Treasure in Earthen Vessels, part 2

Sermon Notes

Saturday, July 19, 2008 & Sunday, July 20, 2008

Rev. Jim O’Neal, Senior Pastor

Sun Lakes United Methodist Church

9248 E. Riggs Road, Sun Lakes, Arizona 85248

(480) 895-8766

 

II Corinthians 4:13-18 NRSV

13But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture — “I believed, and so I spoke” — we also believe, and so we speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence.  15Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  16So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

 

A.  Introduction

    1.  Psychology Today

        a.  A few years ago the editors of the magazine PSYCHOLOGY TODAY sent questionnaires to fifty-two thousand subscribers in an effort to determine what makes people happy.  The responses were somewhat confusing.  One subscriber wrote back and asked to see the results of the survey.  He queried, “I think I’m happy.  Would you please verify?”

        b.  If you have to ask, you probably are not happy.  Happiness and meaning elude a lot of people.

    2.  II Corinthians 4:6, 13-18

        a.  Again this week, I remind us that Second Corinthians, chapter four offers us hope.  Yes life is not always easy.  And like clay pots or earthen vessels we humans know the pain of brokenness, and realize just how fragile life can be.  Yet God’s promise is there:  “God once said, ‘Let the light shine out of the darkness!’  And this is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts.  He gave us light by letting us know the glory of God that is in the face of Christ.” (II Corinthians 4:6 ICB)

        b.  There is hope for us.  It is not far off.  It is as near as our hearts.  Through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, God’s glory, meaning, purpose and joy are offered to us.  Indeed it is only in contact with the “eternal” as today’s Scripture puts it that we find true joy. (See II Corinthians 4:17-18)  “Trusting God to care for us… We know that the same God who brought Jesus back from death will also bring us back to life again with Jesus.”  We will receive “God’s richest blessings upon us forever and ever!  We look forward to the joys in heaven… the joys that will last forever.”  (Excerpts from II Corinthians 4:13,14,17 & 18 LB)  Ultimately, happiness has to do with turning to God and being in relationship with the Almighty.  Today, I conclude this two part sermon series discussing the treasure of happiness. 

 

B.  You cannot by yourself find the treasure of happiness.

 

    1.  Peanut Butter Sandwich

        a.  Joe and Ed worked together at the same warehouse.  Every Noon they sat at a crude table on the loading dock and ate their lunches.  Joe would open his lunch box each day and first remove the sandwich.  Then he would carefully examine it to see what kind it was.  Invariably, if it was peanut butter, he would throw it away.  Any other kind he always ate.  One day Ed asked, “Joe, how long have you been married?”  Joe said, “Twelve years.”  Ed went on, “You’ve been married twelve years, and your wife still doesn’t know you don’t like peanut butter?”  Joe responded defensively, “You leave my wife out of this.  I make these sandwiches myself.”

        b.  Like Joe and the sandwiches he disliked, on our own when we strive to find happiness we fail.  Others cannot make us happy and neither can we obtain happiness on our own and by our self.

 

    2.  Lost in the Cosmos

        a.  In the book LOST IN THE COSMOS, author and scientist Walter Percy says, “Why is it possible to learn more in ten minutes about the Crab Nebula in Tarsus, which is 6,000 light years away, than you presently know about yourself, even though you’ve been stuck with yourself all your life?”

        b.  We humans struggle with issues such as “Who am I?”  We, also, struggle to know our likes, and what and how to be happy.  And while each of us must make our own journey into our own hearts seeking this thing called happiness the truth is on our own we fail.

 

    3.  The Placement Service

        a.  In the short film THE PLACEMENT SERVICE a group of people find themselves in the lobby of a Placement Service.  They at first simply think it is a place to help them find a new job.  However, as the film unveils you soon realize that this is that spiritual place where people after they die get their final placement.  Even if they have lived a bad life, or they lack faith in the Lord, Doctor Peter Gates still gives them an option:  They can choose the Founder or “Suite I” where they are guaranteed complete isolation.  One “never do well” confesses his failures and acknowledges that he needs God.  Indeed he realizes that without God he has no hope or meaning for his life.  A greedy businessman chooses himself.  He states, “I’m a self made man.  I don’t need anybody else.  I don’t need your Founder.  As the song says, ‘I did it my way.’”  He gets his request and enters “Suite I” where he will spend eternity with only himself.  He soon learns that this is not Heaven.

        b.  God did not make us to be alone.  God made us for relationships with others.  And God made us to be in relationship with God.  When we seek anything on our own without the divine connection, we fail.  This is certainly true concerning the pursuit of happiness. 

