The Gods That Never Satisfy

Dr. Jeff Schreve: No one does things that they think will make them unhappy. Nobody is on a pursuit of unhappiness. But we make decisions all the time thinking they're going to make us happy and they make us so unhappy. Now why is that? Why do people who are given life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, why do we pursue things that make us so unhappy? I think it's because we forget as a nation, as people, we forget that happiness is linked with God. You cannot be happy if you divorce yourself from God.
Guest (Male): Way back in 2013, there was an extremely popular song that you've likely heard by the artist Pharrell Williams. It was called Happy from the popular movie Despicable Me 2. Now some of the words include this phrase: "My level's too high to bring me down. Can't nothing bring me down, I said." Well, it's an infectious song, without a doubt. But real happiness from God is also, without a doubt, infectious. So today on From His Heart, Pastor Jeff Schreve is going to share some happy with us all. It's a happy that won't let us be brought down. If you miss part of this lesson or any from this month, please visit us online at fromhisheart.org and click the listen link to catch up. Open your Bible now to Psalm 33 as he begins to explain the benefits of the pursuit of happiness.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: In the Declaration of Independence, the second sentence is the most famous sentence of all. It has been called the most potent and consequential words in American history. It only has 35 words. It's been called one of the most well-crafted sentences in the history of the English language. "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 truths are self-evident, they said. Anybody knows this. It just comes when you are born into this earth, God gives you this knowledge and you can't take this away: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I've been thinking about that, the pursuit of happiness. You know, the founders did not say that you were granted happiness. They said you were granted the freedom to pursue happiness. You think about that, how that's the way people are in America. They do things to make them happy. They make decisions to make them happy what they think will make them happy. No one does things that they think will make them unhappy. Nobody is on a pursuit of unhappiness. Are they? Do you know anybody like that? They stay up late at night thinking what can I do to wreck and ruin my life? What can I do, what decision could I make that would really cause me anguish and grief and pain? Nobody lives like that. But we make decisions all the time thinking they're going to make us happy and they make us so unhappy. Now why is that? Why do people who are given life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, why do we pursue things that make us so unhappy? I think it's because we forget as a nation, as people, we forget that happiness is linked with God. You cannot be happy if you divorce yourself from God. Psalm 33, verse 12 says, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Blessed, that word in the Hebrew is "esher". It means to be happy. Blessed, happy is the nation whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144, verse 15: "How blessed, how happy are the people who are so situated. How blessed and happy are the people whose God is the Lord." That's a foundational truth. If you want to pursue happiness, you're never going to find it if you divorce yourself from God. Now, how are you doing in your pursuit of happiness? How are we doing as a nation? Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. How happy do you think our nation is on a scale of one to ten? Now you read in the newspaper, it's disaster after disaster after disaster. It's economic disaster, it's natural disaster, it's wildfires, it's hurricanes and storms and tornadoes and all these terrible, horrible things. Crime and things that were unheard of 50 years ago. Now we're hearing about these terrible, horrible things and those things don't produce happiness. So how are you doing in your pursuit of happiness? I want to share with us today two ways that people go about trying to pursue happiness. And remember, we're in this series, "Do You Want To Be Blessed?" and the idea of blessing in the scripture is happiness is tied in and rooted into that, for the Hebrew word "esher" means happiness. In the New Testament, the word blessed means happy. Happy. And God wants to pour out His favor upon His people. God wants to do great things. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Two ways that you can go. Way number one: many people are pursuing happiness in another god. In another god. Blessed is the nation, blessed are the people whose God is the Lord, and you could easily say and cursed are the people whose God is not the Lord. The Bible says in Psalm 16, verse 4, "The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied." God tells us that right up front. Hey, if you go after another god, your sorrows are going to be multiplied. Am I going to find happiness if I go after another god? God says, "Oh no, you won't. The sorrow, you'll find sorrow, you'll find pain and trouble, but you're not going to find happiness." And so see, this is what's so funny. People make decisions and they're on this thing called the pursuit of happiness because they want to be happy. No one, nobody wants to be miserable, but they make decisions and they, as the prodigal son did, they leave the father and they go out searching for happiness. And what do they find? They find a pigsty. The sorrows of those who have bartered for another god will be multiplied. They will be great and many. Now what are the other gods that people so often leave the true God for? What are the other gods that we have? Well, there's the god of money. The god of money will not, cannot make you happy. And I think that if we were just honest today, we would say the god of all gods in America, the American idol, is money. It's money. And people think that money will make them happy. I dare say that many people listening on the radio, they are thinking this in their minds. You know, I have all these problems and all these things could be solved if I just had more money. I'm unhappy today because I have this problem and that problem and the other problem. If I just won the lottery, all my troubles would go away, I'd be happy. Why? Because money will make me happy. That's what they think. Money will not make you happy. Take it from King Solomon, who had more money than you could possibly imagine. He had so much money, he makes Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, you put