Happiness | Fool's Gold | Pastor Carlos Serrano

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

So good to be with you here today.

Anytime we have an excuse to come to Orlando to eat your food and to sit in your traffic, it's always an opportunity we're willing to take.

But I'm so grateful to be here.

Um, you're just making such a difference to this community.

We can feel it each and every time we're here.

Uh, your passion is uh it's just wonderful, the things of God.

Um, I was talking with Pastor Keith just about all that God has in his heart for you as a church and and in this city, and I think that God is gonna do so many wonderful things here today.

And so let's give it up for Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan.

Wonderful leaders.

They love you so much.

Don't forget to love your pastor.

It's important.

Don't forget to pray for your pastors and your leaders because of their yes, you're here today.

Because of their yes, we get to gather and so lift them up, encourage them.

Um, I just know it's not a moment that goes by to think about you and love you and pray for you and your families.

Nobody's praying for you.

Know this, your pastor is praying for you.

Also, it's welcome to our online family.

Give behind our online family.

Thank you for being here.

Join us here today, online family.

We're so thankful for you.

Um, when I heard about the series you were in and I saw the Pharrell video, I was like, this is gonna be a good time.

This is this is gonna be fun.

I probably shouldn't be wearing a jacket right now, right?

But um, I am just I'm I'm thrilled that Pastor Keith is courageous to handle the issue and and the thought behind happiness because depending on who you talk to, happiness is a moving target, isn't it?

Happiness, man, you talk to one person, it's this, you talk to another person, it's that.

And he had the boldness and courage to take it from the Word of God and pursue it.

And so last week I watched the message and it was pretty incredible.

Like, have you ever watched the message and you didn't plan on taking notes?

But then, like, a quarter through the message, you were like, okay, I gotta find something to write with, I gotta get something out here.

Like, that was me last week.

I was like, I'm gonna get something out of right here.

I've got a I've got a good amount of notes here in my Bible about the message from last week.

And so hopefully I won't steal all your lines, Pastor Keith, if you're watching.

Um, I'll be true to what God has given me.

But I want to continue in that uh just that same vein in the heart behind what God is speaking in this series and look at a different approach to one of the greatest sources of happiness that God teaches us from his word.

I'm gonna talk about that today.

And so for the next few moments, I'm gonna talk to you from this idea, from this thought.

Someone say it with me.

Fool's gold.

Fool's gold.

Will you pray with me?

Father, thank you for your faithfulness and your love.

It's it's on display.

The fact that not an iPhone alarm woke us up today, or maybe a Samsung alarm for those other saints, Father, but alarm didn't wake us up, Father.

Goodness and mercies woke us up.

And whatever you're speaking in heaven, Father, whatever you authorized, whatever you ordained for every heart and every soul today, Father, I pray that would be done in this time, in this moment together, Lord.

That we don't take forsake the grant, don't take for granted the gathering of believers because there was a time that we couldn't gather.

We don't take for granted the opportunity for you to speak to our hearts, Father.

So right now we decrease that you would increase.

And right now we exit the buildings of the Holy Spirit to enter the building, Father.

Our flesh has no place, our distractions have no place, our fears, our worries, our concerns, our stressors have no place.

Holy Spirit, this is your time, this is your moment.

Would you come and have your way?

We pray all these things for the glory and honor of you, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.

At one point, people were pursuing something called happiness, and it ran across our country so much so it ran across the world.

People were coming from all over.

Soldiers were abandoning their platoons, and people who were on ships were leaving their ships, and farmers leaving their farms, husbands were leaving their wives and their children, all for the pursuit of a specific happiness.

It was called the gold rush.

As people pursued what they thought and were sure was gonna be happiness that they had heard about, it had spread across not just our country but across the globe.

Come and find this gold because there will be your happiness here in a place called California.

What a lot of people found when they arrived is not what they thought it was.

Have you been there?

Not what they thought it was.

Some didn't find gold, but others found something called not real gold, but fool's gold.

Some of you who paid attention in class know it's called pyrite.

I didn't know that, I had to look that one up.

It was called pyrite, it was fool's gold, and and I just wondered as I began to read this story and reflect on what I really didn't remember from school was that how many times and how many seasons, how many moments of my life was I chasing fool's gold?

