Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Is What God Has Provided Not Enough - Luke 16:19-31

Grab your bibles. We are gonna be in Luke chapter

sixteen today Versus nineteen through thirty one. It's Luke chapter

sixteen Versus nineteen through thirty one. I'm gonna give you

minute to turn there because I want you to be

able to see everything we're talking about in the text day.

I mean, we're gonna put it on the screen, but

I also want you to see in your own bible.

If you don't have a Bible, make sure you run

and grab one at the resource desk in the lobby.

We have one that we want to take that you

for you to take and you to keep. We want

you to have God's word. So we're gonna read the

text for today, We're gonna pray, and then we're gonna

get started. Amen. Okay, we only have eight more chapters

to go in Luke. We're two thirds of the way through.

That's wild. I can't even believe, Like I mean, we

feels like we've been in Luke forever. But I've been

loving it the whole time. But I can't believe that

it's gonna end. One day, We're gonna finish the Book

of Luke. It will be over and then I'm gonna

be single tears sad about it. Okay, you guys, there

in Luke chapter sixteen Versus nineteen through thirty one, awesome, Okay,

let's read it. There was a rich man who is

clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously

every day. And at his gait was laid a poor

man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be

fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover,

even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor

man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried, and in hades.

Being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw

Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side, and he

called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send

Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water

and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in

this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that you and

your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus, in like

manner bad things. But now he is comforted here and

you are in anguish. And beside all this between us

and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order

that those who would pass from here to you may

not be able, and none may cry from there to us.

And he said, then, I beg you father, to send

him to my father's house, for I have five brothers,

so that he may warn them, lest they also come

into this place of torment. But Abraham said, they have

Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, no, Father, Abraham,

but if someone goes to them from the dead, they

will repent. He said to them, If they do not

hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced

if someone should rise from the dead. Let's pray, God,

we thank you for your word. We thank you for

the message you have for us today. God give us

open ears and open hearts to hear and receive it. God,

let's see clearly in the text what you want us

to learn today, how you want us to feel about it,

what do you want us to do about it? Got

to let your message and your word ring true. That

none of the words that I speak today are my words,

and if they are my words, let them fall on

deaf ears. We only want to hear and receive what

you have to say to us today. So God, let

us hear that message today. And Jesus name, everybody said

a men. Well, we've been in a series called Luke

the Orderly Account of Truth. Luke the Orderly Account of Truth.

We've been going verse by verse through the whole book

of Luke, which means we haven't been able to skip anything.

Even those really hard teachings sometimes Jesus would teach, we

have to read them and say, Okay, God, we're chewing

on this, what do we got to do with it?

And we're learning from even the hard teachings of Jesus.

And last week we were reminded that there is only

one way into the Kingdom of God. How many ways

one way, There's only one way into the Kingdom of God.

And when we came to the conclusion that the king

of the Kingdom gets decide, gets to decide how people

get into that kingdom. He created it, right's his kingdom,

so he gets to decide how people get in. And

no matter how the Pharisees tried to get around God's

law and everything that the prophets had told them, they

weren't going anywhere. The Law was still going to be here.

God's laws still shows us our sinful condition and our

need of a savior. It's playing this huge part into

getting into the Kingdom of God. And both the Law

and the prophets they bore witness to a coming Messiah.

Spoiler alert, it's Jesus that was the coming Messiah. But

those darn Pharisees they just refused to accept it. They

only rejected it. And this week Jesus is going to

continue to speak kind of at the same moment and

kind of in the same topic here, but he's going

to continue to speak to the Pharisees, and he's going

to tell another story. And it's not just a story

for story's sake. He's telling a story with a deeper

spiritual meaning. And this story is going to help us

understand a lot about a topic that isn't always fun

to preach about. Like I said, we're going verse by

verse through Luke, so we don't get to skip anything.

So today is all about God's judgment upon sinful man.

Fun stuff, right, we got to hear it, right, we

got to hear it. This is part of the story.

But at the end of this story, Jesus is going

to reinforce what I think is the real issue that

the Pharisees had, and their issue was that they were

unsatisfied with what God had provided. God provided something, and

they were unsatisfied with it. Who here has been to Disneyland?

