The Eternal God

Good morning to you. My name is Taylor DiRoberto. I'm one of the pastors at a church in Kansas City called Northside Fellowship.! And I also have served at Spurgeon College and Midwestern Seminary in different roles for eight years.

And Dalton, you did great, man, on the voiceover. That was great. I might hit up our VP of Marketing, Cody, and have you come up and re-dub the video. Because I think that was better than the original. You did great.

And there are girls doing Bible studies on campus, and they are training for missions. So you did awesome, man. Well, as you guys are there in Psalm 103, I'll start by saying, hey, happy Memorial Day week to you.

I'm excited. Summer feels like it's officially here. I'm excited for summer holidays. I especially love the 4th of July, just like any good American. But I especially love 4th of July because one of my kids was born on the 4th of July.

So she was born at 8.48 p.m., right as it was getting dark. So she was born, and we were on the fifth floor of the hospital in Kansas City. And immediately, you could see fireworks all across the city welcoming our daughter into the world.

So we love 4th of July. And this 4th of July, you might be aware, is a really special one because this year we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

Let's go. Wow. We got a real patriot. That's exciting. Okay. Here's another thing you may or may not be aware of. In prep for this 250th anniversary, King Charles from Great Britain came to the United States last month, and he addressed our Congress.

He's the first British monarch to ever do that, to ever address the American Congress. And when he gave his speech, he was kind of joking about the revolution. It was kind of funny.

One of the things he said was he said, you know, congratulations. You know, you guys are about to celebrate 250 years as a nation. And in Britain, we just call that just the other day.

Okay. That's what he said. And here's what he meant by that. Here's why he said that. The British people have had a king uniting them and ruling over them for over a thousand years.

Okay. That's the British people. And so he kind of was making a flex on America when he said, you know, like, hey, two thumbs up, 250 years. That's great. Like, reach back out to us when you guys have hit a thousand years.

Okay. When you've hit a millennium as a people. Well, this morning, my task is to teach on the eternal God. You guys are studying the doctrine of God this week.

My task is to speak about how God is eternal. He is everlasting. He's never had a beginning and he's never going to have an end. And when King Charles laid down that flex on America, he was getting at something.

Because here's what we're going to see as we get into different texts in the scriptures this morning. The truth is, the longer a king has been reigning and the longer a kingdom has stood firm, the greater the glory.

And as we see the biblical authors look at our Savior, our God, our King, and talk about him as the everlasting God who has always reigned and will always reign.

And we're going to see the ways that's a really practical truth for our Christian lives. How that empowers us and encourages us. So here's our main point.

And we're going to hit these as we work through some texts. Our main point this morning is that the everlasting God saves us and sanctifies us and satisfies us.

Those are our three points. The everlasting God saves us and satisfies us. So we're going to think about how the fact that God is eternal, the fact that he's everlasting, how that impacts our salvation, our sanctification, and our satisfaction in God.

And the first text we're going to be in this morning is Psalm 103, as we consider how the everlasting God saves us. So we're jumping into the middle of this psalm, okay?

I'll catch us up a little bit. This is a psalm written by King David. Most of you will know David's story. He's the shepherd boy that God called to rule over his people Israel.

And just like the rest of us, though David was a righteous man, ultimately, he was a sinner. Famously, the scriptures teach us about his great sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah.

So David is no different from you and I in his desperate need of salvation from his sin. And in the middle of David's life, in 2 Samuel 7, the Lord came to David and prophesied and told him, one of your descendants is going to sit on your throne forever.

And so just like you and I, David was hoping in the promise of a Messiah who was going to come and redeem everything that sin had broken.

So David is a sinner who needs saving, just like you and me. And this psalm, Psalm 103, is a psalm where David is giving thanksgiving to God for being a saving God, for being a merciful God who redeems sinners.

And as we get in, what we'll see is when David gives thanks to God for saving him, for saving sinners, he can't help but focus on the fact that God is an eternal God, that he is the everlasting God.