Was I chasing something that was never meant to fulfill?

It was shiny, and a lot of other people were doing it too, but I was abandoning my post.

I was abandoning what God had called me to.

I was abandoning the things of eternal purpose for the temporary pleasures, but in the end it never fulfilled.

Not just for them, but for me.

And so I want to talk about this today in the sense that there are things that you and I are chasing that we're calling happiness, that the world is calling happiness, that let us save each other some time, some heartbreak.

It truly isn't happiness because happiness comes from the one who can supply happiness.

Remember, the world can't provide, the world can't give direction to something they have not yet found.

We know happiness comes from the kingdom of God.

He calls it the blessed life.

And without even knowing, sometimes we have sacrificed what's most important, what will never add value to our life.

See, in this world that you and I live in, we are taught that self-gratification leads to happiness.

That's what we're taught.

Whoever has the most influence and affluence, whoever has the most reputation, whoever has ever has the most power, whoever has the most stuff.

But yet when you and I watch the documentaries on VH1, it doesn't seem like it works that way, does it?

Doesn't seem like they die happy, does it?

Doesn't seem like they end their careers in the right place.

We all love prints, don't we?

But it doesn't seem like it ended the best way.

Maybe you're an Elvis fan, but it doesn't seem like it ends the best way when you have everything you could accumulate.

It seems like you're always left wanting.

When you take a peek at the scripture, it says not self-gratification, but it's a commitment to self-service.

It's where true happiness, self-sacrifice, where it comes from.

The Bible speaks of something called authentic happiness.

It doesn't come from what the world can provide.

See, the world provides status.

The world speaks to salary.

Happiness doesn't come from that.

And men, happiness doesn't even come from sex.

I know it's a crazy thought, but it doesn't come from any of those things.

It comes from a dedication to sacrifice and service to others.

There are forms and there are short-lived, short-term, I would even call them counterfeit versions of happiness, but they're all watered down versions.

As a matter of fact, if you have to upgrade it, it is not happiness.

It is not the blessed life.

It is not what God has ordained as true happiness.

And here's the thing: if you walk around, people of God, a good church family like this, if you read the word of God enough, you'll get taste.

You'll get a taste of happiness, and you won't want to go back to the watered-down version.

It's almost like when you begin to eat the real Spanish food.

The real stuff.

You mess around and you go to a restaurant and you walk in and your eyes are burning because it's smoky.

I went to one of these here just the other night.

I'm telling you from true experience, and your eyes are smoky because it's an authentic spot.

It's a hole-in-the-wall spot.

You can't go back to the chain restaurant.

You just can't.

Once you've tasted and seen that the Lord is so good, you can't go back.

You just can't.

They wouldn't even clap where I'm from an Amelia Island.

They be like, what are you talking about?

You see, I've tasted and I've seen that if I'm going to a restaurant and that the tables are too nice and organized, then the food ain't good here.

If they're wearing hamnets and gloves, the food ain't good there.

If there's nothing, I'm gonna leave them in the back.

And you don't see sweat equity dripping on the food.

That ain't good.

Let's go, baby.

Let's go to another restaurant.

This this ain't for us.

This ain't for us.

You know what I'm talking about.

Once you've tasted, you've seen, you you can't you can't go back.

Don't talk to me about fajitas.

You better talk to me about a rosum mandulas.

Got an sala.

Come on, give me some real stuff.

Those doners and maduras, like, here's where I'm going.

I'm getting back on topic here, I promise you.

But here's where I'm going.

Once you've tasted the authentic, you can't settle for the cheap watered-down version, chain restaurant version of happiness.

You guys remember that show Cribs, right?

This is what happiness is, but you get a look behind the scenes when the career's all over and it wasn't what it appeared to be.

Do you see the truth versus the fool's gold versus the pyrite?

Once you taste of what true happiness, authentic happiness is, what you'll find is that it becomes filling and it becomes intoxicating.

See, my wife and I, if we're honest, um, we were very much so into self-gratification.

We really were.

It was about us and what we could wear, what we could drive, and our vacations, and our children, and their sports, and our careers.

We hadn't always been pastors.

We were just attending a church like you, and one day we messed up and started hearing a message, started receiving something not called self-gratification, but self-sacrifice and self- and service to others and not ourselves.

And things began to change.

