Satisfied. Finally... Why True Fulfillment Is Only in God

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

I got a question for you this morning.

Why are we so dissatisfied? A group did a study and they

found out that 54% of people in a marriage are dissatisfied.

For the record, not me found out that 85% of people are

dissatisfied in their work at at jobs you know going to work.

For the record, not me they found out that 47% of people are

dissatisfied with the church. For the record, Are you sure?

Wait till I'm done. It's interesting, this group did

another study and they found out that the happiest people in

America are people that attend church regularly.

Interesting, this group also found out in the study that

fourteen and only 14% of people are satisfied with themselves.

In 2018, it was 31% of people satisfied with themselves.

That's a drop off, y'all. We live in the United States of

America, the land of opportunity, the land of

abundance. We have Walmarts, whatever you

need. We have Costco, we have Amazon.

You, you just press a button and then you open your door and

whoop, there it is. Why are we so unsatisfied?

We all have this common weakness within us.

It's part of who we are. And the problem is this, this,

this common weakness of being dissatisfied.

The problem is that when we are dissatisfied, you may have heard

me say this before, when you are desperately hungry, you will eat

anything, right? And so when we are dissatisfied,

we go searching for something to satisfy as we go around needing

needy, needy, needy. There's a seat in the Bible that

where Jesus does something that I'm not sure he does anywhere

else. Maybe one or two other times if

you really study through the Scriptures.

He's with his disciples. He's on the Mount of Olives,

he's in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And he says to his disciples, I have a need.

Jesus, the Son of God says I need something.

The one who was the owner of a cattle, of owner of the cattle

on 1000 Hills, the wealthy, the God who has all things says I

need something. He says those disciples I'm

about to go through the crucifixion, the nails, the pain

and terror of sin and death, the rejection of my father.

I have a need. Will you pray for me?

Can you imagine the Son of God saying, I need you to pray for

me? Like what shouldn't be?

You pray for me. And Jesus says, no, I need you

to pray for me. And Jesus goes into the garden,

and if you remember the Scripture, he prays and it's so

intense that his blood vessels break and he sweats out blood

goes back to his disciples, and there they are, fervently

calling on the name of the Lord in his behalf, right?

No, he's praying over here, sweating blood.

And he comes back one hour later, one hour later, right?

And they're asleep. And Jesus says this to him.

The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Weak flesh, weak flesh. I have some weak flesh.

Let me prove it to you. I hate Halloween.

Thought there might be some noise.

Some would be like Boo. Some would be like yes.

Now it's for weird reasons. Halloween where we live, there's

just way too many people. Like they people bust into our

neighborhood to go collect candy.

There are certain households, I see some of you here that live

on a Main Street where they might give away thousands of

pieces of candy, literally thousands.

I I also hate that adults dress up like children and children

dress up like adults. And I also hate that adults

judge other adults and children for acting the way that they do.

I also hate that we partner with the demonic on Halloween.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers

and powers and the spirit. All that in Ephesians chapter 6

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

and we just put them on our yard and in our house.

I could get on a soapbox, but that's not really why I hate

Halloween. The reason I hate Halloween?

When we used to practice this idea of giving out candy every

year, magically in our house would appear these gigantic bags

of chewy chocolate delectables. Bite size unthreatening.

Just a little bites. Snickers, Milky Way, Reese's

Peanut Butter cups, Twix, Kit Kat Butter finger.

Have I got everybody covered? Yeah.

I did not mention Heath or wow, Somebody just fell out in the

spirit. Or that one with coconut.

I won't even say it. Almond.

Not joy. And invariably, when these bags

are in my house before Halloween, I would find myself

standing at them before I heard them calling my name, and I

would wriggle my little hand through the plastic and just get

one. Probably a Snickers, because

Snickers satisfies. Guess what?

No, we don't. I'm here to testify.

I have scientifically tested that Snickers does not satisfy

because you have one in 3 minutes later you're standing

back in the bag and I could just just one more and one more

becomes 12. And scientifically, I've proven

that 12 does not satisfy either. Whatever it is, it just does not

work. It's impossible.

And what happens is, is my discipline unravels because of

my dissatisfaction. If I was satisfied, I just have

one or none. But because I'm not satisfied, I

have more than 1/12/15 hundred whole bags gone.

