1 Timothy 1:1

When I read those words my natural thoughts are the reality that God has saved me from sin through Jesus Christ who won me that salvation. I want to get underneath that a bit to see the deeper reality of salvation and hope.

This is less of a “Here is what Paul meant to Timothy” and more looking at these deep realities that Paul chooses to begin his letter with, Paul’s introductions often give us a hint . . . God as Savior and Jesus as Hope.

(Shorter sermon today – I want you to really key in with me – or I’ll just keep talking)

In some sense, all of us, at every moment, are chasing happiness. Our decisions ultimately answering the question what will make me most happy? “Not me, I sacrifice my happiness for my children,” yes, but you’re doing that because it makes you happy in a more fundamental sense, WHICH IT SHOULD, NOT A BAD THING THAT WE ARE ALL CHASING HAPPINESS, you were made that way actually – If someone was able to see everything about YOUR life, what would they say are the things you have been chasing to that end? (Apparently Rene thinks its in having more kids) What are the things we chase? What are our cultures answers about the things that are supposed to make you happy, not superficially (like a new car), but deeply and truly happy? Successful Career. Family. Money. Romance.

What do we do with the vast number of people who achieve all of those things . . . and then kill themselves? It has been said Suicide is a privilege of the rich. How do we make sense of that with our pursuits of what they already had?

What happens when you get all of that good stuff, and you still aren’t satisfied?

Consensus of Ancient Philosophers and wise men of ancient times, West, East, Greek, Roman, Chinese – was that even if you fulfill all of your desires for worldly success and love (not just surface level material things. . . ) it won’t be enough, you will still be dissatisfied, and thus it seems like we are searching for something deeper still, deeper even than the things we assume will be enough.

C.S. Lewis “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 that arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign trip, or first take up some subject that excites us, or first start a new job are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can really satisfy. I am not speaking about what would be called unsuccessful marriages or trips or so on, I am speaking of the very best possible ones, but there is always something we grasped-at in the first moment of longing that fades away in the reality. The spouse may be a good spouse, the scenery may be excellent, it turns out to be a wonderful job, but the IT that we longed for and that we thought this was has evaded us.”

There is something deeper than even those great things, which he calls IT.

We know there are some desires deeper and better than others.

A young child asks to play with their brother’s toy and the brother cries out “I want that toy its mine” and we say YOU SHOULD SHARE because really you want something deeper, you want a good relationship with your siblings, so share because of your deeper desire, the deeper happiness – a good relationship will make you happier than hoarding a toy

The brother grows older and matures a bit and realizes he does want relationships more than stuff, so he works to build those relationships, he loves and he is loved, the terrifying thing is that after even doing that, doing all the things he was supposed to do, he gets those relationships . . . and yet he still isn’t satisfied. What then?

A Young man sleeps around w/ many women and we say no no that’s not what you really want, you want love, you want commitment, you want true romance, and so he gives up the lesser happy for the greater happy, he gets married and has a good marriage, but even then, he finds in himself a deeper desire still that is unsatisfied. - - - IT

Bono sings about it – I have climbed highest mountains, I have scaled city walls, I have kissed honey lips . . . but I still haven’t found . . (that song was sung by a church a year or two ago . . . that’s not great but it is a song that encapsulates the human condition – always searching, seemingly never finding)

What do you do then? You long for IT, and you cant find anything that will give IT to you despite their promises.

You either convince yourself that IT is an illusion, there is no real IT, and so the best way to deal with this desire is to suppress those ultimate desires.

The Ancient philosophers would say Detach your heart – Greek Philosopher Epictetus “While you kiss your son in the morning, you should murmer softly to yourself “tomorrow you will die.” Don’t get too emotionally attached.

Buddhism – since we keep grasping for IT and the world gives us back things that don’t live up to it, we must inhibit our graspings

The other answer is you just convince yourself IT IS out there in the world, despite all of humans throughout history telling you otherwise, and keep trying different stuff – Surely something the world offers is IT. I just need a wife, and you get one and still aren’t happy so it must be her fault, I need a different wife. I just need a better job, so you get one and still aren’t happy so it must be that job’s fault, this is endless, I need a different government, I need a better me, I need more kids, I need less kids, I need to retire and you can just keep trying new stuff until you die still hoping it’s the next thing

Here's the reality that the ancient philosphers knew and that you must come to grips with: Nothing in this world is capable of giving you IT, the happiness that you want the most, that you hope is around the next corner.