So let's jump into Psalm 103. We're going to start in verse 8, where David gives this description of who God is. It says this in Psalm 103, verse 8.

It says, Now that's about as straightforward and glorious a description of God's name.

God's merciful, forgiving character that you're going to get in all of Scripture. David says it plainly in verse 8. Who is God? The Lord is merciful and gracious.

That's who he is. And if you're in relationship with him through faith in his son Jesus, here's how that relationship goes.

Verse 10. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. If you belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ, the dynamic of that relationship is always that you get better than you deserve.

He doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve because he's put our sins on his son. And one more phrase I want us to focus on that's really central for this psalm, that's really central for our understanding of our salvation through Jesus, is what he says back in verse 8.

He said that the Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He's abounding in steadfast love.

Now your translation there in verse 8, it might say something like loving kindness or mercy or faithful love. There's lots of different ways that English translations will translate this word, what my ESV says, steadfast love.

But here's basically what this word means. It's God's special, devoted, affectionate, saving love for his people. It's his faithful commitment to redeem us.

And David here says the Lord is abounding in steadfast love. He's overflowing with steadfast love. And so the reason that sinners like you and I can be saved is ultimately doesn't have to do with anything in and of ourselves.

It has to do with God and his character and who he is, that he's abounding with steadfast love for undeserving people like you and me. And now David's going to drive this home in this psalm and he's going to try to stretch our minds and show us how great the Lord's steadfast love is toward his children, toward those who trust and worship him.

Look with me now in verse 11. David says, For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.

Okay. As high as the heavens are above the earth. How high is that? Well, that's as high as the physical universe can go.

If you look up in the night sky and you just think, as high as those heavens can go. It's to the very limits of the physical creation. And David's saying, That's how great the Lord's steadfast love is toward those who fear him.

Look, he goes on in verse 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Again, how far is that? How far is the east from the west? It's literally as far as our finite minds can stretch to imagine. As far as we can think.

That's how far God in his steadfast love has removed our sins from us. And then he says in verse 13, As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

As a father shows compassion to his children. You know, when I was a kid, now I'm a dad, and I can still remember this when I'm a little kid, one thing my dad would often do, is he would say, Hey, buddy, how much do you love me?

We kind of played this game back and forth. Hey, buddy, how much do you love me? And I would reach out my arms as far as they could go, and I would say, Daddy, I love you this big.

And I would just stretch, try to show as big as I could. I love you this big. And then it was my turn. And I'd say, Daddy, how much do you love me? And my big, strong dad, he'd reach out his arms, and he'd say, Buddy, I love you this big.

And I'm a little kid, and I'm just like, Man, my dad is so big and strong. And his wingspan, it's so much bigger than mine. And that's a little bit like what the Lord is teaching us here.

In this text, as a father has compassion on his children, and as far as the east is from the west, as far as you can stretch your mind to think, that's how great his steadfast love is toward those who fear him.

That means those who worship him and have faith in his promises. So David has taken us to the edge of physical creation to get us to imagine how great is God's love toward his children.

But now he's going to go even farther. Okay? With this teaching on steadfast love. Before he gets there, before he goes to the eternal God and drives it all the way home, he's got to remind us how small we are.

Okay? Just like me compared to my dad. Now David's going to teach us how finite and small we are. Look at verse 14. It says, For he knows our frame.

He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field.

For the wind passes over it and it is gone. And its place knows it no more.

Okay? Quick poll in here. Quick show of hands. Poll here. Okay? How many of you know your father's name? First and last name.

Okay. Okay. Keep your hands up if this, if my next questions pertain to you. Okay. How many of you know one of your grandfather's first and last name? Okay. How many of you know one of your great-grandfather's first and last name?

Your great-grandfather. Okay. How many of you know one of your great-great-grandfather's first and last name? Okay. I've got one, two, three, four.

I've got less than ten people's hands in here. Okay. How many of you all know one of your great-great-great-grandfather's first and last names? Just a few hands. Here's the reality for you and I, for most of us in here.