Duncan and I were just talking about it this past week,

and we think we're overdue to a planet trip. So

who's in Let's go to Disneyland? Right? So think about

this being at Disneyland. You're standing in line for a ride,

whatever the ride is, and I am one person. Actually

I don't like standing in lines because of how long

it takes. But I love the lines at Disneyland because

they're so like immersive. Right. You're going on like the

Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and you feel like you're

walking into like a pirate place or whatever. It's just

everything is just so immersive, right. I love that aspect

of it. So we're in line for a ride and

you hear a kid screaming behind you, and you turn

around and as a kid who's screaming at his parents

and crying that he wants ice cream, Meanwhile he's standing

wearing like six hundred and fifty dollars worth of Disney gear.

He's got the ears on, he's got the Disney sweater

or shirt on, he's got the colorful waving wands that

are like forty two dollars and sixty seven cents or something. Yeah,

and he's dragging around the stuffed animal that was not

one hundred dollars or whatever, mouthful of cotton candy. And

this is the kid that's screaming at his parents and

he wants ice cream. The spoiled rotten brat just wants more. Right,

are you kidding me? What more could you want? You've

got everything at Disneyland, right. It's a spoiled, rotten child,

completely unsatisfied with what they have. I think this is

kind of in line with what the pharises are feeling.

And I had a different example to kind of put

it more specific to the Pharisees and maybe bring it

to a little more grown up for us. It's like

being I said, it's like being given the answer sheet

for the test, but saying that isn't enough. I want

the professor to take the test for me. I think

that's what the Pharisees are doing here. They're unsatisfied with everything.

God had already given the Pharisees everything they needed. He

had given them all the proof, the evidence. He gave

him a heads up of what his plan was going

to be, and even warned them ahead of time. He

did that all of that in the Law and the prophets.

He told him. It wasn't a secret. In the Law

and the prophets was all the prophecy and practice that

they need needed to know about God's plan. Everything was

in there. The Law showed them how sinful they were,

right because without the law we wouldn't know what sin was.

It showed them the sacrificial system that told him how

God would bring about forgiveness through what through bloodshed, That

bloodshed is required for forgiveness. The prophets spoke of God's

judgment on sin, that God would pour out his wrath

on sin and sinners, and he showed that all throughout

the Old Testament. So the problem, oh, and then even

the prophets like, I don't want to skip over this.

The prophets also spoke of God's suffering servant right about

his coming Messiah, the anointed One, the Holy and righteous One,

the one who would bear all of our iniquities and

sin So the problem wasn't that God didn't tell them,

go didn't keep this secret. He gave him and told

them what they needed to know. The problem is that

it wasn't enough for them. It just wasn't enough. They

had Moses and the prophets they had, which is the

Law and the prophets, but they rejected, they rejected it.

It wasn't enough for them. They weren't satisfied, satisfied. So

today I think we're going to see two very very

big topics in the text sday. The first topic is

the attributes of God's judgment. We're going to see the

attributes of God's judgment. And the second big topic is

the sufficiency of what God has provided, the sufficiency of

his review of his revelation. I want to try to

go through the first one a little quick so we

can spend a little more time contemplating the second topic.

But I called today's message this is what God has provided?

Not enough? Is what God has provided? Not enough? What

more do you want? And Jesus' story that he tells

starts out by contrasting two different characters, and we're going

to see that in verses nineteen through twenty one and

So if you have your bibles, make sure the reason

I want you to have it open in front of you,

so as I'm talking through it, you guys can see

clearly where it's at in the text. Amen. So we're

gonna see these two characters. There's a rich man who

is nameless. They don't give the rich man's name, and

there's a poor man whose name is Lazarus. There's a

man who had everything he could ever want, everything he

could ever need, and there was a man who had nothing.

One of these men would feast every single day, sumptuously,

it said, would feast every single day, and this other

man desired to eat just the crumbs that fell from

this rich man's table. We see a man dressed in

fine purple linen, and we see another man who is

dressed in sores that dogs would come and lick. That's

mega gross. But one day these two men die. And

what I see in the text, I see five different

attributes about God's judgment that we're going to go through

pretty quickly. And the first attribute is this, God's judgment

is immediate. God's judgment is immediate, and we're not talking

about the final judgment that happens when Jesus returns, that's

not what we're talking about here. What we're talking about

is God's judgment at our own death. When we die,

we go to one of two places, only one of two.

