Divine Euphoria: Pursuing True Joy in God
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"I want to start because euphoria is kind of an unusual term and it's kind of the heart of this entire series by trying to explain it the best that I can. Euphoria, if you think of happiness, but do you think of happiness in the most high, ecstatic, pleasurable states of mind and emotion experiences that a human being can experience?" [00:44:27] (21 seconds)
"Now, you hear me say frequently in here that every human being you'll ever meet, every human being, 108 billion of us, they estimate that have ever lived and died on planet Earth. We all have essentially the same dream. Eight billion of us now, same dream. It's that human beings will all say it. We'll say it in different ways, but we'll say in essence, man, all I want to do is I just want to be happy." [00:47:32] (24 seconds)
"So where do we get this notion that we want to be, we can be, we should be happy, euphorically even happy, perfectly euphorically happy all the time? Why do we obsessively pursue it? Because somewhere in our spiritual DNA, somewhere in our spiritual memory, we still remember this. This is kind of our history as well as the history of that first two." [00:56:53] (31 seconds)
"we pursue it almost all the time knowingly or unknowingly so how does it manifest itself when we are being obsessed with euphoria in other words when we're pursuing it what forms does it take how can we recognize when i am being compelled to pursue euphoria that i kind of sense i was meant for but right now can't find in the full form the book of ecclesiastes solomon he was the wealthiest and the wisest king of israel and he had a lot of time on his hands although i don't know how because he had 700 wives and 300 concubines and that's not a pastry it's it's a girlfriend um so i don't know how he had the time that he had but he had a lot of time on his hands nevertheless he had a lot of money and you read the book of ecclesiastes he just explored everything that a human being can explore to try to find euphoria to try to find what's what makes life worth living you know what is it all about so here's his words um um please yes he's 210 he says i denied myself what is the word nothing he's saying you know what i don't care what it is if it looks like it could be pleasurable if it looks like it might have some euphoria i'm in it i'm going to try it i'm going to do it i denied myself nothing my eyes desired 700 wives 300 concubines not to be confused with pastries and i refused my heart no what no pleasure so no hands on i mean he was just open to anything that he thought was pleasurable seeking again the ultimate euphoric experience he says i undertook great projects i built houses for myself and i planted vineyards i amassed silver and gold for myself and yet when i surveyed all that my hands had done and what i had toiled to achieve we like to achieve things everything was what is the word meaningless he's saying didn't hit the target here's the thing about you and about me and about every human being who's ever lived he's saying i'm not a human being i'm not a human being i'm not a human being we're rather easy to please sometimes but we're nearly impossible to satisfy let me give you an example what i'm saying if you're really really really hungry almost to starving and i offer you a sandwich you're pleased right but once you're well fed you're like huh you know i'm kind of lonely i i want some friends or i want a romantic connection and and then once you get that job well you know i i kind of like to have a car uh and then you go you know what i'm saying so we're easy to please but it's really hard to satisfy us why well i'm going to get to that later we have desires and those desires are very extensive we're complex beings we're made in the image of god by christ and for christ and so he's planted in us a lot of desires that are not that easy to satisfy so solomon was frustrated with life because of death if you read the book of ecclesiastes the thing that he couldn't get past he says okay so no matter what you experience here no matter what fragment imperfect experience of euphoria and there are some and we do experience them we do pursue them and he had lots of them probably more than most human beings he said but it was all meaningless because i'm going to die if you read the book of ecclesiastes that theme just keeps coming up it's like death just ruins everything it means that no matter what you build no matter what you achieve it's all for nothing because you're dead and you're gone unless there is remember what we read earlier it turns out to be a sin and that's what he's saying so he's saying that you're not eternity in our hearts that god has placed there unless there's the fulfillment of eternal desires eternal euphoria well then everything that we we experience here it's like it's just meaningless so he was a very frustrated guy he comes concludes in the book in chapter 12 he says you know the best thing you can do is just trust god serve him because that's that's the best that you can do with your life now i want to share some thoughts with you our obsession with true euphoria true euphoria is god -given and in in essence it's of necessity eternal true euphoria endures it is perfect in its uh in its expression and it's perfect in its extent unless our obsession with true euphoria it tempts us to accept what i'm calling synthetic euphoria solomon was pursuing pleasure power prestige achievement possessions all these things and so we're we're tempted to pursue synthetic uh euphoria a deception that we play on ourselves we're just lying to ourselves we're just cheating ourselves we're kidding ourselves it's a temporary induced and altered state of consciousness for example we are all familiar that right now if you give someone heroin or if you give someone cocaine or if you give someone the crack version of cocaine or some various amphetamines and even some barbiturates and things you can induce euphoria to some degree differing degrees but it's all synthetic nothing has changed their life hasn't changed in fact it's gotten worse so we can use various things money possessions achievement pleasures and it gives us a short burst of synthetic euphoria temporary induced and altered state of consciousness it's a spiritual mirage a most deadly a most deadly virtual reality feels real gives us a lift for a time" [01:01:23] (0 seconds)
