Vision Series 2023

I have been put under strict instructions not to sing, not to dance or even attempt

to air guitar this morning.

Much as it would bring no satisfaction to my family, I'm sure it would to you, I'm convinced.

It would be great if you could turn to your St Paul's app if you've got it in front of

you and get an outline for today's talk and to keep the Bibles open at John 6 and Ecclesiastes

2.

I think I mentioned before, there was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald a number of years

ago now.

In fact, it was 2015.

It was just before, this is pre-COVID, right?

And the article was titled Cheer Up Sydney.

Sydney.

The article suggested that Sydneysiders possessed a legendary preference for complaint.

Things like the cost of living, I mean, it was a lengthy article, cost of living, traffic,

housing affordability, the most pressing concerns.

That's, again, before COVID.

And for some, it was just the general frustration with the pace and the stress of life.

Now, ironically, this is also mentioned in the article, ironically, Sydney is regarded,

it was ranked, regularly ranked among the top 10 livable cities in the world by reputable

things like the Economist Intelligence Unit.

And so one of the conclusions in the article by psychologist Susie Green, who's the CEO of

the Sydney Positivity Institute, said that Sydneysiders have got plenty of reasons to cheer

up.

And so this is a quote from her.

We live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

We aren't living in a war-torn country.

In other words, cheer up, Sydney.

It's not Ukraine.

That's kind of the conclusion.

Sense of satisfaction is from the circumstances around us right now.

You should be happy.

You should be content.

You should be satisfied because the circumstances in which you live call for you to be happy.

So just cheer up.

So what happens if the circumstances aren't lining up?

Is there no place for contentment at that point?

Is it possible to have deep satisfaction in life that isn't based on circumstances?

Now, I want to say yes.

I want to say Jesus is all about satisfaction.

If you just joined us right now, if you're just connecting online for the first time or

you just joined us in the building for the first time, we are partway through our annual

vision series.

The first week of this series laid the foundation, if you like.

We saw that there is no 100% watertight argument for the existence of God.

You can't prove it as an experiment.

You can't stick it in a laboratory and prove it empirically.

But neither is there 100% watertight argument for the non-existence of God.

You can't prove that by experiment either.

So both the religious person and even the atheist views the world through a system of belief.

Every single person views the world through a system of belief.

So which belief system delivers the best solution to what every human being needs to flourish in life?

And today, I want to look briefly at is it possible to have a satisfaction in life that is so deep,

deep enough to endure even the most difficult circumstances in life?

So let's get going.

First of all, can't get no satisfaction.

I've had that song from 1965, Rolling Stones, can't get no satisfaction, rolling around in my head all week.

And I've tried, and I've tried, and I've tried, and I can't get it out.

In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt looks at the history

of both Eastern and Western thought to see how people approach the issue of satisfaction in life.

So he scanned the centuries, if you like.

And he concluded that the consensus of the ancient philosophers and sages of time,

that even if all the deepest desires of success and love are fulfilled, it won't be enough.

Eastern and Western thought.

You get everything you possibly can, and it still won't be enough.

A person will still be deeply, deeply dissatisfied.

He even quotes from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes chapter 2, which we just read out.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in all of their toil,

because that's it.

There's nothing else.

And yet that satisfaction that Ecclesiastes 2 is talking about will still elude you anyway.

A little earlier in the chapter, the writer describes a life of success,

a life of accomplishments and pleasure that very few in our world would ever experience.

I undertook great projects.

I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.

I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces.

I acquired male and female singers and a harem as well, the delights of a man's heart.

I denied myself nothing that my eyes desired.

Very few can ever say that in life.

I denied myself nothing that my eyes desired.

Then in verse 17, we read, I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.

And all of it is meaningless.

A chasing after wing.

Again, verse 20.

My heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.

So the author of Ecclesiastes, and I think this is a real crucial point.

The author of Ecclesiastes wasn't just battling the fear of meaninglessness.

He was battling the disappointment of success.

There is a very weak correlation between wealth, fame, success, and satisfaction.

But this, of course, is not just an ancient problem.

It's a modern problem too.

Cynthia Heimel, a columnist for the Village Voice in New York, knew a few, three particularly, but probably a bit more than that, great celebrities in the 1980s.

Big celebrities who weren't big celebrities but became big celebrities.

And she knew them before they became big celebrities.

And this is what she wrote about the success and fame and what it did to them.

I pity celebrities.

No, I really do.

Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Barbara Streisand, she knew them all.

Were once perfectly pleasant human beings.

But now their wrath is awful.

I think when God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on you, he grants you your deepest wish and then laughs merrily when you realize that you want to kill yourself.

You see, Sly, Bruce, and Barbara wanted fame.

They worked.

They pushed.