There's only two options. And just like we see in

verses twenty two and twenty three, as you guys are

looking at that, you see the poor man go to

Abraham's side and Abraham's side. What that means is that's

going to paradise, to peace, comfort, it's going to heaven.

And then you see this rich man who goes to Hades,

which is hell. It's the place of torment. And all

this happens immediately upon their death. And it's like what

Paul said in Tewod Corinthian chapter five. He says, we

know that we are excuse me. He says, we know

that while we are at home in the body, we

are away from the Lord. And he also says we

would rather be away from the body and at home

with the Lord. So what does that mean. It means

for the Christian for the believer to be away from

the body, which means death, So in death is to

be at home with the Lord. But that would also

mean for the non Christian to the same thing, to

be away from the body, to be dead, to die

is to be in hades, or to be in hell,

to be in torment. God's judgment in our death is immediate.

Has number one, which leads us to the second attribute

of God's judgment that I see in the text. So

number two is that God's judgment is intense. God's judgment

is intense. I couldn't think of a better word for that,

So I just, I mean, it isn't intense. So I

just decided to stick with him. But if you look

at the last part of verse twenty three, and you

look at verse twenty four, as when this rich man

looked up and he saw Lazarus with Abraham, and he

called out, asking Abraham to have mercy on him, have

mercy on me. I am in such anguish in this flame.

He's begging, please just give me a drop of water

from Lazarus finger just stay drunk. Can you imagine how

hot and an anguish you are that a drop of

water brings you some reprieve, just a single drop of water.

It's so bad. He's begging for it. And Hell is

described as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And the illustration that Jesus in scripture used often used

to describe what Hell's like is the Greek word Genna,

and if you look up what that is is the

word comes from the Hebrew name for a place called

the valley of Hinham, and that is the place outside

of Jerusalem. I feels like we're like playing connected dots here.

That's a place outside of Jerusalem where they would just

burn their trash, right, And it remind me of because

when we're there, you stand, we're up on an orphanage

on the top of a mountain, and so you can

look out across the valley and you can see everything,

and you just see like fires, controlled fires, not like wildfires,

controlled fires everywhere because everyone's just burning their trash. That's

what you do with your trash, right, It's constant all

the time. And this place outside of Jerusalem and Ghena,

they'd burn everything from regular garbage all the way down

to convicted criminals. They would throw criminals out there who

didn't get a burial. These fires in the valley would

burn continually. It's never ending fire. And this is how

Jesus chose to describe Hell place of weeping and gnashing

of teeth, of continual burning fire, just like Gana outside

of Jerusalem. So God's judgment is intense. The third attribute

we see is this, God's judgment is determined by your life.

God's judgment is determined by your life. To quote the

wise prophet Maximus from Gladiator, what we do in life

echoes in eternity. Now I'm only saying that as a

half a joke, right, because it is true what we

do in life has an effect on our eternity. But

how did Abraham respond to the rich man when he

was begging for the drop of water. It's in verse

twenty five. Look at that verse. Abraham says, no, that's

what he says. No, tells a rich man, your life

was full of comfort and excess. It was full of

good things. Lazarus life was full of what bad things.

So now he is receiving his good things and you

are receiving your bad things. Do you live your life

for yourself or do you live your life for others? Now,

the point here is not that if you are blessed

in life and you're rich, that you go to hell.

I want to make that very clear. That's not the

point here. Although Jesus does say it's easier for a

camel to pass the eye of a needle and for

a rich person to get into heaven, sure doesn't make

it easier to have a lot of stuff and be

wealthy on earth. It's because our hearts are wicked. We

have a hard time letting that stuff go. We know

that the only way into the Kingdom of God is

through faith in Jesus. That's it, That's the one way.

It is through faith in Jesus. Those who put faith

in Jesus will live a life unto him, though not

unto self. And I think that the rich man's heart

was revealed by his works, so we see that what

he did in his life revealed what his heart was,

or the condition of his heart. Where was Lazarus laid down?

Do you remember? It's at the gate of the rich man. Lazarus,

our poor man covered in sores, who is licked by

the dogs, was laid down at the gates of the

rich man. How many times did this rich man walk

past Lazarus going in and out of his house? And

we're not told in scripture, so we can't know for certain,

but at least once, but it implies that potentially this

rich man might have gone beyond back and forth and

doing an in and out of his home and just

ignoring Lazarus, not even giving him the time of day,

paying him no mind. But the emphasis of the point

here is that the rich man lived for who himself.