them together and they're street paupers compared to Solomon. King Solomon had so much wealth. And he said this: "Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness." Wealth doesn't bring happiness. You know what wealth can do? Wealth can buy you a $2,000 penthouse suite in the nicest hotel that you can find, but it can't provide you a good night's sleep. Money can buy you a million-dollar wedding, but it can't buy you lasting love in your marriage. Money can provide you with financial security, but it can't buy you peace. It can provide you with material goods, but it can't buy you contentment. Money is just so limited. So many people serve the god of money. Do you serve that god? You know, the very first commandment of the Ten Commandments, the Lord says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the house of slavery, out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before Me." No other gods alongside of Me, no other gods crowding in to take first place. And so many people, they do and that god is money. Do you know why Jesus talked more about money than heaven or hell? It's because that's the false god that most people cling to and go after. Jesus said, "You can't serve God and riches." It won't work and if you're letting that god determine how, the decisions you make, if everything's based on money, you get somebody that offers you a job and you'd have to move from here and what's the first thing? How much money does it pay? Well, this job pays more than that job. So you know, everything, money, money, money. You're like Thurston Howell, it's just constantly in your mind, all you ever thinking about is money. Money, money, money. The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. Hey, our nation, we go after the god of money. And as my friend Isaac Petri said, people in America, they vote color. They vote green. They vote money. Whoever is going to help them financially, that's the one they vote for. They sacrifice all their values because it's all about money. And that's how so many people vote. I love what Benjamin Franklin said. He said this: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." Boy, if you cast a vote because you say, well, I've got to vote for my god and my god is money and you sacrifice values for money, you're not going to have the values or the money because riches aren't going to make you happy. Furthermore, the scripture says in Proverbs 11, verse 4, "Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death." Man, you can cling to this false god, the god of money, hoping, thinking it'll make you happy. It won't make you happy. And when the tough times come and when disaster comes and when the day of wrath comes, what do riches do?
Guest (Male): Pastor Jeff Schreve will explore more about the power of the pursuit of happiness if you're pursuing the right things. You know, one of the greatest legacies that you can leave your children and grandchildren and all your friends and family is having them remember that you brought happiness into their life. A legacy of happiness is important. Have you considered what kind of legacy you want to leave? Earlier this month, we aired Pastor Jeff's powerful series, "Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel", where one of the lessons taught us the greatest truth in the Bible, and that is this: that God answers prayer. Hannah was unable to conceive and as she prayed to the Lord for a son, she vowed to dedicate him to God all the days of his life. And the Lord answered her prayer by giving her Samuel, and Hannah followed through on her promise. In this series, Pastor Jeff looks at the powerful story of Hannah and many others to remind us of the eternal impact faithful dedication to God and obedience to His command can have on the next generation. This "Leaving a Legacy" series is available on USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or an immediate MP3 download when you make your gift to From His Heart this month of any amount. To get your copy of this resource, call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go online to fromhisheart.org and mention the series, "Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel". And we'll send it to you with our deepest appreciation and thanks for helping us produce and distribute these messages each day around the world. God bless you. Now back to part one of today's lesson, "The Pursuit of Happiness".
Dr. Jeff Schreve: How many people in here ever saw the blockbuster movie Titanic? Did you see that movie? I mean, it was huge. There's a part in that movie that I thought was so powerful. It's toward the end, the Titanic has hit the iceberg and Rose's fiancé, who is a wealthy guy but a nasty guy, he realizes pretty quickly that hey, there's not enough boats and I've got to save my hide and I've got to get on a boat. So he calls the captain of the bridge, the officer of the bridge, his name was Murdoch, and there's a little scene where he puts a big wad of money in his pocket and says, "I need to get on one of those boats. We have a deal, right?" And then as they are letting women and children only on the few boats that they had because they didn't have enough for everybody, here comes this guy Cal Hockley was his name, this big shot who had all this money, and he was trying to get on a boat and Murdoch says, "No, you can't get on. Women and children." And he says, "We had a deal!" And Murdoch takes the money out of his pocket and throws it at him and he says these words, "Your money can't save you any more than it can save me." Hey, what good is money when the ship is going down? It doesn't matter. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath. The god of money can't make you happy, the god of money can't deliver, and so many people follow that god. Do you follow that god? Is that what you're seeking to make you happy? How about this god? How about the god of success and achievement? So many people follow that god, thinking that's going to make them happy. The god of success can't make you happy. I mean, if you climb the corporate ladder, if you get that job, if you somehow become famous and everybody knows your name, is that going to make you happy? Have you ever watched some of these shows, biography and different things where people become very famous and everyone knows who they are? What do they do? When they go out in public, they wear a hat, they wear dark glasses, they wear scarves, they try and hide themselves. They are constantly talked about in the tabloids. Do they like all the fame? Not all it's cracked up to be. Solomon achieved a lot. He achieved incredible amount of things. He worked hard and this is what he said in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. He