That giant thing that they were striving for, that fame thing that was going to make everything okay, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and happiness, had happened to them and still, and they were still them.

The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable.

Wealth, power, achievement, family, material comfort, security, the external goods of the world can only lead to a momentary satisfaction which fades away.

And later on in the article, in the words of Cynthia Hemel, fades away, leaving you emptier than if you had never tasted it in the first place.

Emptier.

C.S. Lewis sort of summarized the idea of the ancients in his BBC radio program during World War II.

Most people, if they really learn how to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want 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, but they never keep their promise.

The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love or first think of some foreign country or first take up some subject that excites us are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can really satisfy.

I'm not speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages or trips or so on.

I'm speaking about the very best possible ones.

There is always something that we grasp at in that first moment of longing that just fades away into reality.

The spouse may be a good spouse.

The scenery may be excellent.

It has turned out to be a good job, but it, the it, still evades us.

So what happens when we discover the successes and desires in life don't give us the satisfaction that we hope for?

There are really two basic ways over history that people have sought to deal with their dissatisfaction.

The traditional way is to live with the conviction that there is no it out there to be got, and that is the sense that deep satisfaction is in fact not possible in life.

The modern way is to live with the modern way is to live life assuming that deep satisfaction is possible and it is out there and that it can be got.

And so the Sylvester Stallone's and the Barbra Streisand's, well, they just missed something.

The traditional ways to include that our expectations of the world are out of line and our desires need to be suppressed.

And so there are three ways to live if that's the case for you.

Firstly, it's altruism.

You start out in life seeking advancement, but this thing called a midlife crisis hits, and you discover it is all dissatisfying.

And so you turn away from it into social causes, basically seeking the advancement of others for their satisfaction.

Now, of course, I want to encourage those things, but problems can soon arise when people turn to benevolence, social activism, as a way to find more fulfillment for themselves.

The irony of that.

The poor and the vulnerable get exploited to improve my satisfaction in life.

It's about me, not about them.

Secondly, cynicism.

This is where a person just lowers their expectation of life.

But what makes us human beings is, in fact, that we want joy.

We want meaning.

We want fulfillment.

And if we decide that that's not possible, our hearts become hard and we dehumanize ourselves.

And thirdly is detachment.

This is the suggestion not to love anything or hope for anything too much.

Cynicism moves to detachment.

Cynicism moves to detachment.

The Greek philosopher Epictetus wrote,

What harm is there while you are kissing your child to murmur softly, tomorrow you will die?

See what he says there?

In other words, don't love too much and you won't experience dissatisfaction too much.

Keep everything, every love at an arm's length.

This ultimately hardens your heart and it dehumanizes you.

The modern way is the opposite.

We deal with our dissatisfaction by attempting to pursue satisfaction with everything we've got.

And there are four ways you do that.

If you're young, the normal way is to start the outer life thinking.

If I get the right love partner, if I get the right spouse, if I get the right career and I make some money, then I'll be satisfied.

That is, in our modern era, the pursuit of jobs, family, sex and so on are the usual distractions by which we hide from ourselves the emptiness of our modern life.

I spoke a while ago with someone who, in their own confession, had slept with more than a thousand women.

And he said it just got emptier and emptier and emptier and emptier and emptier.

We may be quite discontent in life, but we don't recognise it because we are so, so busy in the process of getting ready to be satisfied.

We think we've just got to get over this hill, just got to get around that bend and then things will be great.

Then you move from the young.

The next step is the resentful.

As time goes by, we begin to realise that we're getting, we are not getting it.

Yeah, sure, the mortgage is paid off, the kids are growing up, I've got a stable job and yet I am still restless.

One of the main reactions is to blame the obstacles that have kept us from achieving the things that we think will satisfy us.

We'll identify social structures or individuals who have blocked our progress or who have wronged us in some kind of way.

We blame them saying, I would be quite satisfied if it wasn't for religion or if it wasn't for this job or it wasn't for that relationship or it wasn't for the fact that I was dropped on my head as a baby or something.

And so when that happens, we need a third strategy.

And that is the driven.

What happens if we find we reach many of our material goals and we still find something is significant happens?

Missing, sorry.

What do we do?

Many people blame the things that they have, the things themselves, not other things, but the very things that they have.

We assume that if you've got a better spouse, we get a better job, if we get a better income, a better home, then we will feel much better.

Constantly renovating our places.

And if you take that path, we may become among society's most productive members,

the most driven members of society.

And for the driven, life is like running on a treadmill.

The change of speed does happen, but the location never does.

Go faster, you're still in the same spot.

And you run harder to maintain your position and eventually become too weary to keep on going.

And all that's left now is despair.

Rather than blaming other things, rather than blaming other people and other structures,

rather than blaming the things that are in front of me,

I start to blame myself.