We're passionate about marriage, the covenant of marriage.

You know, it's not man's idea, it's God's idea.

And it's sacred, it's set apart.

The Bible says it's holy.

It's the first union that God creates.

We became passionate about marriage and began pouring into other marriages, even when we didn't have the time or the resources, and we we just started doing it.

And the funniest thing started to happen.

Watch this.

It was crazy, it was crazy.

We began pouring into other marriages, blessing other marriages, and our marriage became blessed.

Imagine that.

Imagine that.

We began pouring into other families, blessing other families, and would you believe our children began to respond and our family was blessed?

We began to give, cover meals, bring people on vacation with us, not out of our tithe, our offering, but out of the other money.

Can I somebody say the other money?

The other, like the the the stash money.

And would you believe as we met the needs of others, our needs began to get met without even asking God to meet needs, needs were being met.

It was the strangest and the craziest thing.

And so we began to get filled by self-sacrifice and service to others, so much so that we had to walk away from the corporate world.

We got addicted and said, I want to do this with my life.

I want to commit my life to serving and to loving people for the last six years.

This is what we have done in Amelia Island.

I'm not talking to you today just about a series called Happy, just about self-sacrifice that the Bible talks about.

I'm talking to you about something that we are living in.

That we now can't do without because once you taste the authentic, you can't go back to the cheap watered-down version of momentary happiness, circumstantial happiness.

If it's the way it needs to be, or if I feel the kind of joy of the Lord that is your strength.

That's what God offers to you and I today.

This self-sacrifice, this service to others.

It's not just feeling and intoxicating to humanity.

We don't just respond to it from a human perspective.

But are you aware that Jesus responded to this as well?

That's pursuit that all God had for him and to be in a place of the blessed life or happiness.

He responds to this in a very real way.

I want to take you on a walk in your Bible.

Who's got their Bible today?

Or the very least, their Bible app.

Let's log on with me.

We're going to John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

I caught a few of you by surprise.

The Bible app is just as good, except if your battery dies, good luck.

Or you got no service, good luck.

This got service all day long.

I'm just going to put that out there.

Um, John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

I don't have time to go through all of it, so I want you to read it today.

But what's happening here is that Jesus and the boys and the ladies, it was a group, they have been walking all morning.

And I'm talking about the kind of walking you don't want to walk.

This is not a nice paved track that they're walking circles around, okay?

If they're walking on Middle Eastern desert, dusty roads, and their feet are hurting, they don't have the sketchers walkers where there has heel support and arch support.

No, this is not where it's not a Tony Romo commercial, okay?

This is this is a walk.

This is a trek so much so you'll read that he's tired.

He tires, he stops in a little place in Samaria called Succoth, and as he stays there, he the Bible says he sits and he rests, he sends the boys off to go get some food.

And as they go get some food, he's sitting there, he's tired, and he's resting, he's gathered himself.

Somebody walks up to the well.

Maybe you've heard of her, the woman at the well.

And even though he's walked all morning, even though he's exhausted from preaching and teaching and traveling and hasn't even eaten yet, he could be in a hangry state, maybe.

She comes over and he sees that her heart is heavy, that she's known for all the wrong things and for all the wrong reasons.

And he has the opportunity to what uh hon herself or honor service to others.

And if you read through the story, it's one of the most beautiful exchanges of Jesus not being the God of fire and brimstone, but of love and mercy.

People get it twisted all the time, don't they?

He is not a god of fire and brimstone.

He warns us about fire and brimstone.

He's a God of love and mercy.

Do you remember where he met you?

I remember where he met me.

Oh, he came far, far to meet me.

I don't know about you.

He meets her right where she is.

She don't gotta clean all up and to come into his presence.

No, he meets her where she is and he ministers to her, and he loves her right where she is.

And the most interesting thing happens here in John chapter 4 and verse 31.

John 4 · chapter mention

The boys show back up with the Spanish food.

They show back up with a doggy bat, and they got all the hot sauce, and they got everything to go with it, and I'll show you what happens here.

It says, Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat.

We went and got the food.

But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about.

He had been walking all morning.

He was exhausted, literally said he was tired, so he sat at the well to rest.

And he came back and he said, I'm actually good now.

I'll fall off of something.