He lived for himself, not for others. When he saw

the man beaten and on the side of the road,

he did with the priest and the levite did he

walked on the other side of the road. He wasn't

like the good Samaritan, you remember that Good Samaritan story,

So he didn't stop and help. He walked on the

other side of the road. The rich man did what

the Pharisees were living or excuse me doing, which was

living for themselves. God's judgment is determined by your life.

Do you put faith in Jesus? Have you put faith

in Jesus? We don't get a second chance. Remember point

number one was God's judgment is immediate. Do we live

our lives in submission to Him? Or do we reject

him and only live for ourselves? Guys, ready for number four.

And it's like heavy stuff, but it's good for us.

Number four. God's judgment is final. God's judgment is final.

There's no changing what God's judgment is. You can't change it.

And once you die, it's too late. And it should

give us a sense of urgency to tell others right

a little bit of fire under our feet, to say, man,

I need people need to know this. If it's immedia

and there's no change in God's judgment once we bite

the dust, I need to let people know this. But

Abraham says, here, no, Lazarus won't give you a drop

of water because it's impossible. It says, not possible for

that to happen. Look at verse twenty six between the

rich man and Abraham and Lazarus. There's a great chasm.

A great chasm is a huge divide. Think about the

Grand Canyon. You're standing on one side of the Grand Canyon.

There on the other there's no way to get across.

And even the Grand Canyon isn't a perfect example, because

I'm sure you could figure out a way to get

across the Grand Canyon. He's saying, this is impossible. This

chasm cannot be crossed. It has been fixed. What does

it mean to be fixed? You can't move it, you

can't change it. There's nothing that's going to change this

great chasm. And the purpose of this chasm is to

make it so that no one can pass from one

side to the other. There's nothing that can change God's judgment.

Once it's been made, this chasm has been fixed, his

judgment is final. So this rich man now understands that

God's judgment is one immediate, that his judgment is two,

it's intense that three God's judgment is determined by your life,

and four God's judgment is final. And after learning all

of that and understanding all of that, the roles between

the rich man and Lazarus have reversed. I don't know

if you notice that the roles have reversed. Lazarus is

now experiencing what he's experiencing, comfort, peace, provision, and joy,

and the rich man is now the beggar. He's begging

and verses twenty seven and twenty eight he begins to

beg Abraham what to warn his brothers. Look at verses

twenty seven and twenty eight. He's begging Abraham to send

Lazarus to his brothers. He's in this torment. He's like,

I don't want my brothers to experience this either, so

please go warn them. And this leads me to the

fifth and last attribute of God's judgment that I see

clearly in the text, and that God's judgment is not

a surprise. We kind of talked about this a little

bit earlier. But God's judgment is not a surprise, it's not.

What was Abraham's response to the rich man when he's

begging to send Lazarus and warn his brothers, Well, that's

in verse twenty nine. He said, they have Moses and

the prophets let them hear them. They have Moses, and

the prophets, let them hear them. God's judgment isn't a surprise.

It's not. Moses talked about it. The law of God,

which is also known as the Mosaic Law or the

Law of Moses, bears witness to it. The prophets spoke

of it all throughout Israel's history. The people have been warned,

and Abraham is telling this rich man, your brothers have

everything they need to be warned about this, just like

he had everything he needed to be warned about this.

But even still, even though we had all this, and

he now is understanding this from what Abraham is telling him.

Even with Moses and the PropheC, he still ended up

in the torment, in anguish, in this flame. So what

does he do he has for more? He's like, well,

if it didn't work for me, I'm not satisfied with

what I was provided. Maybe if I get more, or

we give more to my brothers, maybe it'll work. Then

maybe if there's more. Look at the last two verses

of our text, and this is kind of like a

little bit of the shift into our second main topic

for today, Verses thirty and thirty one. The rich man

says to Abraham, if they see someone from the dead,

they see someone from the dead, if you send Lazarus

to them, then they'll repent. Now we get this word

repentance brought into this. First it was just like I'm

trying to understand what's going on or what like, trying

to understand the point that Jesus is making. But then

he brings up this word repent. And the word repent

means to change one's mind for the better heartily, to

amend with abhorrence of one's sin, past sins. Okay, what

does that mean? Hardily? I'm like, with all my heart

and very motivated to a mend that means make things

right with abhorrence, which is hatred of one's past sins.