I might be a deeply unsettling feeling that there is something wrong with me.

I haven't done well enough.

I haven't gone far enough up the career ladder.

I haven't attracted the best romantic partners.

I am the failure.

However, most people don't allow themselves to slow down long enough

so that they can hear that voice reverberating around in their hearts

and hear the cry of despair.

We just jump on the treadmill again and keep going harder and harder.

Oh, the crucial, crucial part of a day of rest and reflection

to assess life, to hear in the quietness of the heart what's going on.

Wow, that silence is amazing.

It's remarkable how deep this issue of dissatisfaction is.

When you scan the centuries,

you scan the centuries from the ancients until now,

how remarkable little progress we've made on this issue.

We have surpassed our ancestors in our accomplishments

in travel, science, medicine, communication.

We are unimaginably wealthier and more comfortable,

and yet not a single person is suggesting

that we are more content than what they were.

Not a single philosopher is saying that.

Well, let me go back to one ancient.

The great Christian philosopher, St. Augustine,

wrote that the reason our dissatisfaction is so deep in life

is because our loves are disordered.

Augustine taught that we are most fundamentally shaped

not by what we believe,

not by what we think,

not even by what we do,

but we are most fundamentally shaped by what we love.

Now, that is a very clear word

to us reformed evangelicals who love to think.

We are what we love.

The dissatisfaction of our lives

is caused by the disorder of loves.

We often love less important things more

and the more important things less.

And every cultural system does it differently,

but we all fail to order our loves correctly.

There is nothing wrong with loving your work,

but if you love it more than your family,

then your loves are out of order

and you may in fact ruin your family.

If you love money more than you love justice,

then you will exploit your employees.

But the ultimate disordered love

and the ultimate source of our discontent

discontent in life

is a failure to love the first thing first.

And that is a failure to love God supremely.

The Bible says that human beings

are made in the image of a tripersonal God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

From all eternity,

these divine three persons of the Trinity

have been loving each other

in infinite degrees of joy and glory and contentment.

They are fully, completely satisfied

in and of themselves.

Human beings were created to know that joy

of being loved infinitely

and the joy of loving and glorifying God preeminently.

And since we were created for that love

and for that joy,

we will always look for the infinite joy

that we were designed by God

to enjoy elsewhere.

You don't stop becoming a worshipping being.

You just change the direction of your worship.

This is all Augustine.

If we reject God, which we all do,

then we will look elsewhere to fill that void.

And the reason even the best possible things

in this world will not satisfy

is because we were created for a degree

of delight and satisfaction

that this world cannot produce.

The most famous modern expression of Augustine's view

was the ending of C.S. Lewis's World War II radio talk.

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's such a thing as water.

A man feels sexual desires.

Well, there's such a thing as sex.

If I find in myself a desire

which no experience in this world can satisfy,

the most probable explanation

is that I am made for another world.

Augustine also helps us to see

how it's possible to become deeply satisfied.

Don't harden your heart against love,

Augustine says,

but don't give your heart ultimately things

that you will lose.

That you will lose

and you can never,

that can never satisfy you.

Very simply,

even the best,

the very best marriages

in this world,

the very best marriages in this world,

always end badly.

They always do.

One is going to be left without the other.

Most of the time.

To the degree that we move towards loving God supremely

as the deepest source of our satisfaction

is the degree to which we can enjoy his gifts

for what they are.

Money and career, for example,

become just what they're supposed to be.

Work becomes work,

a great way to use your gifts

to be useful for others

for the advancement of society.

Money becomes just money,

a great way to support your family,

feed the poor,

advance the good news of the gospel

of Jesus Christ,

the ends of the earth.

Some have changed,

sorry,

some have charged

that religion itself

drains ordinary life

of its joy and satisfaction.

And it does it by devaluing

the things of this world.

So it's a straitjacket on you

that means you can't enjoy life.

For sure,

I think that there are some religions

that value detachment from the world.

Buddhism is one of those.

This is not true for Christianity.

It is not true for Christianity.

In fact,

Christianity does not say

that we merit blessing

through depriving ourselves

and turning our backs on the world

to earn heaven.

Christianity teaches

that we are saved

by God's free grace and pardon.

Christianity says,

against the ancients

and against the modern,

Christianity says,

don't love anything less

instead learn to love God more.

And you will love other things

with far more satisfaction.

That's it.

That's the unique contribution

of Christianity.

You won't over protect those things

and you won't over expect things from them.

You won't be constantly furious

at those things

for not being what you hoped

that they would be.

Redirect your greatest love towards God

by loving him with all your heart,

soul, mind and strength.

Not just for what he can give you,

but purely because of who he is.

He is.

And only then satisfaction

will start to come.