 

C.  Ultimately you can only find the treasure of happiness by looking up! 

 

    1.  Stained Glass Window  (Barbara Brokhoff, BITTER SWEET RECOLLECTIONS, CSS Publishing, 1983)

        a.  One Christmas season a cab driver in Charlotte, North Carolina picked up a man with a desperate look on his face.  The fellow asked to be taken to the corner of Providence Road and Queens Road.  He then commanded the cabbie to stop.  Then he just sat there, for a long time, with the meter running.  The man said nothing, just sat staring.  Finally, the fellow asked to be dropped off at a certain intersection, then paid and tipped the driver.  The next night the incident was repeated.  The third night it was once again the same thing.  The man seemed even more desperate and pathetic.  This time the cab driver noticed that there was a supermarket and drugstore across the way, and he thought there must be a lot of cash in there during the busy Christmas season.  “Maybe,” the cabbie thought, “the guy is casing the place for a big robbery.”  So the driver said to the man in the back of the cab, “I need some cigarettes, I’ll be right back.”  While he was over at one of the stores, the cab driver called the police and told them the story.  The police got there in a big hurry and asked the man why he sat night after night at this particular corner.  The man pointed to the window of the Myers Park United Methodist Church.  It is a beautiful back lit stained glass window.  The man said, “I’ve never had much religion.  I don’t even know how to pray.  My wife is very sick, and the hospital tells me she’s real bad.  But then I found this window.  Something about its light gives me strength and peace, and somehow looking at it I have the words to pray.”

        b.  We find hope looking up to God.  We, also, find inner peace and joy in turning to God.

 

    2.  Augustine of Hippo

        a.  Augustine of Hippo that great Church father and theologian once said this concerning our relationship with God:  “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”

        b.  It is only in relationship to God that we can find true happiness.  It is only when we fill that God shaped void in our own heart with the indwelling Spirit of God that we find inner peace and joy.

 

    3.  Psalm 16:11

        a.  King David in Psalm 16 put it this way:  “You show me the path of life.  In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11 NRSV)

        b.  Ultimately, you can only find the treasure of happiness, the fullness of joy from being in the presence of God.

 

D.  And finally, the treasure of happiness is sustained by reaching out!

    1.  Youth Group Work Team

        a.  This week, I added one more point to this message on happiness.  I have fond memories of my time as a Youth Pastor back in the 1970’s.  We could have as many as one-hundred “kids” attending UMYF on a Sunday night.  And we often took fifty or more young people on special outings such as to camp or on a work team.  One work team was with the Sierra Service Project.  We went to northern California and worked on a Native American Reservation winterizing the homes of the elderly.  We got up early and worked hard all day.  The young people through car washes, bake sales, a Rent-a-Kid program, and other events raised all the money needed to pay for the trip and the construction supplies we needed to insulate homes.  The young people were even patient with a couple of young Native Americans who thought we were just one more group getting paid by the Federal government to work on the Reservation.  When these young Native Americans found out we paid for it all ourselves and were volunteering our labor we won them over to the project and made some good friends.

        b.  Later toward the end of the year when we were evaluating our various youth programs and planning for a new year, we asked the teens, “What was the most fun thing we did this year?”  Over and over again we heard:  “Water World, the dances, and our trip to Sea World were fun, but we got the most happiness, the most joy from our Work Team helping other people.”  There is something about sharing a kindness or doing a good deed that sustains and enhances our joy.

    2.  Albert Schweitzer

        a.  This past week a quote by Albert Schweitzer kept popping into my head.  I finally figured out that God was telling me something concerning the treasure of happiness.  The quote is this:  “I don’t know what your destiny in this life will be, but one thing of which I am sure.  The only ones of you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found a way to serve.”

        b.  Without God there is no inner joy.  However, joy can only be maintained by sharing that loving Spirit of Jesus with others.  It makes sense.  A mean spirited and selfish heart is not the place where the loving Spirit of the Lord wants to dwell.  On the other hand, anyone filled with God’s Spirit, who has an ongoing relationship with the loving Creator is certainly a person who does good and kindly things for their neighbors.

    3.  John 15:11-12

        a.  Jesus said the same thing:  “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My commandment is this:  love one another, just as I love you.” (John 15:11-12 TEV)

        b.  We sustain the joy of Jesus in our hearts by sharing that joy with others.

 

E.  Conclusion 

    1.  Last Week, we shared these truths concerning happiness:

        a.  The treasure of happiness is not somewhere “out there.”

        b.  The treasure of happiness is inside of you!

    2.  This Sunday, we shared these truths concerning how to find the treasure of happiness:

        a.  You cannot by yourself find the treasure of happiness.

        b.  Ultimately you can only find the treasure of happiness by looking up!

        c.  And finally, the treasure of happiness is sustained by reaching out!

 

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

 

1.  The treasure of happiness is not somewhere “out there.”

 

2.  The treasure of happiness is inside of you!

 

3.  You cannot by yourself find the treasure of happiness.

 

4.  Ultimately you can only find the treasure of happiness by looking up!

 

5.  And finally, the treasure of happiness is sustained by reaching out!

 

II Corinthians 4:13-18 NRSV

13But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture — “I believed, and so I spoke” — we also believe, and so we speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence.  15Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  16So we do not lose heart.  Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.