"theACE just heard or thought you heard me say you can't stop yourself from sinning that is not what i meant god has given us the ability to stop sinning but you can't stop pursuing euphoria because you're built for it you're destined for it god planted that desire in us but here's the thing that satan knows he takes advantage of us he knows how god built us he knows how we're wired so his synthetic euphoria system it revolves around and you saw solomon pursuing these things first of all pleasures multiple different types of pleasures we all are familiar with various types of pleasures this life offers they can give us little tiny imperfect grief doses of euphoria they alter our state the only problem with them is they usually come with very high price tags they come with consequences usually it damages us often it damages other people possessions is this next thing you know you you you you could be in the worst mood possible but if you go out on a shopping spree come on now don't you feel just a little bit better tell the truth yeah man randy there's nothing like there's nothing like the smell of a new car right let's oh man when i get in a new just buy yourself some of that spray squirt it on yourself if you have they have new car spray you'll save a lot of money just get that that old beater car man to save your money spray that stuff on yourself but possessions they make us feel a little euphoric" [01:07:20] (90 seconds)
"And when we pursue something, maybe some long -term goal, and we achieve it, we puff out our chest and we really feel euphorically good. But it doesn't last. It passes very quickly. And then the ultimate one, power. When we can control our environment, when we can control the people around us, when we can command and order and others obey, that can be quite a euphoric high. But it doesn't last either. These are all synthetic. And Satan, the enemy of God with his cleverness, he dangles these things in front of us like a carrot, and he just keeps us chasing them because he knows we are obsessively addicted to pursuing euphoria." [01:09:24] (45 seconds)
"Let me say this, what if the haunting dream from the past, remember the Genesis dream that lives on inside our spiritual DNA, what if the haunting dream from the past is meant to direct me in the present, that's right here, right now, to a divine purpose? Divinely destined what? Future. I'll say it again, what if my obsession with a euphoria that I can't get to the degree that I want it, what if it's meant right now to stir me to seek a future that God promises, delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you, I might, it's not might give you, I will give you the desires of your heart." [01:18:32] (42 seconds)
Ask a question about this sermon
"Now, you hear me say frequently in here that every human being you'll ever meet, every human being, 108 billion of us, they estimate that have ever lived and died on planet Earth. We all have essentially the same dream. Eight billion of us now, same dream. It's that human beings will all say it. We'll say it in different ways, but we'll say in essence, man, all I want to do is I just want to be happy." [00:47:32] (24 seconds)
"So where do we get this notion that we want to be, we can be, we should be happy, euphorically even happy, perfectly euphorically happy all the time? Why do we obsessively pursue it? Because somewhere in our spiritual DNA, somewhere in our spiritual memory, we still remember this. This is kind of our history as well as the history of that first two." [00:56:53] (31 seconds)
"we pursue it almost all the time knowingly or unknowingly so how does it manifest itself when we are being obsessed with euphoria in other words when we're pursuing it what forms does it take how can we recognize when i am being compelled to pursue euphoria that i kind of sense i was meant for but right now can't find in the full form the book of ecclesiastes solomon he was the wealthiest and the wisest king of israel and he had a lot of time on his hands although i don't know how because he had 700 wives and 300 concubines and that's not a pastry it's it's a girlfriend um so i don't know how he had the time that he had but he had a lot of time on his hands nevertheless he had a lot of money and you read the book of ecclesiastes he just explored everything that a human being can explore to try to find euphoria to try to find what's what makes life worth living you know what is it all about so here's his words um um please yes he's 210 he says i denied myself what is the word nothing he's saying you know what i don't care what it is if it looks like it could be pleasurable if it looks like it might have some euphoria i'm in it i'm going to try it i'm going to do it i denied myself nothing my eyes desired 700 wives 300 concubines not to be confused with pastries and i refused my heart no what no pleasure so no hands on i mean he was just open to anything that he thought was pleasurable seeking again the ultimate euphoric experience he says i undertook great projects i built houses for myself and i planted vineyards i amassed silver and gold for myself and yet when i surveyed all that my hands had done and what i had toiled to achieve we like to achieve things everything was what is the word meaningless he's saying didn't hit the target here's the thing about you and about me and about every human being who's ever lived he's saying i'm not a human being i'm not a human being i'm not a human being we're rather easy to please sometimes but we're nearly impossible to satisfy let me give you an