What Do You Pursue?

Now, happiness is defined by one motivational speaker as that period of time that you spend where you’re so engrossed in what you’re doing that you forget about your troubles. That sounded pretty good to me from a minute, and then I thought about it. That’s escapism. That’s living for the weekend. That’s having the wrong motive.

Let me ask you a question. Bottom line, the reason you want to accomplish the goals, the reason you want the money, the reason you have the desires, dreams, and the reason you love people more than you love Christ is because you want to be happy. Am I right on that? Bottom line, I want to be happy. Let’s be honest. Is that it? Yeah.

And that wasn’t what Paul said to pursue. Paul said to pursue contentment. Take the measure of happiness that comes your way, but there’s going to be a measure of sadness as well. It’s how we build character. You won’t learn very many life-changing things from the good things. They’re just fun to experience. The life-changing things come from the hard things.

You’ll seek contentment. He proved it. Romans got him. We’re going to kill you. He said, “Terrific. I’ll be with the Lord.” We’re not going to do that, then. We’re going to torture you. He said, “Wonderful. I’ll identify with the sufferings of Christ. Do it. Just don’t be boring.”

Nope. We’re going to throw you in jail, chain you to a guard, and rotate the guard every four hours. “Marvelous. I’ll win three or four day to the Lord. Do it.” Nope. We’re going to turn you loose. “Great. To live is Christ.”

Folks, what do you do with a guy like that? Anything, because Christ is here. And if you lose anything else on your cone, goals, desires, dreams, people, you’re still okay. But when that goal, desire, dream or that person that’s in your life you love more than Christ and all of a sudden it’s gone, you’re devastated and you’re not okay. When Christ is most important, you get through anything. When he’s not, you won’t get through much at all, because he demands that.

He’ll give it back to you if it won’t enslave you. Do you believe me? Not yet. Okay. Let’s go to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter two. Who had more money than anybody ever had ever?

Solomon.

Solomon. Daddy big bucks. You betcha. He did not take the Wall Street Journal. He was the Wall Street Journal. He was pursuing happiness and he tried all kinds of avenues to figure out what was going to be great in his life. He tried the party life and the queen of Sheba, the original camel jetter, heard about some of his bashes. She jetted 1,200 miles to check him out, and she said, “Sol, baby, you’ve got class like nobody’s got class. You do know how to get down.”

What are the things he tried? Oh two terms you need to know. Vanity of vanity. What it means is bubbles. Looks like there’s something there and… It’s gone. It’s breath. Oh, I’m sorry. It’s breath on a window. There’s something there, but it goes away. Vanity of vanities. Looks like there’s something there, but there’s really nothing there.

Now, chasing after wind. Go outside, cardboard box, scoop up the breeze, come inside, open up the flaps, wait for it to blow your hair back. Exercise in futility. You put the two words together. Vanity of vanity, chasing after wind. It looks like there’s something there. I’m chasing after with great vigor, but doing so is an exercise in futility. Let’s see how he uses it.

Oh, do you think Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes at the beginning, middle or end of his life? End? I don’t think so. Because Solomon didn’t finish well. You ever think about that? He took the problems of his father and turned them into an art form. 1,000 women in his harem, 300 wives, 700 concubine. His dad’s problem, he had a problem with the ladies. Solomon had a problem with the ladies and he finished poorly, with idols back in the land, with him not close to God. How can you write the Bible when you’re not filled with the spirit? Had to be the middle. Had to be the middle.

And so the message is, folks, when you put Christ back up on top of the cone, it’s not a one time fix. It’s the constant process of maintenance to keep him there, or you will never finish well. He writes Ecclesiastes and in chapter 12, he tells us, “When God is in his rightful place, there’s room for everything else.”

Look at what he tried. Chapter two. I said to myself, I’m going to test you with pleasure. That’s verse one. Now he called it futility. Then he said, “Well, I’ll try laughter.” He said, “No, that didn’t accomplish anything.” Verse three. Wine, drugs. He called it folly. That didn’t do it either. Then he tried working real hard and houses and second houses and one up in the mountains and one at the beach, and a good portfolio of investments and a nice retirement plan and gardens and parks and a big house with lots of stuff and ponds of water. Verse six, and lots of slaves and flocks and herds, more than all who preceded him in the Jerusalem, the richest man in the world. This is the richest man in the world.

A little gold, silver and gold, verse eight, just to add to the whole deal. And then the treasurer of kings and provinces. Once you get plenty of money, the next thing you want is political control, clout power. And he had that. And while he did that, he had the pleasures of men, many combines, all the sex he could stand. A thousand women. Kind of boggles the mind, doesn’t it? A thousand.

