Tuesday, November 07, 2006
November 5, 2006--That Missing Something....
Note: Post taken from sermon given on date listed above. Post taken from loose outline notes of the pastor. Actual delivered sermon may have varied....No video available, sorry....
Text: 1 John 2:15-17; Romans 12:2; Psalm 63:1
Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all--except in so far as Heaven means meeting again oujr friends who have died. One rason for this difficulty is that we have not beeen trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearsts, would know that they do want, and wanat acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, and we try them. These things, however, never keep their promise. When we fall in love, go on vacation, get a new job, etc. we feel fulfilled but quickly there is something we notice. Something missing. The longings we get are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can really satisfy. There is something we grasped at, that just fades away in the reality of living in a place, sticking to that job, living with that person. The wife mayh be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery in the vacation may have been cool, and the job may be a good one, but something has evaded us. Now there are two wrong ways of dealing with this fact, and one right one.
1. The Fool's Way--This person puts the blame on the things themselves. he goes on all his life thinking that if only he would have tried another woman, or went for a more expensive vacation, or whatever, then, this time, this time, he would really catch the mysterious something we are all after. This person is susceptible to drug abuse, getting that next fix, or other addictions. If only they do this more, or try this, then they will find happiness. This leads down the path to damnation, to bad habits, even with the best of intentions.
2. The Way of the Disillusioned or Sensible Person--He soon decides that the whole thing was moonshine. "fo course," they say, "one feels like that when one's young. But by the time you get to my age you've geven up chasing the rainbow's end." And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much, and represses the part of himself which used, as eh would say, to cry for the moon.....Wow, this is the old fuddyduddy....Now don't go pointing to me yet.....I just look like that, I don't feel like that at all times inside.....heh....
3. The Christian Way, the Right Way----The Christian way says, "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel desire, there is such a thing as fulfilling that. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, then the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures can satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hadn, never to despise, or be unthankful for, thse earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are onlya kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find tilla fter death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main objective of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.
Text: 1 John 2:15-17; Romans 12:2; Psalm 63:1
Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all--except in so far as Heaven means meeting again oujr friends who have died. One rason for this difficulty is that we have not beeen trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearsts, would know that they do want, and wanat acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, and we try them. These things, however, never keep their promise. When we fall in love, go on vacation, get a new job, etc. we feel fulfilled but quickly there is something we notice. Something missing. The longings we get are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can really satisfy. There is something we grasped at, that just fades away in the reality of living in a place, sticking to that job, living with that person. The wife mayh be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery in the vacation may have been cool, and the job may be a good one, but something has evaded us. Now there are two wrong ways of dealing with this fact, and one right one.
1. The Fool's Way--This person puts the blame on the things themselves. he goes on all his life thinking that if only he would have tried another woman, or went for a more expensive vacation, or whatever, then, this time, this time, he would really catch the mysterious something we are all after. This person is susceptible to drug abuse, getting that next fix, or other addictions. If only they do this more, or try this, then they will find happiness. This leads down the path to damnation, to bad habits, even with the best of intentions.
2. The Way of the Disillusioned or Sensible Person--He soon decides that the whole thing was moonshine. "fo course," they say, "one feels like that when one's young. But by the time you get to my age you've geven up chasing the rainbow's end." And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much, and represses the part of himself which used, as eh would say, to cry for the moon.....Wow, this is the old fuddyduddy....Now don't go pointing to me yet.....I just look like that, I don't feel like that at all times inside.....heh....
3. The Christian Way, the Right Way----The Christian way says, "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel desire, there is such a thing as fulfilling that. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, then the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures can satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hadn, never to despise, or be unthankful for, thse earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are onlya kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find tilla fter death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main objective of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.
# posted by Mark : 2:40 PM
