Today I want to talk about these books that people have been suggesting to me saying, “Pastor you’ve go to read this”, or “I really like that book it really changed my life. I call them “self help books” although many would call them masterpieces of literature and words that change lives. They are huge in scope and number, but my problem is that they have even entered the realm of Christianity, and have sold millions of copies among Christians. I want to speak only about two of them today although there are literally thousands of them

The first one I want to talk about is called “The Secret”. It is a book that even Oprah raved about for quite some time. What it tries to sell to us is the law of attraction. It is very simple and it makes sense. If you are nice to people and do good things, you will attract nice people and good things all around you. If you are hard working and do your job well you will attract more clients, more business, and so on. Sounds pretty reasonable right? Not always.

What happens when you are doing all the right things as it says to do in this book and still nothing good happens to you? In other words, what if you are like Job who had everything he could want, and all was taken away from him even though he did everything right? Or what if you are like Solomon who had everything he ever wanted including all of the wisdom of the world and yet, was miserable after not following God’s will concerning foreign wives and false gods.

The next book is a book by Joel Osteen called “Live Your Best Life Now”. This one isn’t much different. Think positive thoughts, have A LOT of faith, and you can achieve and have everything you could ever want. Again it has a lot of good stuff in it. But you can tell from the first page on the book is nothing more than Norman Vincent Peale warmed up and put in a colorful package.

I know I am probably ticking off quite a few of you today, but you need to be aware of what you are learning. You may think I am a bit too critical, but I have to be critical of anything that can cause harm to a person’s soul.

I could continue to list so many of these books that are flying off of the shelves in Christian bookstores everywhere. I guess they are flying off of the shelves because, just like the books, we are self centered. And who doesn’t want to live their best life now, know the Secret to a successful life, and live a life with purpose to it.

My friends, the key to happiness is not how much worldly wealth you acquire, or how much good you can do, because you will always be in want of more. Instead of being self or human centered, as if we are the center and in control of the universe, we need to be Christ centered and cross focused so that, even in the midst of pain and failure, we can have peace and joy. The key to a successful life is a life spent in the grace, mercy, and peace of Christ, knowing that even in the midst of your failures and shortcomings you have nothing to fear, the pressure to perform and do everything perfectly and in righteousness towards God and fellow man is gone.

As Paul says, “Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with Go something to be grasped, but made himself NOTHING, taking the very nature of a servant.

The problem is that these books promise success, happiness, and prosperity, when they are in no way able to fulfill these promises. What happens when the average person does what these people tell him to do in these books and no earthly good comes out of it? What happens when all they get for their $25 they spent on the book is just $25 less in their checkbook? What happens when success isn’t all its cracked up to be and a person gets to the top and realizes how lonely it is up there?

Instead of empty promises of wealth and prosperity, we need to stick to the one who keeps his promises. I am talking about our Lord Jesus Christ, who promises that if we but trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus and his death and resurrection we will soon be with him forever in paradise. We need to stick to our goal of eternal life. When we stick to this goal through the power of the Holy Spirit our lives, no matter what the circumstance, no matter how much we have in the bank, how big and beautiful our house is, no matter what our health is like, no matter how many people we can gain as friends or influence along the way, our lives will be fulfilled in the grace, mercy and peace of Christ.