Catching Happiness Before it Flies Away

23. We won't look at the whole Proverbs, however,

there is a lot of good stuff in this Proverbs.

Michelle and I were discussing this the other

night, and she read it to me, and it's full of

good stuff, as so many of the Proverbs are, as

I said Sunday. You can read a Proverb a day,

you can start on September the 1st, and you can

read just about all of them through a month.

Most months have 31. 31 days, or at least some

of the months do, so you can cover all 31 Proverbs.

You can read through the whole thing in a month.

There's good stuff in there. We're not going

to look at all of Proverbs 23, just one little

section of it in verses 4 and 5. Let's pray,

and we'll get started. God, we come to you. We

thank you for your good word. I pray, dear Lord,

even though we're just going to look for just

a few minutes at it, that what we do look at

will be good for us, that we'll pay attention

to it, God, it would cause us to reflect on our

own life. Dear Lord, help us to learn contentment.

Help us not to fall into the trap of what all

the world makes look so good. And I pray that

you help us to be focused for just a few minutes

tonight and be ready for our business meeting

as that will come up soon, dear Lord, that you'll

help all that to go smooth for us. And I ask

these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right,

Proverbs chapter 23, verse 4. Don't wear yourself

Proverbs 23:4

out to get rich. Stop giving your attention to

it. As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears.

For it makes wings for itself and flies like

an eagle to the sky. Now, this verse goes against

everything that the world will tell you. This

is kind of the main focus of worldly folks. That's

our natural fleshly desire is to obtain more,

more, more, to get rich, right? That's our goal.

You need to go to school. You need to get a good

education so you can get a job, so you can make

lots of money, right? That's what we oftentimes

encourage our children and grandchildren to do,

and I'm not faulting anybody for that. We want

our kids and our grandkids and our nieces and

nephews to be successful. There's nothing wrong

with being successful and having a career, but

the problem is that our fleshly desire, we just

want naturally, we want those riches, we want

more of those things. But yet the proverb here

gives us some good wisdom, as the proverbs always

do. Don't wear yourself out to get rich. Stop

giving your attention to it. Now really, that

does consume a lot of our attention. If we start

thinking about money and how we're going to get

money, and we literally do wear ourselves out

to get rich. There are some people that wear

themselves out to get more money and more money

and more money and have no real enjoyment in

life. And maybe they do have a lot of stuff,

but they still are unfulfilled because what they're

seeking is riches, but they're not getting it.

because what they need is only going to come

from God. This is a good proverb for us to think

about and to consider and not to give in to.

John Rockefeller was asked once, he was the richest

man in America at one point, and he was asked,

you've got plenty of money, you've got a ton

of money. I mean, you've got more money than

you could spend and your family can spend for

generations to come. How much money is enough

money for you? And he said, just a little. And

maybe that's our mindset too. We might not be

as rich as John D. Rockefeller, but maybe we

have that mindset too. That idea that I'm in

a pretty good spot and once I get just a little

more, then I'll be satisfied. If I can have just

this one more thing, then I'll be content. Well,

that's exactly what this proverb is talking about.

If your focus is just that one more thing, I've

got... Good news and bad news for you. The bad

news is, is you're never going to get it. But

the good news is, you can stop trying. Because

the proverb tells us, as soon as our eyes fly

to it, that wealth, that thing that we want,

it disappears. You never quite grasp it. How

many of us in our life have thought, if I can

only have fill in the blank, then I'll be happy.

And you got it. You got it. At some point in

everybody's life that you got that thing that

you thought was going to make you happy. If I

can just have the Stretch Armstrong, it's going

to make me happy. If I can just have the Ninja

Turtle van. And I never got the Ninja Turtle

van. I would probably be a lot happier in my

life if I had got it. Because that's all I ever

wanted for Christmas for years. I asked for the

Ninja Turtle van. Never got the Ninja Turtle

van. But guess what? It wouldn't have mattered.

Because there were plenty of toys that I said,

if I could just have this toy, I'll never ask

for another toy. Have y 'all ever done that before?

We do it when we're kids. And you get that toy,

and guess what? The next birthday comes around,

Christmas comes around. There's another toy you

want. And really, that doesn't change as we get

older. Our toys just get bigger and more expensive.

But it doesn't change. There's still that, if

I can just get... to this position at work, if

I can just get this status, that's going to make

me happy. If I can get into this pay level, if

I can get into this wage range, then I'm going

to be happy. If I could just have a house that's

got an indoor toilet instead of an outhouse,

I'd be happy. There's a lot of people that wanted

that one day, some of y 'all maybe. If I could

just have running water. and then you've got

a house with an indoor toilet and running water,

and then a few years later, you're just remodeling.