Augustine was a brilliant young man in North Africa about 1700 years ago. One of the most brilliant men in the world, he sought all of the things his peers were seeking, he wanted notoriety, he wanted wealth, he wanted women and then he sought philosophy. He achieved excellence in all of those things, only to realize something

“My mistake I realized consisted in this, that I sought pleasure and sublimity not in God, but in creation, in myself and other created beings and things”

To God - “To worship You is the deepest desire of humanity, for You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”

1 Timothy 1:1

God our Savior and Christ Jesus our Hope

What is the answer, given repeatedly throughout the Bible and again here in the first verse of an introduction: What is the IT that you long for – it is nothing short of GOD HIMSELF. Not even the things God can do for you is IT . . .

Savior from what?

Savior from sin? YES!

Savior from wrath? YES!

But WITH that! Saved from Godlessness – from not having God, from not knowing the one you were made for. From never finding IT.

Hope for what?

Eternal life? YES!

Resurrected Body? YES!

But WITH that! Hope to KNOW GOD! Hope to find yourself in the Beloved, like a square peg finding a square hole after trying to force its way through round holes forever.

The story of the Bible is not just that there were some people over here and they were sinful and so God came and paid their ransom and saved them from hell.

It is MORE than that! It is that THERE WAS NOTHING BUT GOD, God created man to KNOW and to be KNOWN by! To love and to be loved by! To walk with Him in the Garden! But we turned away from him to created things instead of the Creator. Using our sin as a shovel, we dug a channel between us and God so that that intended unity couldn’t be known. BUT GOD, SO loved even us rebels who turned from him still digging the ditch, He Himself laid heaven aside to cross the ditch, taking on flesh, live the perfect life never sinning and doing everything good, and then drinking the cup of wrath laid up for us, building a bride back to God, so that once again God could KNOW us and we could KNOW Him! Paying for your sin was the MEANS to the END of KNOWING YOU AND YOU KNOWING HIM. So once again our souls could find rest in the place for whom they were made, in the person for whom they were made.

You have been made to Know God and to be Known by God – HE is IT – anything short of that will leave you still needing more or needing different, desire unsatisfied

As you chase anything that isn’t that, you are doing nothing but joining the ranks of the billions who have chosen created thing (Rom 1:25) over creator and either died chasing it or found it and found disappointment and despair

In his great work Mere Christianity, Lewis writes - 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 is such a thing as water. ... thus, If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. ...

It is like when you stand on a beach and look at the sun setting over the horizon, while the waves lap onto the white shores, the beauty is too much to take in, you want more than just to look at it, you want to grab it, you want to embrace it, you want to hold it, and so you reach down and touch the sand but that isn’t it, so you walk until your feet are covered by the water but that isn’t it, you just want to get closer to the beauty somehow, you get on a boat and go as fast as you can to where the sun meets the water but you never get there. You have this desire that is hard to put into words and yet is real.

You don’t just desire the sunset, you desire the God of the Sunset, you don’t just want to feel the warmth of the Sun, you want to feel the warmth of the God that created the Sun, you desire the God of the waters, the God of the shores, the God of BEAUTY, and the God who has made you to recognize it. The God that is sending every single one of those rays of sun to hit your face, that tells every wave how far to go up onto the shore, and placed every grain of sand there at the beginning of it all.

You desire God your Savior.

You were made for God. You will find your soul restless until it rests in him.

Your hope to have that desire fulfilled is in Christ alone

‌

Jeremiah 17:13

O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.

So many waste their lives running around a fountain of fresh living water, trying to find a bottle of water lying on the ground that will end up tasting like the plastic its packaged in.

Why would anyone ever choose created thing over creator?

Its important that you see that the IT isn’t just what God can offer you, the IT is God Himself.

The tragedy is you HAVE forsaken God, you HAVE turned away, you HAVE been put to shame, and God has seen every bit of it. God looks at you, sees not only every single sin you have ever committed that you thought you were doing in secret, he sees YOU, your very heart, and yet he STILL loves you, chooses you, wants you, rejoices that you are His.

1 Peter 1:13

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

‌

Our hearts our restless until they find their rest in you – maybe you do love the Lord . . .

Many of you are Christians but still have yet to rest. . . He finished it, he wasn’’t joking, REST IN CHRIST - strivings

Related Media

Related Sermons