said, "But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless, like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere." Oh, but Solomon, you'd achieved so much! Look at all the parks and gardens and look at the temple that you built and look at your palace that you built. He said, "Yeah, it's just, just meaningless. It's just meaningless, this achievement, this success." Boris Becker was the great tennis player of the 80s and 90s. Boris Becker won six Grand Slams. He won Wimbledon when he was 17 years old, the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon. 17 years old. He said that here he was, this time in his life, he had won Wimbledon at this time twice. And he said, "I was rich and I had all the material things I needed, but I was on the brink of suicide. I was so unhappy and had no inner peace." Wow, so successful, so famous, and rich, and he was ready to kill himself because he was so unhappy. That won't make you happy. Jack Higgins, the author of the book The Eagle Has Landed, was asked this question: What would you have liked to have learned when you were a boy? And he said this, "I wish someone had told me when you get to the top, there's nothing there." Wow. It's meaningless. You go after the god of success and what do you find? Nothing. It's empty. And so many people, they barter for another god, the god of money, the god of success. Or how about this one? The god of pleasure. Oh, it's just all about pleasure, it's all about satisfying my appetite, it's all about hedonism and just going for it. Whatever your eye wants to do, that's what you do. And Solomon did that. Man, he went for it. You talk about pleasure, he went for it. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Don't get the idea he had porcupines. He had concubines, those were girlfriends. What does he say about all the pleasure? Ecclesiastes 2:1: "I said to myself, 'Come on, let's try pleasure, let's look for the good things in life.'" But I found that this too was meaningless. It's not about pleasure. I mean, the Bible talks about the passing pleasures of sin. So many people sell their soul for pleasure. They get involved in drugs, they get involved in alcohol, they get involved in illicit sex thinking that that somehow is going to satisfy and fill their heart. It won't. You know what that stuff does? It just leaves you ashamed. It leaves you, you're just covered in the slimy fingerprints of sin and shame and you begin, especially in the area of sexual promiscuity, you begin to just hate yourself for those things. It's not going to make you happy. And you know why? It's because you were made by God. You were made by God and for God. And that's why you can't be happy in any of the false gods, in any of those things that we think are so important that we just have to have, any of those things that take the rightful place of the true God. Augustine said this: "Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." Because God made us for Himself. I love what Dwight L. Moody said, the great preacher of the 1800s. He said, "You can take the whole world and concentrate it down into a pitcher and pour it into a man's heart, the whole world, and that heart will still be empty." Why? Because that cannot satisfy. So many people pursuing happiness in another god. But now hey, there's a second way. There's an opportunity here. You and I can pursue happiness in the true God. And I want you to see what Psalm 33 says about the true God, the Lord God. Verse 6: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap, He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast. The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations, He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance." You want to pursue happiness, the pursuit of happiness? Then pursue the true God. And the true God is the Creator God. That's what the scripture says in verse 6: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made." They were created and by the breath of His mouth all their host. God is Creator. And how did God create? He didn't do it through billions of years of evolution as the scientists will tell us. He did it just as He says, by the word of His mouth. By the breath of His mouth. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and how did He do it? He said, "Let there be light" and there was light. He just spoke it into existence. God is a God of incredible, unbelievable, mind-blowing, unfathomable power because He can just create. As one black preacher said, "God stepped on a platform of nothing behind a curtain of nowhere and spoke worlds into existence." God has such incredible power. And you know what that says to you and to me? It's an encouragement from the Lord to get in this book because this book is the word of God and the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It's living, it's active, it's quick, it's powerful. There's power in the word of God. And in your situation, whatever it might be today, however you might be hurting today, whatever problems you're facing today, God can speak a word to your situation and turn it around.
Guest (Male): When God tells us how that by His word the heavens were made, it's much more than just listing that fact. It gives us hope and confidence that He's in control over every facet of our life, no matter the problems we go through. Today's lesson is called "The Pursuit of Happiness" and it's from Pastor Jeff's series, "Do You Want To Be Blessed? How To Experience The Goodness of God". You can find out more about this series when you go to fromhisheart.org, click the listen link. Now a special invitation to you from Pastor Jeff Schreve.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hi, Pastor Jeff here and I'm excited to announce that we'll be going to Israel in 2027. Our trip is set for April 2nd through the 11th and we would love for you to join us as we walk where Jesus walked. Hey, this is truly the trip of a lifetime as the sacred places you've only read about will now be seen up close and in full color. You can find out all the details by going to our website fromhisheart.org and follow the link titled "Holy Land 2027". I look forward to having you with us for this awesome experience in the land of Israel.
Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor. Again, we hope you might be able to join Pastor Jeff and Debbie next year on this magnificent journey. Just go to fromhisheart.org for more details. Well, our time has slipped away, but we want to invite you to join Pastor Jeff tomorrow for part two of the poignant lesson about the pursuit of happiness. Join us on Wednesday when we'll again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.