I just need a little bit bigger bathroom. It

never stops. Like, this is our nature. Like,

if I could just have that, if I could just have

this, it's going to make me happy. And I'm not

necessarily saying that it's wrong to want a

toilet in your house. I think that's a great

thing, praise the Lord. But we have to realize

is that if we're seeking these things, thinking

that's going to make us happy and that's going

to be our fulfillment, then we're always going

to come up short. And we're always just going

to be left just working so hard, putting all

of our attention on what's going to make us happy

when it's not going to make us happy. What we

have to realize is, okay, like we're human, we

have some natural desires and some things we

want, and they're not necessarily bad to want

some of those things. And praise the Lord, sometimes

we can get those things. But we have to realize

that things are never going to make us happy.

We'll get some enjoyment out of them. There's

some sense of happiness there. Certainly there's

some sense of happiness there. When your old

car won't crank, and your heater don't work,

and the windshield wipers don't work, and you

say, if I could just get a new car, and you do

get a new car, and it does make you happy, praise

the Lord, you're safer because of it and warmer

because of it. But we can't seek those things

for our ultimate fulfillment. We find joy in

them. That's great. But our real fulfillment

has to come from the Lord. And so we have to

examine our lives and we have to say, okay, am

I chasing after something that's impossible?

That's what this proverb is saying. You're chasing

after something that you'll never catch. If you're

trying to find happiness in the stuff of the

world, you'll never find happiness. Because it's

always going to fly away. before you get to it.

It's impossible. It's like people would say when

I was a kid, hey, if you can put salt on a bird's

tail, you can catch it. Well, you can try it,

but the point is you can't do it. If you think

about it, I'm thinking, how can I sneak up there?

Or maybe I can catapult some salt from 30 yards

away onto a bird's tail. But that misses the

point. You're never going to do it. It's always

going to fly away. And so it will be with our

happiness if... We're trying to find it in stuff.

But if we praise the Lord for what we got, if

we learn some contentment, and we know, okay,

maybe I'm going to want something, but it's not

going to bring me the joy I want if I don't already

have that joy in the Lord, then we need to examine

our lives, and we need to see if that's where

we are. Maybe that's where we are. Maybe not.

Maybe everybody in here is just as content as

can be, and you're not seeking happiness in anything

in the world. Well, praise the Lord. You're doing

great. But maybe the truth is we kind of all

feel like sometimes there's that one more thing

that will make us happy. But maybe what will

make us happy is being obedient to God, being

kind to others, and just rejoicing in what God

has given us through Jesus Christ and all the

other blessings that we have around. Those are

the things that will really bring joy and happiness

to our life. Let's pray. God, we thank you for

these good words. Pray that you would help us

to ponder these things because, God, we got those

fleshly desires to just think that the next big

thing is going to be what just is going to make

our life all the better. And, God, some of us

have figured that lesson out the hard way and

getting all kind of good stuff only still to

be left angry and bitter and mad. And, dear Lord,

I pray that if that's anybody's heart, that you

just help us now just to seek you. And to trust

in you and to find contentment in you, dear Lord.

We thank you for all the cool stuff that you

do bless us with. But I pray, dear Lord, that

we find our real happiness and joy in you. And

that we're not seeking it somewhere else. And

if, God, we are content with you, then we'll

be content with everything. But God, if we're

not content with you, we'll be content with nothing.

So I pray that you'd help us to check our hearts.

See what's there that shouldn't be there. Help

us to repent. And help us to rejoice in you today.

In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. All right. Anybody

got anybody they want to add to the prayer list?

Any praise reports or prayer requests tonight?

All right. Anybody else? All right. That's good.

There's not anybody else that's sick. That's

a praise report. Miss Debbie Reed's doing good.

I saw her this morning. She was feeling a little

bad this morning, but she... She reached out

later and said she's feeling much better, so

that's good. Her knee's doing good. She'll be

down there a couple of more weeks for rehab,

but she's in good shape, so praise the Lord for

that. Any other prayer requests or praise reports?

All right. If not, we'll pray right quick, and

then we'll have our business meeting, and we'll

continue on. Brother Sonny, would you pray right

quick for us for these? Father God, we just thank

you, Lord, for the opportunity and praises to

find out what we need our prayers, Lord. pray

from. And oftentimes we forget that our prayer

list is long. We need to look at that because

many of them need our prayers that's on that

list. And we need to think about them. We need

to pray to you because you can take care of their

needs. And Father, as we go into this business

meeting, I want to just ask you to be with us.

Let us conduct your business the way you see

fit and that we'll all participate and be of

one accord. These things we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen.