Hope Lake Country Podcast Jason Ewart

Ancient philosophers taught on it, physicians directly and indirectly told us about it, and many social media influencers claim to have the perfect recipe for it. The topic of self-control has been discussed throughout history. The Bible has plenty to say about self-control, but the practice and end goal of self-control in scripture isn't about living to be a hundred or learning how to be a minimalist. The Bible teaches that self-control is about submission to God. Those who practice self-control understand its perfection in Jesus, but those who don't will encounter friction.

Last week we saw that wisdom wants to be in a relationship with you. But so does another
woman. Her name is Folly. In Proverbs, Solomon describes Folly as an adulterous woman. The people she ensnares all share a common trait. They don’t see their lives as a path that has an obvious destination. Instead, they view life as a series of isolated events. And by the time they get to their destination, it’s too late to avoid it. This message will warn people about the methods, and the danger of the Harlot

The information age is multiplying our knowledge and our access to knowledge. But it feels like our wisdom, knowing what to do with the realities and complexities of life, is stagnating. The world is changing so rapidly that our need for wisdom has never been greater in our lifetimes. Wisdom is not correlated with intelligence. And that’s good news. Wisdom can be had by anyone. But it requires intentionality. As we begin this series, we’ll discover why Solomon personified wisdom as a woman. He’s inviting you to pursue a relationship with her. And if you have one, Sophia will teach you how to have the competence to know what to do with the realities of life.

In the 1900s, the American Dream wasn’t about individual wealth and possessions. It was about community flourishing. That dream didn’t just want the grass at our house to be green but our neighbors as well. Today, the American Dream is simply the individual pursuit of more. Today we have more and consume more. More cars, more square footage, more technology, and more possessions. We also have more debt, more anxiety, more loneliness, and a bigger environmental footprint than ever before. Americans continue to consume and are never satisfied. Jesus warned about the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for things because they won’t give us the life we are looking for. The truth is the more we consume, the more our possessions consume us. When we can break free from our possessions, we have space to pursue what truly matters.

If America is built on the premise of an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, how come we don’t crack the top ten of happiest nations in the world? Why are we hanging out with Lithuania on the happiest nations in the world list? Why do we have an epidemic of mental illness? Because after 247 years of trying, maybe it’s time to admit that we’re lousy at pursuing happiness. The truth is that you will never achieve happiness by pursuing happiness. In this message, we’ll learn how to end our chronic discontent and pursue an inner peace that would make us the happiest place on earth.

The American Christian Church is known for being divided more than it is known for being united. It’s known for what it’s against rather than for what it’s for. Church people have behaved with as much as (or more) godlessness as people who don’t go to church. As a result, Americans haven’t left the church because THEY don’t believe what Jesus teaches, but because the CHURCH doesn’t seem to believe what Jesus teaches. If we’re going to make our generation think twice about throwing baby Jesus out with the church bathwater, it will only happen if we return to the number one value of God’s Kingdom.