There's something that has entered into my soul, into my spirit, that has given me exactly what I have needed, that is sustaining me and feeling me so much so I can smell the acapurias, and it doesn't even move me right now.

He said, I'm good.

And watch how the disciples react.

It's pretty interesting.

Verse 33, the disciples said to each other, could someone have brought him food?

Like, did he did he do the did he do the the the fish and the loaf thing again?

Sent us all the way to town, he already went in.

Did he y'all see food anywhere?

They're confused.

They're confused because they don't understand that happiness can be found outside of themselves.

Outside of wants and desires that are human in nature.

Jesus says this.

Verse 34 My food said Jesus is to do the will of him who sent me to finish his work.

I've got all that I need.

The disciples are confused in their mind the food equates to happiness.

All my food is out there.

You can say amen.

Just as long as you know it's a momentary happiness.

In their mind, this equates to happiness.

We had a natural gap and we filled it here with this food.

So this should be happiness.

They couldn't grasp that happiness and contentment could be found outside of their own wants and needs.

Here's what Jesus knew.

Jesus knew the only place to find happiness and contentment is found outside of our own wants and needs.

Jesus said it was never found with our own wants and needs.

When we go outside, we step outside of ourselves and selflessness acts and service to others, then we'll find our true source of happiness.

He goes on to say things like this that hopefully will now make sense.

Acts 20, verse 35, he says, It is more blessed or makes one happy or complete to give than to receive.

Acts 20:35

Maybe you've heard the verse.

He literally says this it is the one who gives is actually more blessed and happy than the one who receives.

Now it feels good to get a gift, feels good when somebody remembers you, but he says in literal language, no, the person who's giving the gift actually is the one that's being blessed right here.

It's nice for the person receiving it, but the one giving is actually the one blessed.

And somehow in our culture, watch this.

We have misconstrued the scripture to be a Christmas or holiday verse.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

He didn't say this on Christmas.

This is a 365-day verse, not just a one-day a year verse.

He said, No, the one who gives is the actual blessed one.

The one who mirrors the heart of the Father, that is the blessed one.

And Jesus doesn't stop there.

In Matthew chapter 6 in verse 3, he doesn't just say the how, but he says the position.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

He shows us why I just want to show you this.

He says, but when you give to the needy, in verse 3, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

It doesn't just say the position, but he shows the attitude in which to give.

So that you, so that your giving may be in secret.

What he's basically saying here is you don't want people to pat you on the back for giving.

You don't want to say, hey, look at what I'm doing.

Look at how great I am.

That's not what you want.

Why?

Watch this.

Then your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

You don't want your name on a building.

You don't want people to sit around and talk about how great you are.

You want it to be in secret so the father can reward you.

Do you see where I'm going?

Do you see where Jesus is saying?

He's saying, you want to do things that you people don't even know about when they came back.

They're like, why is he not hungry?

Why is he saying, I have food you know you don't even know about?

Because he wanted to be rewarded by the Father and not by the moment.

You know what's stealing a lot of our blessings today?

They'll steal them today.

Do you know who?

Do you know what?

Cash App and Venmo.

I'm gonna tell you why.

I'm gonna tell you why.

I was recently traveling with a family, we were up in the New England area, and you know, I would cover dinner, we'd go out to the bowl, hang out, I would just cover it because it's easier, whatever.

And they'd be like, hey, I'm gonna cash up you, I'm gonna Venmo you.

What is your Venmo?

What is your cash?

I'm like, I don't know, I don't remember.

I don't know, I don't remember.

I can't remember right now.

Because I want God to reward me.

I don't want you to get me back.

I don't want your half.

I know this is counterintuitive to our culture.

Okay, you owe three dollars and twenty-five cents and and fifteen and thirty.

No, no, no.

I want God to get me back.

I want to do things in private, so then He has to reward me.

Do you see this?

This is the blessed life.

This is what Jesus was, he was doing things in private.

Do you know what he was doing in Samaria?

Are you kidding me?

With a woman at the well, a woman who was known for not the best things.

Are you kidding me, Jesus?

You're a Jew, she's a Samaritan.

Oh, he was breaking down racial tensions as well if you're not watching.

This is much more than meets the eye.

He didn't want a cash app or a venomo.

He wanted to bless someone without being gotten back.

