"What Every Human Being Wants"

Sermon, Dr. Rayburn

• text: Lk 6.17-26
• We must all, every man, answer to God for our lives.
• When Jesus speaks of physical conditions, he uses them to represent true spiritual realities.
• Jesus turns the world's values upside down by commending what the world despises and condemning what the world desires. How different are God's values to that of fallen man.
• The world is unlikely to congratulate the righteous—if all speak well of you, beware!
• God doesn't set the evaluation of a man on his superficial exterior, but on the heart.
• There are two kind of men: those who are blessed of God, and those who are under His curse.
• The blessedness of which the Lord speaks does not preclude weeping. It is more than a simple emotional state. Though the waves on top of the sea are tossed to and fro, there is a great depth of calm beneath it all.
• Happiness is the vital question of all mankind. It is the one thing that all men seek. It is the foundation beneath of all our actions. It is the engine that drives our lives. All men, Christian or not, long for, and look for, happiness.
• If you seek the things that God approves, the Lord will grant you true and lasting happiness.
• Listen to Solzhenitsyn's 1980 Harvard address
• People have a lot invested in their theory of happiness, and if it is attacked they will typically respond ferociously.
• "There is no greater misery than false joys." -St. Bernard
• The difference between the Christian and the nonbeliever is in reality greater than that between the richest and the poorest man on earth. Their final destination is utterly different.