example what i'm saying if you're really really really hungry almost to starving and i offer you a sandwich you're pleased right but once you're well fed you're like huh you know i'm kind of lonely i i want some friends or i want a romantic connection and and then once you get that job well you know i i kind of like to have a car uh and then you go you know what i'm saying so we're easy to please but it's really hard to satisfy us why well i'm going to get to that later we have desires and those desires are very extensive we're complex beings we're made in the image of god by christ and for christ and so he's planted in us a lot of desires that are not that easy to satisfy so solomon was frustrated with life because of death if you read the book of ecclesiastes the thing that he couldn't get past he says okay so no matter what you experience here no matter what fragment imperfect experience of euphoria and there are some and we do experience them we do pursue them and he had lots of them probably more than most human beings he said but it was all meaningless because i'm going to die if you read the book of ecclesiastes that theme just keeps coming up it's like death just ruins everything it means that no matter what you build no matter what you achieve it's all for nothing because you're dead and you're gone unless there is remember what we read earlier it turns out to be a sin and that's what he's saying so he's saying that you're not eternity in our hearts that god has placed there unless there's the fulfillment of eternal desires eternal euphoria well then everything that we we experience here it's like it's just meaningless so he was a very frustrated guy he comes concludes in the book in chapter 12 he says you know the best thing you can do is just trust god serve him because that's that's the best that you can do with your life now i want to share some thoughts with you our obsession with true euphoria true euphoria is god -given and in in essence it's of necessity eternal true euphoria endures it is perfect in its uh in its expression and it's perfect in its extent unless our obsession with true euphoria it tempts us to accept what i'm calling synthetic euphoria solomon was pursuing pleasure power prestige achievement possessions all these things and so we're we're tempted to pursue synthetic uh euphoria a deception that we play on ourselves we're just lying to ourselves we're just cheating ourselves we're kidding ourselves it's a temporary induced and altered state of consciousness for example we are all familiar that right now if you give someone heroin or if you give someone cocaine or if you give someone the crack version of cocaine or some various amphetamines and even some barbiturates and things you can induce euphoria to some degree differing degrees but it's all synthetic nothing has changed their life hasn't changed in fact it's gotten worse so we can use various things money possessions achievement pleasures and it gives us a short burst of synthetic euphoria temporary induced and altered state of consciousness it's a spiritual mirage a most deadly a most deadly virtual reality feels real gives us a lift for a time" [01:01:23] (0 seconds)
"theACE just heard or thought you heard me say you can't stop yourself from sinning that is not what i meant god has given us the ability to stop sinning but you can't stop pursuing euphoria because you're built for it you're destined for it god planted that desire in us but here's the thing that satan knows he takes advantage of us he knows how god built us he knows how we're wired so his synthetic euphoria system it revolves around and you saw solomon pursuing these things first of all pleasures multiple different types of pleasures we all are familiar with various types of pleasures this life offers they can give us little tiny imperfect grief doses of euphoria they alter our state the only problem with them is they usually come with very high price tags they come with consequences usually it damages us often it damages other people possessions is this next thing you know you you you you could be in the worst mood possible but if you go out on a shopping spree come on now don't you feel just a little bit better tell the truth yeah man randy there's nothing like there's nothing like the smell of a new car right let's oh man when i get in a new just buy yourself some of that spray squirt it on yourself if you have they have new car spray you'll save a lot of money just get that that old beater car man to save your money spray that stuff on yourself but possessions they make us feel a little euphoric" [01:07:20] (90 seconds)
"And when we pursue something, maybe some long -term goal, and we achieve it, we puff out our chest and we really feel euphorically good. But it doesn't last. It passes very quickly. And then the ultimate one, power. When we can control our environment, when we can control the people around us, when we can command and order and others obey, that can be quite a euphoric high. But it doesn't last either. These are all synthetic. And Satan, the enemy of God with his cleverness, he dangles these things in front of us like a carrot, and he just keeps us chasing them because he knows we are obsessively addicted to pursuing euphoria." [01:09:24] (45 seconds)
"Let me say this, what if the haunting dream from the past, remember the Genesis dream that lives on inside our spiritual DNA, what if the haunting dream from the past is meant to direct me in the present, that's right here, right now, to a divine purpose? Divinely destined what? Future. I'll say it again, what if my obsession with a euphoria that I can't get to the degree that I want it, what if it's meant right now to stir me to seek a future that God promises, delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you, I might, it's not might give you, I will give you the desires of your heart." [01:18:32] (42 seconds)
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Jan 05, 2025. Do you have any questions about it?