Verse nine. I became great in increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. He had status and then he had wisdom and verse 10, all my eyes desired, I didn’t refuse him. Unlimited charge card at Nordstrom’s. Except for glamor, that’s the list. Anything that you’re pursuing, anything that’s more important to you than Christ that’s not on that list besides glamor? Verse 11. So I considered my hands, the activities thereof and the labor I had exerted and behold, all was what? Vanity and chasing after wind. I thought there was something there, but there’s nothing there and pursuing it was an exercise in futility and here’s what happens. Remember, drug abuse rate, alcoholism, three times greater per capita than amongst the poor. Verse 17. Do you believe the book? So I what? Hated life until chapter 12 when he figured it out and said, “Ah, so grasshopper.”

With Christ here, there’s room for everything else. I think there’s a new term we ought to have. We used to greet one another with, “How’s your faith?” It’s still a good one, but in this area, a lot of money around here. I think another greeting might be in order. But when you see one of the folks from church across the street tomorrow or the next day, just holler out, “Cone check. Check your cone. What’s on top of your cone right now? Is it Christ? All right. Way to go. No? Oh, fix it right now, before you go on. Cone check.”

Not bad, huh? Oh, let’s do that. Let’s just have a cone check. Set all your stuff down, set all your stuff down. Now, let’s pray. And don’t get excited about leaving. I told you, this is a three parter tonight. We’re just going to pray and then we’re going to stay. And I know that’s real unusual, but we’re going to do that. But let’s pray, and let’s ask God to show us our value system and to plead with him, God, show me if there’s something in my life that’s more important than you. Let’s do that. Let’s pray.

God, you placed in this world system as a place to test our faith, and he gave this place to our enemy, who’s made it very attractive. Lots of glitter. It’s very appealing. So God, we want you on our behalf to come against the enemy for us tonight and scrape off those leeches that have been attached as a result of our pursuits of the world instead of the pursuit of Christ. Take back that ground, recapture those islands, destroy those fortresses, those airstrips, and put the enemy back at a distance where he is just hitting us with fiery darts, not up close battle. And help us now as your holy spirit broods over us and amongst us to do a serious look at ourselves.

I’ll be speaking with my eyes open. You pray with yours closed. Let me give you Solomon’s list and a few others. Is a pursuit of pleasure and happiness more important to you than Christ? Do you live for laughter instead of Christ? You’re hooked on wine or drugs to the point that that’s more important to you than Christ? Are you a type A personality, that your work’s more important than him, your goals are more important than him, your accomplishments are more important? You’re having a tough time. Is paying the rent next month more important, as important as that is?

Some kind of thing in your life that’s more important? If you’re a young person, the car that you think or is going to set you free? Or do you spend more time thinking about a VCR or big screen TV than Christ? You’ve got to go to work and you’ve got to put in your time and you’ve got to do it faithfully and be worth your salt. But do you take Christ with you, or do you park him at home and just kind of visit with him on Sunday and maybe sometimes Wednesday? Do you desire political control over people more than Christ? Maybe your Sunday school class is more important to you than Christ. Or are you with sex? Does that dominate your life? Or are you with status? Is there a person in your life? Do you love your children more than Christ? Do you love your mom or dad more than Christ? Have you developed in your relationship far enough that he’s become more important to you than them? Is the desire to get married more important than Christ? Is your current desire to get a divorce more important than Christ?

Is there anything in your life that’s more important than Christ? If there is, heads bowed, flash your hand for me. Just kind of stick it up. I will admit that. God showed me. I am not questioning your salvation. You understand that. I’m just saying, if you’ve kind of become lukewarm because something’s crept into your life and it’s stealing all that joy, just flash your hand for me. Just kind of up if you haven’t done so yet. Just flash it. I’m one of those. Not questioning your salvation. Just do that little search and let the spirit of God work on you.

And now, would you take that and give it to Jesus? And you, as much as your deceitful heart will allow you to, would you say, “God, here. You take this. If it enslaves me, I would rather be enslaved to you. Don’t let me have it. Now, I can tell you, my heart’s desire is to keep this, and I’d like to be able to, but as honest as I can be, I’d rather you take it and throw it away than have it cause a problem between you and me.”

Now, if you’d like to do that, if you’d like to walk out of here filled with a spirit of God because you willingly, having dealt with the eclairs in your refrigerator, right? No double mindedness, now. If you’d like to give that, that goal, desire, that dream, the pursuit of money, or those individuals that are more important to you than Christ and you’d like to start afresh, would you raise your hand for me? I’d like to do that. I’d like to rearrange my priorities. Just up and down, up and right back down. All my heart. I want my priorities to be right before God. And don’t be like Solomon, now. Don’t walk out of here and don’t think you have to do this again. You’ve got some bad habits, right? You spend an awful lot of time thinking about that, it’s going to be hard to just stop thinking about it, so you’ve got to wean yourself from that and make sure that as you do that, do a little cone check on a regular basis to make sure he’s where he belongs.

Lord God, in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, would you call to the light of the judgment of Christ himself those principalities and powers that have been assigned to harass us because of our weakness, because of our pursuit of the things of the world? We would rather pursue Christ, and because we want that, we trust you to resolve this issue with the enemy. God, thank you for release from enslavement from him and for enslavement with you. We praise in Jesus’ name. All God’s people said…

Amen.