Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Why "More" is Never Enough - #6046

Monday, March 15, 2010

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Maybe you've heard that little song from a children's TV show. It goes like this: "One of these things is not like the other; one of these things doesn't belong." That's how I look in the middle of 20 or 30 professional football players. And that's where I've ended up a number of times when I've spoken for National Football League chapel services. Every NFL team actually has a chapel meeting before their game. Often, I was invited to join the players for the team meal after the chapel. Of course, their game day meal was this massive buffet, designed to help them power up for this grueling afternoon they have ahead. After one chapel, I had the privilege of visiting for some time with one of the players who had actually played in three Super Bowls and had been named the Most Valuable Player in one of them. I said, "So you have three Super Bowl rings?" He said, "Yeah, but it's still not enough. I won't be happy until I've got a Super Bowl ring on all ten fingers!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why 'More' is Never Enough."

Here's a man who has won one of the most coveted prizes in professional sports - three times! But it's not enough. I remember hearing the story of one player who had just experienced the fulfillment of his lifelong dream. He played on a national champion college football team. The morning after, his team and his name were all over the front pages, announcing they had won the championship. But he said he couldn't get over this deep feeling of depression that morning, because, in his words, "my god had died." He had everything he'd been living for. Now what?

John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in American history was asked once by a reporter, "How much money is enough money?" He smiled and he answered simply, "A little bit more." It's true, isn't it? Whatever we've looked for in our life, there never seems to be enough of it to satisfy our restless heart. If you're still climbing whatever is your own "Mt. Happiness," you figure you're not satisfied because you're not there yet. But the people who are already at the top of that mountain are saying, "I'm here and I don't have it. Now what?"

Thousands of years ago, King Solomon, the richest and most sought after man of his time, reached this conclusion, recorded in the Bible in Ecclesiastes 1 , "There is nothing new under the sun...I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." That says it, doesn't it; chasing the wind. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 , our word for today from the Word of God, Solomon actually puts his finger on why happiness is so elusive: He says, "God has set eternity in the hearts of men." We're made for something that will last forever, and nothing that doesn't last forever will ever fill the hole in our heart. In fact, we were made for a personal relationship with God, the only One who's big enough to fill that hole because that hole was made for Him. The Bible describes our hearts as being "like the tossing sea, which cannot rest...there is no peace..." (Isaiah 57:20-21 ).

But we haven't made our Creator the center of our lives. We've marginalized Him and minimized Him. We've pushed Him to the edges of our life, and confining Him to a little compartment marked "religion." We're lonely for God. We're away from God; so far away that it took the death of God's only Son to bridge the gap between us. Our self-run lives (the Bible calls that sin) place us under the death penalty for all rebels against God. The death of Jesus Christ on that cross, and His resurrection from the dead three days later, was to pay for every wrong thing you've ever done and to open the door to love and life that never ends; that eternity you were made for.

The Bible bottom lines what Jesus did for you on the cross in these words: "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5 ). The Bible says you can be "complete in Him." If that's what you want, if you're ready to place your total trust in Jesus to forgive your sin and bring you to God, tell Him that from the bottom of your heart right where you are, "Jesus, beginning right now, I'm Yours."

And then I hope you'll visit our website. And you can find there a brief explanation that I put there about how to begin your relationship with Christ. The website is YoursForLife.net. Your heart's been looking for home for a long time. Today, home has come looking for you.