I thought God wanted us to help people. So why should I stop helping them?

What makes you happy? Does trolling Facebook, playing video games, writing or helping others make you happy? Sure, those things can make you happy, among other things. But as Christians, one wonders where are happiness should come from. The most logical answer, our happiness should come from God.

There can be, and is another source of happiness. That can come from us, if only we stop helping people and start investing in them. It’s one thing to serve another, to help them in a tangible way, but what if we were like Paul when he was investing in the spiritual lives of the Thessalonians? He helped those people find and follow God and his son Jesus. Paul was their coach of sorts, and he trained them and taught them all they needed to know to follow the path to heaven.

So how is that a source of happiness for Paul and how does that relate to us? If you were a coach of a team and think of Paul as one too, wouldn’t you feel happy and be able to boast to others if the people you invested in made it all the way to heaven or won a gold medal? Paul’s happiness in heaven was that he could brag about having helped the Thessalonians on their path. If we want that same happiness, if we want to be able to ‘brag’, then we need to stop helping people and start investing in them and their spiritual lives. Ask yourself who will I invest in today? And then go out there and start investing!

Sermon Synopsis Written by Christine Watkins