Okay? It is very likely that within a hundred years, no one will remember your name or my name. Even people who are your descendants that are going to come from you.

And we live in a culture that wants to distract us and deceive us, kind of give us this illusion that we're going to live forever. And the Bible over and over again, we read it in Psalm 90.

Dalton read it earlier. We are dust. We're vapor. David just said this. We're like the flower in the field. We're like the grass on the field. The wind blows over it.

And then no one even remembers that the flower was there. As we're walking around the campground this week, look at the grass of the field. And here's what the Bible is teaching us. In the grand scheme of things, you and I, we're about as sturdy and stable as the grass in the field.

And if that hits you and makes you feel like hopeless, it's like, oh my goodness, okay. The Bible tells us when you number your days, when you learn to number your days, you grow a heart of wisdom.

But here's the truth. Just because you and I are as sturdy and stable as the grass of the field, Jesus told us that we are of much more value to the Father than the grass of the field.

Though we're just as stable and sturdy as the grass, the Father loves us infinitely more than the grass of the field. And that's what David's about to show us in the next verses.

He's already told us the Lord's abounding in steadfast love. He's already told us the Lord's steadfast love is so great. It's as great as the highest heavens. It's as great as the furthest reaches of physical creation.

Now look at what he says about the steadfast love of the Lord. Verse 17, But the steadfast love of the Lord toward you, Christian. You, Christian, that's just as sturdy as the grass of the field.

The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him.

He's abounding in steadfast love. His steadfast love, his saving love is as great as the highest heavens. And here David says, No, the steadfast love of the Lord, it's even greater than all creation.

It's from everlasting to everlasting. It's eternal toward those who fear him. Here's an important truth about the doctrine of God, as y'all are learning this this week.

Specifically when it applies to God's eternality, okay? That he's the eternal God. It's this. Anything that God is, he has always been and he always will be.

So when John tells us in 1 John 4, God is love. That means God has always been love and he will always be love. When we say God is holy, he's always been holy and he always will be holy.

And here's the empowering payoff for this truth for you and me, okay, when we're thinking about our salvation. Okay, here's the payoff I want to drill in on. It has to do with our security in our salvation.

The majority of y'all in here have trusted in Jesus. You've made a profession of faith. You're walking with a church family that really cares for you and your discipleship and seeing you grow.

But here's the trouble as we walk through our Christian life. We have a temptation to think of God as just a bigger version of ourselves, okay? So he's in a box.

Like we're a circle and God's just like a bigger circle. But the truth is, God is no circle. He's not contained by anything. He's everlasting and eternal.

He's not just a bigger version of us. He's completely unlike us. So here's what can tend to happen. As you and I walk through this Christian life, we have ups and downs.

We have wins and losses. We have moments of great triumph and we have moments of great failure and sin. And if we're not careful as we're walking through this Christian life, one temptation for us is we think of God as just a bigger version of ourselves.

And when we fail and we sin, we can, maybe we wouldn't say it with our mouths, but functionally we start to live with this feeling like maybe God is up and down with us as we continue to fail and sin and stumble along toward heaven.

Maybe I've sinned or failed too many times. Maybe the Lord's love is going to run out for me. Maybe his patience is going to run dry.

And what we see here in Psalm 103 is that our salvation in Jesus Christ is not based on a love that is inside of creation.

Okay? So God's steadfast love for you and I, his saving love, it didn't start the moment we believed in Jesus. And it did not start the moment we first went to church.

It didn't start the moment we were born. It didn't start the moment we were in our mother's womb. It didn't start at the beginning of creation when God created the heavens and the earth. What David teaches us is that God's steadfast love for us goes into eternity past.

It's always been. And that means nothing inside creation can shake his love for us. Even my sin and my stubbornness.

Here's how Paul puts it in Romans chapter 8. He says, What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God.