He wanted to be blessed by the Father, not what people could do.

And so it's not very hard to see that one of the truest forms of happiness or the blessed life has come about through self-sacrifice through service to others.

It's pretty clear to see.

But my question is this how do we get to this place?

Like to think through this lens, it's gonna be for many of us swimming upstream, it's gonna be counterintuitive, it's gonna be a very structured way to go about life at this point.

But how do we get to this place?

Because what you'll find is if you don't study history, history will repeat itself.

And so, for you not to know that why is this maybe not our natural inclination or natural action, we'd have to go back to the beginning or the inception of humanity.

How do we get To the place where God calls us to self-sacrifice, but we call ourselves self-gratitude, right?

Like, I want me, myself, and I some.

And I'll worry about others later.

Like, how do we get to that place?

Well, you have to go to the beginning of your Bible, Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

In Genesis chapter 3, what you'll find is that God creates Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

You're familiar with the story, I know many are.

He creates them in a very simplistic place.

He says, here's the rules.

You are to serve me and to serve each other.

You are to live a life of self-sacrifice and obedience.

And he creates a framework around this.

Maybe you're familiar with the garden.

He said, You can take of any tree and any fruit of the tree.

Just don't touch the one in the middle.

That's the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And for them, that was the parameters around happiness and self-sacrifice.

Not doing this and committing everything we are to God was a self-sacrifice.

And so the enemy, which here is going to be called the serpent, he attacks what God creates.

He's always after your self-sacrifice.

He's always after the opportunity to serve others.

You should know that about him.

As a matter of fact, are you aware of this that he doesn't even have a name?

He goes by his traits, he goes by his deception.

Here he's called the serpent in Genesis.

You might know him as the uh slanderer or the devil, Greek for devil.

You might know him as the adversary or Satan or the Satan in Hebrew.

Doesn't even have a name.

But here he takes a depiction of a servant, of a serpent.

I'm going to show you this.

Not a servant for sure.

Genesis 3, verse 1, and it's talking about the serpent.

Genesis 3:1

He said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from any tree of the garden?

Do you see what he's already doing?

When it comes to self-sacrifice versus self-gratitude.

Whenever a statement from God is made a question, it waters it down.

Do you see this?

If God makes a statement and it's created to be a question, we've watered it down and we've made inroads to justification and compromise.

That's what He's doing.

Goes on in verse 2, it says, The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that's in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.

See, she said, Yeah, God defined happiness.

He defined self-sacrifice, he defined service to others.

He already defined what our happiness is.

He goes on to respond in verse 4, You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.

You are seeing the very first tactic the enemy comes against humanity with self-sacrifice over self-gratification.

Very first tactic.

This is what he he employs, and he knows that he will get them out of balance with God, out of balance with how you and I in our DNA, God creates to be like him.

We're made in his image to serve and to love.

And he's attacking that very thing.

Verse 6 says this when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took it and she ate it.

Did you see the three things?

Pleasing to the eye, desirable for gaining wisdom, and good for food.

It was all about me, me, and some more me.

What could I benefit from?

What could I get from the equation?

How do I get further?

It doesn't matter who I'm to serve and who I'm accountable to, whatever I can get in the moment.

And she took it and she ate and she gave some to Adam.

And verse 7 says this.

Then the eyes of both of them were open and they realized that they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

And it is so interesting.

What they thought was happiness and self-gratification ended up being short-lived gratification.

Embarrassed them so bad that they had to cover up what was supposed to make them happy.

Have you been there?

It was supposed to, man, it promised a lot, didn't deliver at all.

God teaches us the blessed life or the happy life.

It's got in our choices.

Happiness is not just some random goal, it's a result of right biblical thinking and right biblical actions.

We've got to know the word of God.

We've got to know what God says because the enemy and sometimes our flesh and sometimes the world will attack what God says.

In that pretty old fashioned did God really say, did He really mean?

I mean, how do you know that's translated the right way?

I mean, it did go from Hebrew to English or Greek to English.

How can you be so sure?

Because Jesus was very sure.

So I can be sure.

And so we see here one of the greatest sources of happiness is based on the serving of those around you.

And the greatest sermon ever preached, I don't care what sermon you've heard, you've never heard a better one than the Sermon on the Mount.

This is Jesus, and he is covering a whole host of topics, a whole host of issues.