I really desire to make things right because I hate

the sin that I did. That's what it means to repent.

It also means conduct worthy of a heart changed and

abhorring sin. So conduct that's our action that's worthy of

a heart that's changed from sin to something else right

and hating or abhorring sin. It's repentances. Am I turning

from my sin and hating what it is? That's big

because sometimes like, oh yeah, my bad, didn't mean to

do That's that's the level of our repentance. We don't

actually hate the sin that God hates? Do we hate it?

Do we abhor this? Abhors like the strongest word or

hate that I could think of or whatever that's in

the definitions, right, But we turn from our sin because

we hate it so much, and we walk forward in

the way that God has called us to walk. If

you send Lazarus to them, they will repent. If they

see someone raised from the dead, they will repent of

their wickedness and avoid this torment. That's what this rich

man's thinking right now. That's what he's saying, but Abraham says, no,

they won't. Abraham just says, no, they won't. And this

is the true condition of the heart of the sinner.

It's the true condition of the heart of the Pharisees.

It's the true condition of the heart of unbelievers. That

condition is a shake our fist at God because we

hate him and refuse to believe, to be at enmity

with him. And Abraham says, if they do not hear

Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if

someone should rise from the dead, if they couldn't see

it in the Law and the prophets, they never will.

They're just not gonna see it. And we know this,

We know this to be true. Why because Jesus was

literally walking around doing miracles all over the place, they

still rejected him. Right in front of their eyes. Miracles

are happening, and they're like, mm I don't think so,

they're still rejecting Jesus. Not only that, but people were

already raised from the dead by the prophets, right this

rich man saying, if someone raises from the dead, then

they'll believe. But people had already been raised by the prophets,

and they still didn't believe. Elijah raised the widow of

Zaraphath's son in One Kings, chapter seventeen, his protege, I'll

call matt for lack of better terms, a lot where

he passes anointing and mantle onto Elisha. He raised the Shunamites,

Shunamite woman's son and Second King's four. And it gets

even crazier than that. After Elishah was dead, they're trying

to drag another dead guy out there, and some bandits

are on the road and they throw the dead guy

onto Elijah's bones and that guy comes back to life bananas,

And that's in Second King's thirteen. But not only that

Jesus himself would be crucified and raise from the dead

and the people would reject him. Then, not only that

Jesus died, resurrected, showed himself to all these people before

he ascended into heaven, and people still reject them today

even if they see someone raise from the dead, that

won't convince them. That's what Abraham's responding. But why is this?

Why why do they refuse to believe? Why do people

continually demand to see a sign, demand to see another

miracle to see another wonder why do they stand unconvinced,

unsatisfied with the evidence that they've been given, Which makes

me think, how is that even possible that when people

are faced with this kind of proof they would still

reject Jesus? How is that impossible? And I think Jesus

explains this in John chapter eight and in chapter ten.

The first one is eight forty seven simply says this,

whoever is of God hears the words of God. The

reason you do not hear them is that you are

not of God. You are not of God. They do

not hear the words of God because they are not

of God. They can see Jesus in the flesh, they

can hear his teaching, they can see all of his miracles,

and still stand and reject him. Why because they're not

of him. But more, I think more pointedly is in

John chapter ten, if I can have the band come up, please,

John chapter ten, verses twenty four through twenty seven. You guys,

if you want to, you can turn there, but we

can stay in our text and I'll just read it

from the screen. So the Jews gathered around him and

said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense.

If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them.

I told you, and you do not believe the works

that I do in my father's name. Bear witness about me.

But you do not believe because you are not among

my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,

and they follow me. Those who are Jesus sheep, they

hear his voice and they listen to him his sheep.

I'll just say, all sheep know their shepherd's voice. This

is a very practical, real thing in sheep herding and farming.

The shepherd too. People can go out there. One person

can say, come on, sheep, who's not the shepherd. The

sheep won't listen, but the actual shepherd says, all right,

come follow me, and they actually follow him. It's crazy,

almost not crazy. It's the way God made things to work.