Nobody knows, right? Learn the lesson with me.

Unrivaled lives often stem from unsatisfied souls.

The soul is unsatisfied and I need it to be satisfied because

of the discomfort of the dissatisfaction, I need this to

go away. So one chocolate turns into 12

or one drink turns into three or 4A night, or one quick trip to

the mall becomes or one quick trip on Amazon becomes.

This debt inducing buying frenzy when a late night look at an

inappropriate website becomes normal comfortable when a kid

spills a drink of water and a fire hydrant of rage comes out

of your mouth. These are all symptoms of an

unsatisfied soul. Unraveling all of these

occurrences and many many more is a never satisfied flesh

crying out. Medicate my pain, medicate my

failure, medicate my unhappiness of the way that things have

turned out. I'm not satisfied.

The flesh, the weak flesh cries out make it go away for me.

Besides chocolates, I try to satisfy myself typically with

TVI know I'm the only one. Sports glory to God movies

Hallelujah Jeopardy any jeopardy fans what is jeopardy?

That's you get to say it that way.

I scientifically have tested jeopardy.

No, shock does not satisfy at all.

All of these things that we do, whatever it is, it's all a

distraction to us. I feel dissatisfied.

I'm going to distract myself from my dissatisfaction by doing

something. And let me ask you this

question. Does distracting yourself help

you or does it help the enemy? Think about it, if a burglar was

entering your house to steal your possessions, maybe harm you

and your family, is it better for you or for the enemy, the

burglar, if you're distracted? And here we are, thinking that

the distractions against our dissatisfaction is actually

helping us, when instead it's actually making us more

vulnerable, exacerbating the problem that we're facing.

That's what weak flesh does. Weak flesh is prone to cave,

prone to want. There's a constant sucking sound

from the soul of the dissatisfied.

Anyone ever remember Little Shop of Horrors?

Audrey too. The plant would sing feed me,

see more, feed me all night long.

You can do it. Anyone.

OK, It got really embarrassing really quick.

Let's move along. Weak flesh wants to be satisfied

but can't because weak flesh is not satiable.

It's insatiable. Weak flesh is never satisfied

during the fast. What we were doing, if you

remember, is teaching our weak flesh a lesson.

You do not rule over me. I am starving you flesh so that

you will die out. And instead the Spirit of God is

what I will bend my knee to. The Spirit of God is who wears

the pants in my family, right, not my flesh.

Praise the Lord. So this weak flesh, the sucking

sound. And here's what I want you to

know. When you have a life that is led

by, fed by, fueled by, ruled by the Spirit of God, here's what

happens. Complete satisfaction, total

satisfaction. The message today is entitled,

satisfied. Finally, you will be satisfied

when you are at your best. And the Scripture shows us when

you will be at your best. So I'm going to show you today

how you're going to be at your best so that you can and I can

experience satisfaction no longer having to binge on the

things of the world that bring us into disaster.

Amen. We're going to be in two places.

If you need a Bible, raise your hand.

We'll bring one to you. Otherwise, open your Bibles to

Revelation chapter 21. Just flip to the very back.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

If you've gone to maps, you got a little too far.

Flip back a little bit. Revelation 21, the second, the

last chapter in the Bible. Also, if you want, you can put a

pen or a bookmark on Psalm 130. That's what we'll be at the end

of today. So Revelation 21, we're coming

to you. We're coming to you.

Psalm 130 and Revelation 21. If you're ready, say I'm ready.

Wait wait y'all sound too sleepy today.

I'm up here, you're there, let's be together.

Say I'm ready. Hey praise God Revelation

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

chapter 21. Lord bless your word as we read

it in Jesus name. Then this is John speaking.

He says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the 1st heaven

and the first earth had passed away, and there was, excuse me,

no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new

Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a

bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's

dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with

them. They will be his people and God

himself will be with them and be their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for

the old order of things is passed away.

He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything

new. Then he said, write this down,

for these are the These words are trustworthy and true.

He said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the

beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water

without cost from the spring of the water of life.

To those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be

their God and they will be my people.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the story.