You want to hear good preaching and teaching, you read Matthew chapter 5 today.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

It is a masterclass on giving the heart of the Father.

It's not about antics and how somebody's dressed or how big their church is, how many locations.

It's about the heart of the Father.

It is remarkable.

As Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount, he's having to pack a lot in because the cross is looming.

He's got to get a lot out to a lot of people so they carry this on.

So hopefully one day somebody will gather in Celebration Church Orlando in 2021 and still hear the words reverberate throughout history, throughout time.

I think he did a pretty good job.

What do you think?

And so as he preaches this masterclass sermon, he addresses the burning question in all of their hearts then and all of our hearts now.

Hey, this happiness thing, how do we approach it?

How do we attain it?

How does it not be fleeting?

How is it not a moving target?

How do we get there?

And he tells us in two verses in Matthew 5, verse 7, he says this.

Matthew 5:7

He said, Blessed or happy are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

When you are merciful, when you give somebody a chance, when you give them the benefit of the doubt, when you do for them what you want somebody to do for you, when you love them as your neighbor, as yourself, he says, Yeah, you're happy, you're blessed.

And then in verse 9, he says this, blessed or happy are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.

He says, When you make peace, you are living a happy life.

Instead of dividing, when you bring together, instead of walking in a room and talking about all the things we're divided on, when you find things to be united on, then you are living the blessed life.

You are proponent of a happy life.

The blessed of the happy life has always been linked to serving others.

From the scriptures to current.

The blessed life is found not in serving oneself, but in serving those that God has planted you around.

If someone asks you, I don't know, maybe tomorrow on the job, hey, um, this Jesus character.

You've been forwarding me your messages from your church.

I'm still not going, but I'm just asking the question.

Um, you've been talking about Jesus.

Uh I've seen your little postings, you know, your little Facebook and your Instagram, your Twitter, these verses, these two Corinthian verses you keep posting, these two Thessalonians, you know.

I just I see these subjects.

Tell me about this Jesus character.

If they asked you why did he come, what was the purpose?

If you could sum it all up, why did he come?

I wonder what your response would be.

I wonder what you would articulate to them in that moment.

I wonder how you can make it plain to them.

When Jesus got the moment to articulate, to sum up the purpose behind him, coming to earth, leaving eternity, stepping into time through 42 generations.

Do you know how you articulated it?

I want to show you.

Matthew 20, 28.

It says this the Son of Man, speaking of Jesus, did not come to be served, but to what?

Serve.

You can say it, it won't bite.

To serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

He says, You want to sum up why I came to earth?

You want to sum up why I came and what I came to do?

He said, not to be served, even though he was God in the flesh and part of the holy trinity.

He said to serve, to offer my life as a ransom.

His life, his purpose, and his ministry were all built around serving, because that is how he would be most fulfilled and happy on this earth.

And that's how he was teaching you and I we too would be most fulfilled and happy on this earth.

This is the theme, not of a chapter, not of a sermon, but of his existence.

I asked you the question what if serving became a central theme of your life?

What if when you enter into relationships, you entered to friend groups?

What if when you were planning vacations?

What if when you're raising your children, or maybe grandchildren, or maybe mentoring?

What if you're building an organization or a team?

What if it was around the thought as how can we do this and still serve others?

What if it could be about, here's a thought that maybe it's not popular in our culture.

What if it could be about not what we could get from others, but what we could give to others?

What if the relationships that you and I have and hold today?

What if it was about not what I can get from you, but what I could give you?

That's a whole different perspective.

That I'm not in a relationship because of what you can do for me, but what I can do for you.

And I don't want you to get me back.

I don't need your Venmo, I don't need your cash up.

I want the Lord to bless me.

Because I got a daughter going to college in the fall, and I'm gonna need him to intervene.

I'm sure of it.

I am sure of it in the fall.

There's gonna be some situational things, there's gonna be some moments where dad's out there, and I need God to intervene there.

I need stuff to happen in private, not in public.

Do you hear me?

What if we begin to build our life around serving others?

The Bible says to be first, you must be last.

It says the slave is is the one that God edifies, that we are slaves to each other.

This is the heart of our Savior and our God.

You know, if you built your life around service, you know what that would do?