Who is indeed interceding for us. So who shall separate us from the love of Christ. If you've trusted in Christ. If you're truly born again.

Though you struggle with sin. Though you wrestle with suffering. Though you have moments of doubt. Though you question God at points. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ.

If that love is eternal. Here's Paul's answer. Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.

No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life. Angels nor rulers.

Things present nor things to come. Nor powers. Nor height nor depth. Nor anything else. In all creation. Shall be able to separate us from the love of God.

In Christ Jesus our Lord. If your salvation. Is rooted in a love. That goes beyond creation. Then there's nothing in creation.

That can separate you from the love of God. In Christ Jesus. It doesn't mean we don't have to fight our sin. It doesn't mean we don't have to strive for holiness. We're going to get there. That's our next step. Okay. But the practical payoff for you and me.

When we think about God's eternal nature. In our salvation. Is to walk in a security. In our salvation.

That's not based on us. It's not based on anything in creation. It's based in God himself. If you do not see and savor the eternal God.

And his eternal love for you. You won't walk in the security. That God has for you. In your salvation. That's the payoff for you and I. Okay. The eternal God saves us.

Praise be God. Now. Let's look. And consider. How the everlasting God. The eternal God. Sanctifies us. How he makes us holy.

Bit by bit. Day by day. After we've trusted in Christ. And we're going to flip to another text. In our Bibles. We're going to go back. To where we were last night.

Isaiah 40. For just a few minutes. Okay. So flip there. I know this is one of your memory verses. For this camp week. And the great preacher. Charles Spurgeon. He once said.

One verse of scripture is like a diamond. And you can just keep turning it. And you can get new beauty out of it. And so it's great for us to land here again. And maybe consider from a slightly different angle.

How does God's eternal nature. That he's the everlasting God. How does it empower our sanctification. Our growth in holiness. Day by day.

Well let's get a little bit of context. Okay. Isaiah wrote this book here. The book of Isaiah. About 300 years after David's life. And his writing of the psalm.

So we're fast forwarding 300 years. And at this time in Israel's history. The people of God. Were in a dark spot. So they had gone years. Of ignoring God's word.

And worshiping false gods. And there was now. This threat. Of wicked nations. That God was going to bring on his people. To judge them.

To punish them for their sins. And in the middle of all that chaos. All that spiritual decay. And the political pressure. There was a remnant. Okay. A small group within Israel.

That was still trusting in the Lord. They were believing his promises. They had not bowed the knee to false gods. But in the middle of all that chaos. Okay. All the darkness.

And evil. And the trials. And temptations. That were surrounding. The faithful in Isaiah's day. Even those faithful Israelites. Were tempted.

To start asking. Has God forgotten us? And is God powerful enough. To keep his promises? That's what's going on in verse 27.

Okay. Look at verse 27. Of Isaiah 40. I think it's one verse before. What you guys have memorized. It says. Why do you say oh Jacob. And speak oh Israel. My way is hidden from the Lord.

And my right is disregarded. By my God. As the Israelites who were trusting in the Lord. Were walking through all this darkness.

All these trials. All these temptations around them. Okay. Their hearts started to question God. They started to question God's care for them.

My way is hidden from God. He's not even paying attention. Does he care for me anymore? And they were starting to question God's power. Is he going to be able to see me through.

All of this darkness. All of this chaos. All of these trials. And temptations. And for you and I. As we walk with Jesus. We know the path from when we trust in Christ.

To when we see him face to face. Whether he comes. And returns. Or we pass from this life. And go to him. We know the path. From belief.

To seeing him face to face. Is going to be covered. With all sorts of trials. And temptations. And you all in this room. Even in the stage of life. We're in right now.

You feel the weight of that. You feel your own temptations. Your selfishness. The things that you want to fight. You know God is not pleased with. That you want to put to death.

That feel like a struggle. And you know. Many of you. The weight of suffering. Even at your age. Difficult situations. Things that make you wonder. How am I going to get through this?