This is called eschatology, the study of theology in regards to

the end, the final state of our souls and the final events of

all of history. In the Book of Revelation, which

we're going to study later this year in the fall, Jesus himself

gives John the revelation. It's just one revelation.

It's not revelations, it's revelation.

He gives them this vision. He gives them a promise of how

fangs will be in the end. This is Jesus giving this

promise. Now remember, this is the same

Jesus who promised through the prophets that he would come to

the earth, and Jesus fulfilled that promise.

This is the same Jesus who says I'm going to go to the cross to

wipe away the power and the penalty of death and sin.

It's a promise he fulfilled. This is the same Jesus that

promise that he would bring the Holy Spirit to the earth, a

promise that Jesus fulfilled. And now here we have Jesus

making this final promise, saying in the end there will be

no more death, there will be no more tears, there will be no

more separation from God's perfect presence.

Jesus made the promise and Jesus keeps his promises.

Amen. So verse 6 is key here.

Jesus says I will give free water with free refills forever.

He's saying to the unsatisfied, to the thirsty, I will satisfy

for free forever. Meaning that in heaven, our

perfect state is as satisfied people forever, not wanting, not

lacking. There's no needy behaviors that

cause us to spiral into these unraveled lives.

And all of it happens, our satisfied selves, this free

water, because the Lord God himself is present with us and

we with Him, nothing to separate us from Him.

This is the beauty of how it will be.

But wait, there's more, another promise.

You don't have to turn there. It's just one short verse.

Luke 2343 says Jesus answered him.

Truly, I tell you today you will be with me in paradise.

We're going to talk about this text at Easter, just a few weeks

away, April 5th. But just in case you're not

familiar with the story, Jesus is here on the cross.

He has two thieves next to him. One of the thieves makes a

profession of faith. And Jesus says to him, today

you'll be with me in paradise. And what Jesus is doing here is

giving us a glimpse of the way it will be in heaven, what it

will look like. He did not say today you will be

with me in the clouds. He also didn't say today you'll

be in the grave and later join me somewhere else.

He says you will be with me and he uses a specific word on

purpose, Paradise. Paradise means park like beauty.

It means Garden of Eden and you all can imagine what you think

that looks like. I personally think it looks like

this. Take it in.

I don't know what that red flag fruit tree is in the middle

there. This is Bandon Dunes.

This is on the coast of Oregon. My dad and my brother and myself

last Easter got on a plane and went and played seven courses on

the Pacific Ocean in paradise. Look at that.

Even if you don't love golf, don't you want to go?

Just pretend like you don't. You want to go?

It's beautiful. Look at that.

Oh, sad. I just believe with all my heart

that the greatest glory of whatever you imagine on earth to

be paradise is like this. The tiniest crumb, the the the

smallest infinitesimal crumb of food compared to this rich

gourmet platter that God has served for us in heaven.

This is what awaits us in the end in Jesus name.

But wait, there's more, but let me just summarize so far in

heaven we'll be with God, we'll be fully satisfied and we'll be

in paradise. That's where we are so far.

There's more First Corinthians 15.

You don't have to turn there, but look at this verse 50 says I

declared you brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood

cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable all

this inherit the imperishable. Listen, I'll tell you a mystery.

We will not all sleep, but we all will be changed in a flash,

in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound. The dead will be raised

imperishable and will be changed.

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable,

and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been

clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality,

then the saying that is written will come true.

Death has been swallowed up in victory.

Somebody say Amen. Come on.

There's so much in this verse, but what I want you to focus on

today is that at the end, everything that's perishable

gets replaced by what's imperishable.

I want you just to check out your body for a second.

Look around. Look anywhere you can that's

appropriate right now. Do you see your expiration date

printed on your body somewhere? I am standing in front of you

like the milk in your fridge. I'm perishing.

You see, this didn't used to be Gray.

This didn't used to wiggle. How'd that happen?

While these bodies we currently live in are wasting away and as

we age, we carry around the evidence that we are perishing.

Wrinkles, sags, stooping. There's so much fun, so much

fun. One day my dad said getting old.

Tim is a yeah. What about it?

Tell me, is it not as bad as like getting old Stinks like

dad? No, in heaven.