You see,

the Christian view,

the Christian worldview

avoids the pitfalls

of both the ancient strategy

of satisfaction

through detachment

from the world

and the modern strategy

of satisfaction

through acquisition.

because the fundamental

of the Christian gospel

is it's a gift.

It's not a,

you don't acquire it,

it's a gift.

It's where it all starts.

And when you see life as a gift

and the grace of God as a gift,

you see everything that flows

from his hand as a gift.

But they are gifts

from the good gift giver.

So how then do we love God?

Well,

in the same way

that children learn to speak.

Only by responding to speech.

And learning to love

only by reciprocating love.

We cannot love God

just by thinking

of an abstract deity

who is loving and kind in general.

We must grasp

and be gripped

by the true story

of God's actual sacrificial

saving love for us

in Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 6,

John 6 · chapter mention

which Anne read out for us,

verse 35,

Jesus speaks to a crowd

about the bread of life

such that whoever eats it

will never go hungry.

Eat this bread

and you'll always be satisfied.

Drink from this well

and you'll never be thirsty.

He's talking metaphorically

about something

that gives both strength

and delight

an image of fulfillment

and satisfaction.

He also observes

that human beings

seek this

in all the wrong places.

He warns against

in verse 26,

sorry, 27,

working for food

that spoils.

In other words,

for trying to find satisfaction

from that stuff.

And then he says,

I am the bread of life.

And he holds out

a piece of bread

in Luke chapter 22.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

This is my body

given for you.

You see,

the heart of the

Christian faith

is a simple gospel message

of sin and grace.

Sin and grace.

Because we fail

to love God supremely

and our neighbor

as ourselves,

we sin

and for God

to forgive our sin,

the Son of God

became human

and graciously died

in our place

on a cross.

And there are two ways

that this message

can bring about

the love relationship

with God

which solves

our satisfaction dilemma.

Firstly,

the knowledge

of sin

against our Creator

starts to soften

our hearts.

If there is a God

who created us

and keeps us

alive

every minute,

then the love

that we owe

this God

is infinitely great.

To not love

Him supremely

is infinitely wrong.

If you believe

that,

you begin to see

how much

you have wronged

Him

by loving

the gifts

He has made

rather than

Him,

the gift giver.

And it begins

to draw your heart

outward towards

Him in humility

and grief.

But then secondly,

the knowledge

of His grace

just ignites

your heart.

It ignites

your heart.

for God

to forgive us,

He had to pay

the debt

Himself

because we

can't do it.

Jesus Christ

pays it on the cross

for us.

I wonder

if it dawns

on you

at least

three times

a day

that outside

of salt

and a few

minerals,

everything that

goes in your

body has died

so that you

can live.

Ever thought

about that?

If you're

eating bread,

not only did

the grain die,

but the bread

must be broken

up into pieces.

If the bread

stays whole,

you starve.

If the bread

is broken

into pieces,

you take it

in,

then you live.

So when

Jesus Christ

says,

I'm the bread

of life

broken for you,

He is saying,

I'm your God

broken for you.

I die

so that you

might live.

Seeing

and savoring

what He has

done for us

begins to

change your

heart.

He suffered

and He died

for your sake.

At the very

least,

friends,

it's why

we just

prayed,

be today

my daily bread.

Not just

give it to me,

but be

my daily bread.

It's why

we keep

encouraging you

to have a

devotional life

four or more

times a week

to have that

gospel message

of God

and His

goodness

to you

hit you

again and

again and

again and

be reminded

of it because

you are

confronted

every single

day with

images and

words that

are saying,

be satisfied

with this,

with this,

with this.

face.

If you

don't have

your face

in the

Bible,

you are

already

losing the

battle.

You cannot

force your

heart to

love,

but it's

the good

news of

Jesus Christ

that will

change it.

The love

of Jesus

Christ

draws out

our hearts

and it

draws out

our hearts

and takes

them off

inordinate

attachments

to other

things,

good things

but not

ultimate

things.

And to

the degree

that we

find our

satisfaction

in Jesus

Christ is

the degree

to which

we will be

radically

generous

with our

time,

our talents,

our testimony

and our

treasures.

And so

once again,

I commend

to you the

project card.

the more

satisfied we

are in

Christ,

the more

free we

are with

all of our

possessions.

To the

degree that

we find

our

satisfaction

in Jesus

Christ is

the degree

to which we

can say

with the

psalmist,

because your

love is

better than

life,

I will be

fully satisfied

as with the

richest of

foods.

friends,

we're going

to pause

and then

we're going

to pray.

Just bow

your heads

for a

moment and

just take a

moment to

allow that to

sit and reflect

in your

hearts.

gentle

extent,

do you

love

teaspoon of

love

конечно,

you

can't

hvor

Maybe

perhaps

maybe

transmit

you

or

your

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