And I want us to see this morning. Isaiah's response. To the Israelites. That are in that same. Sort of scenario. Is to take their eyes.

From their situation. And put them on God. And specifically. To remind them. That the Lord. Is the eternal God.

Look at verse 28. Have you not known. Have you not heard. The Lord. Is the everlasting God. The creator. Of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint. Or grow weary. His understanding. Is unsearchable. Here's one thing.

Isaiah's response. Teaches you and me. As we walk the Christian life. As we walk through trials. And temptations. Of all different kinds. What we need.

In our trials. And temptations. Is the doctrine. Of God. God. Isaiah looks. The Israelites. Square in the eyes. And says. I know what's going on.

In your hearts. I know how you're questioning. The Lord. And he turns their eyes. To God. And says. Remember. Who he is. He's the everlasting God. Who doesn't grow faint.

Or weary. And those are amazing truths. About God. We can just look up. And think of him. And go. Wow. He never grows faint. He's everlasting. His power. And his strength.

Never run out. And those are really awesome. Cool truths. But they don't give us any hope. Or any power. Unless we can see. How God's everlasting strength. Connects.

To our life here and now. How we walk with Christ. Day by day. And that's the beautiful thing. About the next verses. We see. God's not just great. And glorious. And everlasting. And all powerful.

He's also good. And generous. And he gives that power. To his people. Look at verse 29. He gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might.

He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary. And young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. You know King Solomon.

In the book of Proverbs. He says the glory of young men. Is their strength. Okay. And I think that applies to the ladies in here too.

Okay. Guys and girls. The glory of young people. Okay. Especially the dudes. Come on. Let's go. All right. The glory of young men is their strength. Here's what that means. Guys.

You all. All of you. Guys and girls. You are living in a season of life. That God. In his word. Says. Is characterized by strength. And energy.

All right. And actually. When I think about it. It's kind of annoying. How much strength and energy y'all have. Okay. You guys are in a season of life. It's wasted on the youth.

Okay. That's what the old people say. So. Y'all are in a season of life. You can crank. Like. You can stay up till 3 a.m. You're crushing Mountain Dews. You're playing whatever you play. All right. Whatever game. And then the next morning. Y'all can get up.

And just go. Okay. Can do some heavy manly labor. Well. As a washed up dad. In his 30s. Let me bring a word of wisdom. And warning to y'all. Okay. Your time. Is short.

All right. You are soon going to be. In a season of life. Where you sit in a recliner. In a weird way. For three hours. Watching a football game. And then you're going to have to go to the chiropractor. For six weeks.

True story. Okay. It's coming. For each and every one of you. All right. The glory of young men is their strength. But Isaiah says here.

He's speaking about humanity in general. But he says. Even youths shall faint and be weary. And young men shall fall exhausted. Because y'all are in this season of life.

Characterized. By energy and strength. I think you guys have a specific temptation. A special temptation. To rely.

On your own natural power. And strength. Like when I think about the older saints in my church. In their 70s or 80s. The sweet saints that have been walking with Jesus for a long time.

There's just kind of like a baseline. Humility and weakness. I think because they feel how close they are to heaven. They know how weak they are. And so there's even just this natural lean.

To be dependent on the Lord. I'll put myself in the group with y'all. Though I'm not as young as y'all. The younger we are. The more we feel our own natural strength and energy. The more we're going to be tempted to trust in that.

But here's the truth. As we're walking with Jesus. And we're called to strive for the holiness. Without which no one will see the Lord. To fight our sin.

To battle against Satan. And the flesh. And the world. All the things we're called to. The truth is we can't do that. In our own strength. We cannot. And Isaiah says here.

He's not just speaking about our physical lives. He's talking about our spiritual lives. That's what this text is about. Even youth shall faint and be weary. And young men shall fall exhausted. For us to see victory.

For us to see real progress and holiness. We can't rely on a natural strength. We have to rely on a supernatural strength. And praise be to God. The everlasting God.