Everything, all the pain, all the wrinkles, all the sags, all

the all the stooping. It all goes away and it's

replaced with a perfectly healthy forever body and you'll

be walking around like this. Be like you go to the gym like

no man, I've been to heaven. Hallelujah.

I can't wait. So I'm just combining all these

things together in the final destination.

Thanks be to God, we are in our perfect emotional state.

We're in our perfect relational state with the Lord our God.

We're in our perfect physical state, and as a bonus, we are in

paradise. Are you?

Are you getting all the pieces together?

Are you getting all that? You got to talk back to me this

morning. Come on, we will be satisfied in

every way. My point is that everything and

everyone are at their very best version of themselves in heaven.

That's how it's going to be. And because that's the case,

then what we are doing in heaven must also be the best version of

ourselves. If everything else is the best

version, then what we're doing there must also be the best

version of who we are. Are you picking up what I'm

putting down? Revelation Chapter 7, verse 9.

Revelation 7:9

This is what we're doing in heaven.

After this, I looked and saw a multitude.

Multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and

people and tongue. It looks like here in Illuminate

Church there's a lot of different people standing before

the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes

and holding palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice.

Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, and

all the angels stood around the throne, and the elders and the

four living creatures, and they fell face down before the

throne, and they worship God, saying, Amen.

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power

and strength be unto our God forever and ever.

Amen. Somebody say Amen.

Yeah. So what are we doing in heaven?

Worshiping continually before the throne of God with the

angels and the elders and the four living creatures which

themselves are going to be mind blowing to see.

And then there's the Lord God worshiping.

I want to tell you that worship in heaven will be a different

experience that it is on earth because worship in heaven will

be interactive. Interactive.

What does that mean? There'll be no barriers at all.

It is safe to say I can almost guarantee you as far as a human

can, can explain to a person that this will be you in heaven.

Worshipping the Lord will be the very best experience of your

life in any kind of way. You think of the best thing

that's ever happened to you physically, emotionally,

relationally, spiritually in heaven.

It'll be the very best thing that has ever happened to you as

you worship the Lord. And that's what we get to do in

heaven forever. When Christine and I started

dating, we were in Gainesville together and then a few months

later I moved to Ocala. And for the next almost three

years, we long distance dated before cell phones.

It's hard to imagine. I'm in Ocala, she's in

Gainesville, I'm in Ocala. She moves to Tampa for her first

job and a lot of phone time. How many all know that it's one

thing to be on the phone and it's another thing to see face

to face? Paul writes in Corinthians.

Now we see dimly, as if looking in the mirror.

Then in heaven, we'll be face to face with the living God.

I don't know if you've ever been taking a nap and you heard the

pitter patter of rain. I see your faces.

Yeah. You're just, like, so cozy.

And then the side, like, I got to get up.

I got stuff I got to do. It's the worst feeling.

You just want to stay, but you know, you got to go.

Anyone. Anyone.

Have you ever been in a hot shower on a cold day?

And you think as soon as I turn off that hot water, that cold

air is going to be hitting me. And you know, I just want to

stay here, but I know I got to go.

Anybody you ever been on a 5 day cruise?

It's day three and a half and you're like, I'm finally

relaxed. And then like sheer terror, it

hits your soul. I got to get off the boat in two

days. And you start thinking about it

and it starts ruining their vacation because you got it.

Anybody. Anybody ever been on the 13th

hole and start thinking, I only got four more holes left.

I see those hands. It's kind of depressing.

You're like, I'm having fun, but I know it's about to end.

You know where I'm going with this, right?

Man in heaven, you never have that second shoe that's going to

drop. Like you got to stop because you

got to move on. This incredibly moving,

touching, social, physical, mental, physical experience

that's happening, you will never have to end.

It goes on and on. You get to stay in that state

forever. I can't wait.

I have to wait and I'm glad to wait.

Let me get to the point of the day of today.

Heaven is the only place that we will be fully, eternally

satisfied. The place, the actual location

will be the best. You will be at your best.

And the best version of you is doing one thing above all else,

worshipping. So if that's what we get to do,

then if worship is humanity at their best state, then I ask

you, why wait? If that's what we get to do,

then, then let's start doing it now.

I can't see him face to face now unless he decides to.

