It's a Friday evening. Your friend has just invited you to this really cool party that EVERYONE is going to tonight and it's been 3 years since you didn't go out on a Friday night because staying home is just waste of the start of your weekend. The weekend is what life is all about. Screw work and school and whatever, you wanna party!
So this party ... it's awesome. Or maybe it's not that great. But whatever, you're there to have fun so you drink yourself silly and dance the night away with a group of your friends ... you meant to be home at 2 but I guess those hours just slipped away....
At 7 in the morning maybe you made it home and are now lying on top your bed with half the clothes you wore to the party still on. You're good and tired and that hangover is really starting to get to you now so you try to sleep it off.
Awake again at 11:00, you kinda wasted what could've been a great morning shopping or seeing a movie or something, and that hangover is still clinging on....
You get a text from your friend saying there's an awesome party on in the city tonight and you totally have to be there. It's going to be sweet as.
Is this you? Maybe you know someone who does this. Lives for the weekend. Parties all night. But is it worth it? Was that party as great as it could have been? Are you going to parties and entertaining yourself with other high-adrenalined activities in an attempt to quench the overwhelming thirst to be satisfied with life?
Perhaps you're looking in the wrong place. Have you ever wondered why you can't seem to find simplistic happiness anymore? That ipod you just got - there's a newer version now and it holds 20 gigs more than the one you have and you've already run out of room. Your best friend just bought a car that runs faster than yours. The shoes you bought last month are already out of fashion.
The world seeks adrenaline and excitement. These days, it's hard to find things that make you really happy. Nothing lasts. Your sensations have been heightened by the pleasure you seek and numb you to the things you could find true satisfaction in.
All pleasure must be bought at a price. For true pleasure the price is paid before it is enjoyed. For false pleasure the price is paid after it is enjoyed. Remember that party you went to? It was great fun at the time, but now you've got a hangover.... Is this really true pleasure? Is what you experience at the party really worth hanging on to? You're seeking happiness in a place that will bring only fleeting pleasure - the few hours at the party. The couple of days that make up your weekend.
So, if you're read this, maybe now you're wondering where you can find true pleasure. This answer is simple - nothing in this world can bring you pleasure.
But hear this - Jesus CAN bring you eternal pleasure! He will quench your thirst for satisfaction.
Wait, wait - you're thinking. Jesus? But Christianity is restricting - I can't do the things I want to do! Christianity is like a straitjacket. I can't live a full life under Jesus.
But you can! John 10:10 says: "I have come so that they may have LIFE and have it to the FULL." Jesus is here so that you can live your life to its fullest.
God is not against pleasure. When He created the world, He made it to be pleasing to us. Read Genesis 2:9: "And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food."
See that? God made fruit to please us! And that's just one thing of many that He created for our pleasure.
We gain purpose in a relationship with Jesus. John 10: 1-21 says that Jesus is like a shepherd, and we are his sheep. He knows his sheep well and they know him by his voice. The shepherd would lay down his life for his sheep because he cares so deeply for them. The sheep know his voice and will listen to it, but will scatter when they are called by a stranger.
This is how we are like in the world. Jesus is there for us to guide us and give us a full life, safe with him and satisfied to the full. He laid down His life for us on the cross so that we might be saved. When the devil calls us to seek pleasure and satisfaction in other places, we scatter and are lost from Jesus.
But as his sheep we know His voice when he calls us back. Listen for Him. He is waiting for you. He is here so that we may live life to the full.
Think about the ways in which you seek pleasure. Do they bring you eternal satisfaction? No. Nothing on this earth can. And when we continue to seek for pleasure on this earth, our sensations are heightened so that it becomes harder and harder to find things here that please us. But Jesus can and will bring you satisfaction if you look to Him. He offers us more than this world ever can - eternal life and satisfaction. There is only one way to eternal satisfaction, and that is through Jesus, and if we find satisfaction in Jesus, we will also find satisfaction and simplistic happiness on this earth, knowing that one day He will return to bring us the gift of eternal life as he has promised. But the only way to receive the gift is to listen and believe this good news. Find Jesus, find satisfaction!
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