Who never grows faint or weary. His power never runs dry. Verse 28 says. He will give his power. To those who seek him. To those who lay their life before him.

So here's the payoff for you and I. As we walk the road of sanctification. Fighting our sin. And seeking after Jesus. The truth is. No matter what sin you are struggling against.

It is no match for the everlasting God. No matter how hopeless or defeated you feel. Your lust. It's no match for the everlasting God.

Who never grows faint or weary. Your fear of man. That causes you to act one way in front of some people. And another way in front of others. Or causes you to shrink back.

From sharing the gospel with others. That fear of man is no match for the everlasting God. His power never runs dry. And he gives it to his people. Your anger. Your laziness. Your anxiety.

Your jealousy. Your bitterness. Whatever sin it is. That's wrapping its claws around you. The truth is. It has no match. Against the everlasting God.

And he gives his eternal power. To those who seek him. Here's how Paul puts it. In Philippians chapter 2. He says. Work out your own salvation.

With fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you. Both to will. And to work for his good pleasure.

Again friends. When we shrink God. Down to our own size. Or we just think. Ah he's just kind of a bigger version than me. We can be tempted to think.

His power will run dry at some point. I'm hopeless. There's no way to defeat this suffering. Or to push back against this sin. But praise be to God.

The everlasting God. He sanctifies us. He strengthens us. Okay. One more truth. Quickly here this morning. We've seen that the everlasting God saves us.

We've seen how he sanctifies us. He gives us everlasting power. He gives power to his people. There are resources available to us. To seek him. Now we're going to see that the everlasting God satisfies us.

The everlasting God satisfies us. Okay. We're going to flip back now to the Psalms. We're going Psalm 16. Here's our last text this morning. So if you flip back in your Bible to the Psalms.

We're going to Psalm 16. And this is another Psalm of David. We don't have time to really cover much in this Psalm. Just the last verse. But I do want to give us the context.

What's this whole Psalm about? This is really a Psalm of praise and adoration. So David is praising the Lord for how good he is. Throughout this Psalm, David says, I have no good beside you, Lord.

And he praises God for all the good things that the Lord has given him. And in verse 10, right before the second to last verse here, he says this, For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol.

That's the grave. Nor will you let your Holy One see corruption. So in verse 10, David declares, Hey, the grave and death are not going to have the last word in my story.

God is going to raise me to new life. That's how God treats his people. So verse 10, David declares the hope of the resurrection, that we will have eternal life with God.

And now verse 11, where we're going to focus in, David describes what's that going to be like beyond the grave when we're with God in a new way, face to face in his presence.

Here's what David says in verse 11. He says, You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So David describes life with God beyond the grave as full of joy and pleasure.

And I want us to notice two things about how David describes that pleasurable joy. Notice first, he says that the joy in God's presence is full.

Look at verse 11 again. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. Fullness of joy.

So when you consider life with Christ forever, when you consider life beyond the grave, the Bible is telling you there will be fullness of joy there.

So whatever joy you can conceive of, it's more. You can never grasp it. It goes beyond that. If you're ever at a state where you're thinking about heaven, you're thinking about life after the grave with Christ, in a new heavens and a new earth, and you feel bored, okay?

You need to repent of that. And you need to think the greatest joy I've ever felt in this life, it can't compare. Fullness of joy. Now look at the second description of this joy and this pleasure.

It's full and David says it is forever. It's forever. It's eternal. You make known to me the path of your life, of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Your translation might say there are eternal pleasures at your right hand. So I've mentioned already I'm a dad.

I'm a dad to three kids, about to turn six, about to turn three, and then we've got a six-month-old, okay? And any parent in here of little kids or who used to have little kids, one thing they can tell you is one of the most difficult things for like the toddlers, two, three, four, maybe in there, okay, is when we're doing something fun and then we've got to stop.

We've got to go, okay? We're at the park. We're having a great day. This is wonderful. Look at these beautiful children God has blessed us with. This is such a fun time. They're laughing. It's glorious. There's bubbles.