That would make you happier, that would make you more blessed.

And make you like Jesus.

It's funny because the secular world, they do studies, and it's so interesting because um even though you and I are a part of these massive organizations like Barna or like UNICEF, like these massive charitable groups, they do studies and they say, they found an interesting statistic.

They surveyed millions and millions and millions of people.

There's something that registered in the human being that when they began to give, and they were attached to a greater purpose outside of themselves.

They began serving in different capacities and financial contributions and serving in different low-income areas and going to different places and building areas where clean water and sanitation, things of that nature.

They said they began to experience a happiness and a joy they had not experienced before.

Could it be they're tapping into what was intrinsically built in the DNA of their maker?

Could it be?

You can look at any and every study, and they all point to the same thing.

We were not made to please self.

If we spend a life of trying to please self, we will be the most miserable.

But it's in this surrender and self-sacrifice that we truly find ourselves as the best version of ourselves.

From Genesis to Jesus, the secret to happiness is making others happy.

But what I really want to convey to us the more time we spend refreshing others, we will be refreshed.

Whatever you sow, you're gonna reap.

Proverbs is like this 11 and 25.

It says a generous person will prosper.

A generous person, their time, their attention, their resources, and also the money to prosper.

Watch this.

Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Anybody need refreshing?

Anyone feel like they're at the end of the rope?

Anyone feel like Monday comes more times than any other day in the week?

How do we keep arriving at Monday?

There are three Mondays in one week.

It was just here.

Anyone need to be refreshed?

Refresh others.

Refresh others and see how you be refreshed, refresh other marriages and watch your marriage be refreshed, refresh other singles and watch how your single life gets refreshed.

Refresh other single mothers and see how your singleness will be refreshed.

Mentors, mentor others, and watch how mentors come to maybe your children.

Because y'all know kids don't listen to their parents, they listen to other people.

This is how it works.

I travel a lot, and I hear the lack of contentment.

I hear the lack of satisfacts, satisfaction in people's lives.

It's heartbreaking.

I'm not talking about the world, I'm talking about the church.

If I could just attain this, if I could just get to this, or somebody could just notice me, or just give me a chance, if I can just get married, I could just have what they have, I could just get this promotion, if I could just get this business loan, if I could just get my kids or my grandkids or my spouse, if I could just what we are just missing out is it's what the Bible says it like this.

I'm gonna show you another version of that verse in Proverbs 11:25.

Proverbs 11:25

It says this a generous person will be made rich.

But watch this.

Whoever satisfies others will himself be satisfied.

You don't feel satisfied, satisfy others.

What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you.

God will make happen for you.

It's a law.

The Bible says the moment you are least fulfilled and least satisfied, it's because you're not satisfying others, fulfilling others.

But to step outside of ourselves and tap into our God-designed DNA, the manufacture of our souls.

Don't be fooled by the fool's goal that the world offers.

No one living for themselves is truly happy, blessed, refreshed, or satisfied.

It only looks that way.

It only looks that way.

Keep listening.

No one living for themselves is truly satisfied or at peace.

Don't be fooled by the fool's gold of self-gratification.

Fool's gold will never fulfill.

I can't promise it won't be shiny.

I can't promise it won't scratch that initial itch.

I can't promise people won't like you for it.

I can't promise it won't get you to the top.

I can't promise that.

I can just promise you it won't fulfill you.

I can just promise you in the long term, it will let you down.

I can just promise it will destroy everything you love.

It will undo everything that God is doing.

I can just promise you that.

Because here's what you'll find out is that what God gives us in our DNA that we respond to, it can sustain any pressure, any season, anything that we go through, if we are committed to refreshing others, we will be refreshed.

If we are committed to sacrificing for others, any season, any situation, we commit to the authentic way that God has called us to, we can withstand any pressure.

I have to confess to you, as this thing closes, I didn't know much about the gold rush.

I don't know if I was absent that day, at soccer practice that day, I don't know what.

If this is in high school or college, I can't tell you when it was reviewed, I just don't remember.

So I'm gonna go back and study a little bit.

And as I studied it, I found out something very interesting.

The only way they knew fool's gold or pyrite versus authentic gold was by getting a hammer and hitting it.

Because, see, fool's gold, it breaks under the pressure.