That'd be amazing. Lord, we just, I just like to

see the backside of you. Like Elijah.

Just let me, just let me see any.

Let me see. We can't get to paradise now.

I still have to go through the droop of the stoop and the sag.

But what I can do that's happening there now is to

worship. Do the best thing now.

You'll be doing it in heaven. So again I say, why wait?

I want to show you some worship from a guy named King David.

He didn't wait. Psalm 130.

I know I told you to go there. He's going to turn there again

says this out of the depths verse one.

I cry to you, Lord, Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

If you Lord kept the record of sins, Lord, who can stand?

But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can with

reverence serve you. And now he worships.

He says this. I wait for the Lord.

This is worship. My whole being waits, and in His

word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord.

More than Watchmen wait for the morning.

More than Watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel Church, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is

unfailing love, and with him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

What's David saying to us here? Well, he's in the depths.

He's in the bad place. He's in the valley, He's walking

in the season. Anyone ever been there?

Come on. And he's there because like us,

he has weak flesh. Without getting into the entire

story, David's story is known for the rest of the world.

Can you imagine if your greatest 2 sins were written down for all

the world to know for the rest of time?

David has committed adultery against his wife with another

woman named Bathsheba. And then David has also then

sent for Bathsheba's husband, Uriah the Hittite, to be

murdered on the battle lines. And because of it, he's in this

valley and in the depths of that valley.

He has a choice. I can distract myself from my

dissatisfied soul, call for more women to be sent to me, more

food and drink to be sent to me. Or I can wait upon the Lord.

I can declare His goodness that he keeps no record of wrongs,

that He saves me from the pit and lifts me up.

And they're the king, by the way.

He's the king. He's the top of the food chain.

He should have everything he needs.

And yet he falls into these unsatisfied sins.

And here he is worshipping. To come out of this depth.

I will worship. And he declares that his waiting

is like the Watchmen who wait for the sun to rise.

At David's time, Jerusalem's had the wall around at the temples

inside. And the watchman would stand on

the wall like this, and they would look east, and they would

wait, and they would wait and they would wait.

And then over the horizon, the light would begin to peak.

And as soon as I saw the glimmer of the Crest of the sun, they

would look down to the temple and make their declaration.

The day has begun, the sun has risen, and boom, the temple

would go into action. All the priests and all their

priestly duties for the day would begin once the watchman

says the sun has risen again. And the Watchmen never failed to

do their duty because the sun never failed to rise.

And David's waiting for the sun to rise.

David's waiting for the hope to come in the midst of his valley.

Waiting on the Lord is like getting to an intersection and

not crossing and not turning left, not turning right and not

going backwards. I'm going to stand here until

Jesus comes himself and says we're going this way, or we're

going that way, or I'm going to make you sit down and rest.

But here's the good news. Jesus will come because the sun

always rises. And as you wait upon the Lord,

whatever situation you're going through, he will arrive.

The sun will rise and your day will begin.

And then what happened in the temple will happen in you.

Because in the temple, they would begin their day with

worship, lighting of the candles, the sacrifices made as

sacrifices of worship, all of its worship in response to the

sun rising. So today, as response to what

God is doing in the room for us here today is we're going to

wait on the Lord and whatever you're walking through, we're

going to believe in the faithfulness of the sun to rise.

The solution to come for Jesus to come and stand next to you

and say this, this is the way. Walk in it.

And our response then will be to worship.

So if you bow your heads and close your eyes, I want to pray

over you, Father, hear our prayer, hear our prayer, hear

our cry for help. We've come today to seek you in

your holy place, that the sun will rise and that our response

will be what David's is. Our response will be what it was

in the temple. Our response will be what it

will be in heaven forever. Us at your throne, worshipping

you, for you alone are the waymaker.

You are the Way, the truth, and the life.

We turn to no one else but to you, not to the distractions and

the brokenness of the world that leave us empty and hungry, but

instead we turn to you, waiting upon you.

Oh Lord, shine your glory here. May your peace fall upon our

hearts. May you lift our countenances.

Grant us the way we're looking. To you, Jesus, we thank you.

In Jesus mighty name, Amen. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text Connect to 4:07

588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot Church.

Have a great week.