Martin Luther

Search and examine your own heart thoroughly and you will find whether or not it
clings to God alone. Do you have the kind of heart that expects from him nothing
but good, especially in distress and want, and renounces and forsakes all that is
not God? Then you have the one true God. On the contrary, does your heart cling
to something else, from which it hopes to receive more good and help than from
God, and does it flee not to him but from him when things go wrong? Then you
have an idol, another god.

--Martin Luther

Satisfaction: The pursuit of happiness

Truth: People want to be happy, satisfied, and experience pleasure.

But most people's means to this end is WEAK.

Examples:

• I sought pleasure in soccer, and athletics--convincing myself that praise because of success would satisfy my craving to be known
• I witness friends drinking night after night to the point of sickness
• I witness friends smoking, getting high and enjoying that
• I hear people frustrated that they have not made out with anyone for X amount of time, and it has been "too long."... "I just wanna make out with someone!"
• I see people pursue happiness in academic success, "worshiping" their goals to a point where they cut off even friends from their life
• I have witnessed people become so in love with their meals, and food that their life is dictated by restaurants and "snack times"
• I have seen in myself, an attitude of idolizing friendships or role models to the point of extreme disappointment when that person fails me (which is a given!)
• I have witnessed people's display of extreme patriotism, investing all--or none--of their trust in a national figure...pledging allegiance first and foremost to this country
• I have seen the love of money consume people: buying, spending--this feeds almost each of these other things: food, clothing, beauty
• Sex... in any form: out of marriage, with a guy, or a girl, over the internet... people are experimenting more and more. More $$ is spent on pornography each year than Pro baseball, football and basketball combined
  
• I grew up with hundreds of girls who seek to be "beautiful" in their appearance--including myself--buying the right brands, having the right hair cut, being tan, and being skinny.
• American dream: get a job, have a family, get a dog, retire... then move to Florida and collect sea shells
  

These are just a few examples of our common pursuit of happiness. Yet each one is WEAK.

"Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”--C.S. Lewis

We are far too easily pleased with these weak actions to satisfy our craving for enjoyment.

>>ONLY GOD HAS THE CAPACITY TO SATISFY US<<>>We EXIST to "GLORIFY GOD BY ENJOYING HIM FOREVER" (Piper)<< When you come to see JESUS CHRIST as the treasure that He actually is, all of these previously stated things that we all pursue to please us... seem like "dung".

Why drink muddy, toxin infested water as your only nourishment--that will surely lead to death

when you are OFFERED THE MOST PURE, SATISFYING, NEVER ENDING FOUNTAIN OF CLEAR WATER for your ENJOYMENT--that gives you life?

Why make mud pies in a slum when you're offered a holiday at the sea?

Jesus Christ is serious about your happiness, and that is why He died on the cross to pay the penalty for Sin--so that, you may know true joy and total satisfaction.

He is not a temporary "numbing" sensation, like getting drunk or getting high, HE IS ETERNALLY GOD, the "bread of life"... if you drink the water he gives you will "never thirst again."

He doesn't get boring. Knowing Him only gets more exciting--if it doesn't--it is not a reflection on Him, but on us--the half-hearted creatures...fooling about with all these other created things that we think will make us happy.

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

ENJOY GOD. to do so, IS INDEED THE HIGHEST PLEASURE.

Philippians 1:19-23

it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

When Jesus Christ is your treasure, DEATH IS GAIN. This world and its "pleasures" fade in comparison to the enjoyment found in Jesus Christ.

Turn from "weak" attempts to satisfy yourself--and enjoy God forever!