And that's why I think he uses that example. My

sheep hear my voice and they listen. He knows his sheep,

His sheep believe what he says. So until Jesus takes

us out of darkness and brings us into his glorious light,

until he removes the scales from our eyes, until he

does surgery and removes our heart of flesh, excues me

our heart of stone, and puts in a heart of flesh.

Until he saves us. We remain dead in our sins,

unable to see and hear what Jesus is saying, cannot

hear it if we're not his sheep, we stay as

God haters, shaking our fist at him. Just like the Pharisees.

We would remain unsatisfied with what God provideds demanding another sign,

which anytime you're like I want another sign, all you're

saying to God is like prove it. That's literally what

you're saying is like, prove it God. He said something

like I don't believe that, prove it, which makes me

think and I think I was talking to Pastor Duncan

about this earlier this week, but I was like, what

about when who was it that put the cloth? Get in?

He puts the cloth out there, He's like, all right, God,

put the dew on the cloth, but no dew on

the ground. And God does it, which already I'm like,

you're gonna like make God prove something, okay, whatever, And

then he's like, okay, cool story God, But what about

the opposite how about no do on the cloth, but

then dew on the grass. God does it again. I

think God should wipe him out personally. But God had

a plan, right. But what are we saying when we're

asking God to show us another miracle. We're saying, prove it.

I don't believe you prove it. What we're doing is

what Jesus described in Matthew sixteen, and it says Jesus

responded to the Pharisee saying, an evil and a adulterous

generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be

given to it except the sign of Jonah. Now that

sentence is a whole sermon in and of itself, But

just we're gonna pull one little piece out of there.

Jonah was an Old Testament prophet. So Jesus is saying,

the law and the prophets are sufficient. They are sufficient. Well,

God has provided. It's enough. It was enough for them then,

and what He has provided for us now, it's enough

for us. Now. God has provided everything we need to believe.

We've been shown we are sinners through the Law. We've

been warned about his judgment. We've been told of a

coming savior, and that shape savior shows up and we've

been given the remedy to our sinful condition that we

find forgiveness, salvation and eternal life and faith in Jesus. Amen.

It's been revealed to us God has done more than enough,

far more than we could ever ask or imagine. So

my question that I want us to wrestle with today

is this, where am I unsatisfied with what God has provided?

And I want to kind of qualify this because a

lot of times we talk about provision. My mind just

went like eight different directions. And how I want to

say this because is not my notes. When we talk

about provision, I'm not talking about like I need food

to eat. That's not what we're talking about. In the text,

we know that God knows every time a sparrow falls

to the ground, right. We know that He dresses the

flowers more beautiful than Solomon on his best day. And

if He takes care of that stuff which is here

today and gone tomorrow, how much more will we take

care of his children? So I'm not talking about like

I'm in desperate need, He's gonna take care of that.

I'm talking about when you strive and you're fighting for more,

you're just discontent, unsatisfied with things? Where am I unsatisfied

with what God has provided? Where do I think it's

not enough? I want more? Where am I tempted to

be like the Pharisees and think that what God has

provided is insufficient? Am I like the child at Disneyland,

surrounded by incredible blessings and thrown a fit because I

want ice cream or dole whip? That's my jam at Disneyland.

He already gave you, his son. What more do you want?

We owe got everything, everything in view of the mercy

that he has shown us. If you've put faith in Jesus,

in view of the mercy that he has shown us,

it's reasonable, reasonable to live my entire life as a

living sacrifice unto him. That's reasonable he gave us himself.

Is that not enough? Why can we not be content?

What does this drive for more and more and more

that we have? Why are we so unsatisfied with what

the Lord has provided? We need to continually put to

death our sinful flesh, our flesh that is never satisfied,

and always once more. It's in Proverbs where it says

that she Ol and Abadon are never satisfied, nor are

the eyes of men. I think that's why I made

one of the top ten rules, the coveting rule. Do

not covet. We just have this insatiable desire for more.

Why is that? And I think that the answer is

that oftentimes we're seeking satisfaction in the gift rather than

the gift giver. We're looking to something to provide a

need in us that it will never satisfy. Never, the

blessings of God were never meant to satisfy us the

way He himself will never. I say, my wife is

a gift, a gift from God, but she will never

satisfy me. Like God, at some point she's gonna let

me down. She's near perfect, but at some point she'll

she'll let me down. Or what about this? She's going

to die one day. And if all of my happiness, acceptance, joy, peace,

comfort is all in her, what happens now? My source

for all those things are gone. It's gone. But there

is nothing that can take the Lord from me. Nothing,

nothing can take the Lord from you, not a thing.

