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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.