God turned them over to having them fend for themselves, they had made themselves god. Because they felt they knew better, God in essence set out to prove to them that they did not really know all that much.
16 He said to the woman,
“I will increase your pain and your labor when you give birth to children.
Yet, you will long for your husband, and he will rule you.”
17 Then he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree, although I commanded you, ‘You must never eat its fruit.’ The ground is cursed because of you. Through hard work you will eat ⌊food that comes⌋ from it every day of your life.
18 The ground will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat wild plants.
19 By the sweat of your brow, you will produce food to eat until you return to the ground, because you were taken from it. You are dust, and you will return to dust.”
23 So the Lord God sent the man out of the Garden of Eden to farm the ground from which the man had been formed.
This lack of trust in God, has forced man to trust in his own ingenuity to find so called satisfaction and God says that this will be futile.
Why does life become Futile?
Genesis 2:15 - 16
15 Then the Lord God took 4the man and put him in the garden of Eden to 5tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
It became futile because in essence we became dead, not in a physical sense but in a spiritual sense, because we became separated from Life itself, God.
Ever since this time, we have been trying to fill this spiritual void that only God can fill.
Life is more than physical
Genesis 2:7
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Job 34:14 - 15
14 If He should set His heart on it, If He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, 15All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust.
We all have a choice in how we want to live. Every single one of us will face our own unique set of challenges and circumstances based on the decisions we make. This internal struggle can seem overwhelming at times.
An old American Indian tale recounts the story of a chief who was telling a gathering of young braves about the struggle within. "It is like two dogs fighting inside of us," the chief told them. "There is one good dog who wants to do the right and the other dog always wants to do the wrong. Sometimes the good dog seems stronger and is winning the fight. But sometimes the bad dog is stronger and wrong is winning the fight."
"Who is going to win in the end?" a young brave asks.
The chief answered "The one you feed."
Paul explains internal struggle this way in Romans 7:18 - 24
18 For I know that nothing good dwells ain me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
This internal struggle is nothing new to mankind especially since the fall back in the Garden of Eden.
So just how does one go about dealing with this struggle in life?
If we want to have meaning in life we need to change our focus from physical satisfaction and contentment to a spiritual one. In essence we need to get connected once again with our Creator, the one who holds like.
Let’s take a look at life’s flow.
John 6:57
57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Galatians 5:25
25If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.
So just how does one get to live by the Spirit?
It starts when we realize that we have been living an empty and futile life, a life void of God. When we realize that it is our sinful nature that has caused this separation and there is nothing we can do to correct it but to turn back to the one we have strayed from.
All God is asking for us to do is repent; admit that we are a sinner
And then to be baptized for the remission of our sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that will truly give us what we want , Life.
1375 Immortality Necessary
Otto Von Bismarck, (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) speaking with Andrew White, (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918 our ambassador to Germany, said of immortality: “I do not doubt it, even for a moment. This life is too sad, too incomplete, to satisfy our highest aspirations and desires. It is meant to be a struggle to ennoble us. Can the struggle be in vain? I think not. Final perfection, I believe in, a perfection which God has in store for us.”
—C. E. Macartney