It's so good. And then we say, hey, we've got to go to dinner. We've got to go eat dinner. And then everything hits the wall, okay? And the kid literally could have a mental breakdown, okay?

Just sobbing, kicking. You're embarrassed. Like, man, I'm a terrible parent. Okay, but it's just how it is, all right? We're at a friend's house. We're having a play date. It's going great. It's awesome. We've got to have nap time at some point.

So we've got to leave. Boom. Boom. There's a possibility. The toddler is going to break down, okay? What's happening there?

They're enjoying something. There's pleasure. There's joy. There's goodness in this thing. And that toddler's expectation was messed up, though. And it has to come to the end.

And so there's a breakdown at that point. But here's the truth for you and I, teenagers, 20-somethings, adult of any age. The truth is the joys and pleasures of this world, we're all prone to act like the little toddler, okay?

You and I are prone to put too much hope, too much stock, too much weight to find satisfaction in good things that God has given us in this life.

But the truth is every good thing, every joy, every pleasure in this life will come to an end. And the book of Ecclesiastes, it tells us God has put eternity in our hearts.

As those made in the image of God, there's an ache, there's a longing, actually, for eternal satisfaction. And the author C.S. Lewis has a famous quote.

He put it this way, If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

The truth is God's put eternity in our hearts, and we're only going to find the satisfaction we were made for in the eternal God himself. And here in Psalm 16, he says it's coming.

It's coming one day. You will have it. And you can place your hope in that now and find contentment. But as we walk through this life and all the good things God gives us, relationships, school, sports, our activities, our family, whatever it may be, these things are meant for our joy.

But only when we put them in right perspective, okay? When you go to a restaurant and someone orders appetizers, okay? Spinach dip or wings or whatever, okay?

The restaurant is not giving you the appetizer to make you feel full. The restaurant's giving you an appetizer to get you settled in and looking forward to what's to come.

If you got the appetizer, though, and you're expecting it to fill you up, you eat five chips with spinach dip, you would be pretty disappointed and angry. You'd say, my stomach's still empty. What's going on?

Everything the Lord has given us in this life, there's real joy and pleasure to be had in it. But it's all just an appetizer.

And it's all just meant to point us back to him to look forward to the real feast that is coming, which is life in God's presence eternally.

Pleasures at his right hand forevermore. Because God is eternal, we can be content right now and we can look forward and know. There's no joy that we're missing out on.

I don't have to freak out when my friends do this and I don't get to do it and I feel. There's pleasures forevermore at his right hand. He's promised them to us. The Lord is the everlasting God.

And the everlasting God saves us with a love that goes beyond creation. It's everlasting. Nothing can shake it. And the everlasting God sanctifies us with a power that never runs out.

It never runs dry. He gives his power to his people. And the everlasting God satisfies us here and now. And he gives us contentment as we hold on to the promise that there's everlasting joy and pleasure at his right hand coming for us one day.

In the meantime, we need his power to see him and savor him, the everlasting God. Let's pray to him now. Lord God, we confess that you are the maker of heaven and earth.

That you're the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. That we pass away like dust, like a flower of the field.

That a thousand years is like a day in your sight. And Lord, I pray for each of us as we seek to walk with Christ by the Holy Spirit's power.

That you would help us, Lord, to trust in your everlasting love. That you would give us security that goes beyond our power.

That goes beyond anything in creation. That goes back to you and your character. Lord, I pray for us as we fight our sin, as we strive for holiness. That we wouldn't do it in our own power.

That we would recognize even youths and young men grow faint and weary in our own strength. We need your Holy Spirit's power to be shaped like Christ, to grow in him.

And Lord, I pray for each of us that you would satisfy us as we look ahead and we know there's an eternity of joy and pleasure awaiting us at your right hand.

We can enjoy the good gifts you give us now for what they are. Appetizers for the feast that's coming in your presence one day. God, we love you and we praise you.

We pray all of this for your glory in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.