He will never fade away, never leave me, nor forsake me.

He can never fail, he can never die never. We

were just literally singing. Firm foundation he won't fail. He

won't ever, he can never fail. But no matter how

amazing the things he blesses us with are, they pale

in comparison to him. They pale in comparison to him.

And God doesn't bless us so that we'd bless the gift. Anyway,

He blesses us so we would bless or so that

we would think and glorify him, so that we would

praise him. A pastor a long time ago used the

example of steak. You cut into that perfect steak, you

take a bite. You're not like, oh my gosh, praise

the cow that this steak came from. No, it's praised

the Lord who made the cow. Did I get to enjoy?

And I'm glad that chef knows what he's doing. Right.

The blessing was never meant to be praised. I mean

read Psalms right. Everything he's done is for the praise

of His glory, not man's glory, not what the thing

is in and of itself. It's meant for the praise

to terminate on the Lord, not the cow. But his

blessings only scratch the surface of the blessing of knowing him.

And I love how Paul says it. He says, I

count everything is lost because of the surpassing worth of

knowing Christ. Jesus, my Lord. Come on, that's so true.

For anyone who's tasted and seen that the Lord is good,

you understand that to know Christ is more valuable than

anything else you could ever think or imagine. It's worth

more than any blessing that God could ever give us.

Why he is Emmanuel, which means God with us. He

has chosen to make his dwelling place among his people.

He's given us, or excuse me, He's given himself to

us as the most precious gift. To have him, To

know Him surpasses the worth of anything and everything else.

There's nothing that will satisfy you like the Lord. And

I want to land the plane kind of like this.

I have a memory verse for you. It's not very long.

When's the last time you did memory verse? Not long

like a long time ago for me. I should probably

try to memorize these more often. But this is a

good one. It's Psalm sixteen eleven. I'd love for you

to turn there in your Bible, Psalm which is dang

near the middle of your Bible Chapter sixteen verse eleven.

We're not gonna memorize the whole chapter of sixteen, just

one verse in it. See some pages still turning. We

can be patient. This is important. Psalm chapter sixteen, verse

eleven had on the screen for everybody to see too.

You make known to me the path of life in

your presence. There is fullness of joy. At your right

hand are pleasures forevermore. You make known to me the

path of life in your presence. There is fullness of

joy at your right hand, our pleasures forevermore. Who wants

fullness of joy? Who wants pleasures forevermore? Where they found

the presence of God? Found in the presence of God.

And I want to talk about that word fullness and

the word forevermore. I think it's really important that we

kind of like understand what the Bible is saying. We

can just read this verse, pass ride on and let

it have no effect on us. But if we stop

and really think about what fullness means and what forevermore mean,

this verse, I don't know, is life changing. Every verse

can be life changing, but this one got me this week.

Think about the most joyous or glad day you've ever had.

Get that in your head the day where you were

just the happiest you could ever imagine. Fullness it's more

than that. Fullness means there's so much in there you

can't fit anymore. It's full. There's no more room to

cram any more joy or gladness or happiness in there.

Fullness of joy in your presence is fullness of joy pleasures,

which also has delights or pleasantness. What's the longest you've

ever experienced that? Moments? Hours, days of pleasantness, weeks forevermore, forever,

Like it never ends, it keeps going forevermore. These pleasures,

this gladness, this or delights, this pleasantness, it never ends.

Fullness forevermore, our joy, fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

So let's all read this together. You ready, you make

known to me the path of life. In your presence,

there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are

pleasures forevermore. Memorize that in any time you start to

feel unsatisfied with what God has already provided, you read

this and say, WHOA, No, God, You've already given me

everything I need to be satisfied to be happy forever.

I'm fully happy, full of pleasure forevermore. You've already provided that.

This is our reminder verse, our memory verse. Memorize this

so in closing, brother sister, Jesus is enough. He's more

than enough. He gave his life for us, He took

our sin, He gave his eternal life and perfect peace

with the Creator. What more could you want? So be

satisfied in Him and everything he's provided you. Amen. Can

you stand your feet please,