And if we build our lives on things that are not built on God and framed on his word, whenever pressure comes our way, we are going to break.

Maybe we're breaking as we speak right now.

Maybe it's all unraveling.

We look good on the outside because we're good at that.

Got the makeup and the hair right and the right purse and the right look and in the right car.

But under pressure, if we are focused, if our life is built around the things that are not of self-sacrifice and service to others, it will break under the pressure.

But I learned that with the real goal, when they hit that thing, it was something called malleable.

I can't spell it, but I could read it.

It was called malleable.

It would form and mold and shape to the season of life, it could sustain the pressures of life.

And so it's counterintuitive, but let me help you see this that when you walk this road of self-service and service to others, it doesn't just sustain others, it sustains you.

Because that has that's exactly how God has wired us and designed us to be sustained under the pressure because we are living for the authentic version of happiness, the long-term version, the version you can pass on to your children's children, the version you can pass around your small group at your office, the version you can pass on to friends and families, the version that you can take everywhere and anywhere.

Let's not be fooled any longer by the fool's goal of this world of self-gratification.

What will that look like for you moving forward is the question.

Moving forward, what will that look like?

I don't know, today at lunch, I don't know, tomorrow in the office space.

Maybe we start at home.

We don't have to list everything that we're doing, we just do it and say, hey, God will reward me in private.

What will that look like at the university, in the classroom?

What will that look like?

Moving forward, not being fooled by fool's gold, but living a life anchored in what can stand the tests in a time of pressure.

Will it be grabbing one of those bags that they talked about?

Not grabbing one, but grabbing two, and putting all the necessary resources in there to go reach out to a community who's chasing fools' goal.

We're gonna bring the real thing.

Selfless service, sacrifice.

Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness and your love today.

And I pray it's it's moments like these that you can speak exactly what you want to speak, Father.

And you show us, Father, how to navigate through what the world teaches, through what's sometimes innate in us, Father.

Through how to truly lay our lives down like Jesus did, and be fed not just by the things of this world, but like Jesus said, having the food that sustains us and refreshes us, that the world can't give, so the world can't take.

And so right now I pray that you ask God, what does this look like for you?

In real time, God speak to me.

In real time, God show me.

In real time, Father, the pain points and the frustrations might be because I want my way.

I don't know about some of you here today, but I've read the scripture that says if you prayed for God to move any mountain, if you have the faith the size of a monster street, he will move that mountain.

And I kept praying that prayer, I kept praying that prayer, and God showed me one day I was the mountain he had to move.

My pride, my ego, and my lack of self sacrifice.

Did I always have to be my way or the highway?

I don't always have the right view or the right way.

Let God speak to us.

And lastly, with your heads bowed, if there's anyone in here far from Jesus Christ, there's anyone in here unsure of their faith, or maybe you prayed.

Prayer when you were younger and you've walked away from it.

Anyone tuning in online, you maybe never prayed a prayer.

If someone told you to watch or sent you this message, that's you here today.

Don't leave this place, don't log off without receiving the one who can give you authentic happiness.

I know, like myself, you search everywhere for happiness and you still have been left wanting.

This is the moment and this is the time to receive the most authentic form of happiness this world offers.

And so if that's you, you want to pray this prayer to receive Jesus in your life, to experience true authentic happiness.

If that's already, if you already have Jesus, join me in praying right now for those who need to make this commitment.

I want you to make a symbol of surrender, no matter where you are in the building or online.

Maybe that's raising your hand, maybe that's bowing your head, maybe that's bowing in your seat.

I don't know what it is, but I do know this when we surrender, there are sure signs.

And I want to lead you in a prayer.

We're gonna pray whether you're rededicating your life because you've walked away and you've walked into some things that you know is not God's best for your life, or whether this is the very first time, I want to lead you in a prayer.

So you can experience the happiness, the joy, and the blessed life that God has always purposed for you.

This will become much more than a sermon series to you, but a day of breakthrough.

And so, church family, will you pray this prayer with me and those who are praying this prayer?

Lord God, we believe in you, we repent of our sins, we welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives.

Lead us, guide us, change us, give us a hunger for your word and for discipleship the rest of our days.

In Jesus' name, amen and amen.

Why don't you put your hands together for those who pray that prayer?

God bless you.

Thanks again for listening.

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