Fully Satisfied - Psalm 90

Join us as we look at this Psalm of Moses to see how we can be fully satisfied in Christ Jesus. Psalm 90

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning, West Side. It is my joy to be with you today. I ask that you bear with me if I'm suffering through a summer cold a little bit today, but uh glad to be here. You guys have been so hospitable in just my time here this morning. Uh it's been so so great to worship already this morning with you and get to do so again. Um I just want to start off by pledging some a little bit of a fanboy. I'm a big fan of this church. Um I've gotten to see this church from afar for a long time, mostly because most of the trips that I journey to West Kentucky are to partner with Crossings, which is one of my favorite organizations in the world. And uh and getting to see some fond crossing spaces here and and getting to do ministry with them in other seasons, like I just want you to know your impact, your commitment to discipleship, your commitment to the next generation. Like it is it is evident in those leaders, it's evident in other leaders here. I get to work alongside. We're on the same team, although we don't live as neighbors. I get to work alongside Jonathan Clark, um who's one of one of you as well, and get to partner with him in ministry. And then even my team leader, I think, has preached here a time or two and will continue to, um, Dr. Michael Cabill. And so I have have heard great things about Westside, but I want to tell you that the fruitfulness of your faithfulness has been evident in my life and from my life for a very long time. Not only in some of those places that I mentioned, but in your commitment to health and to gospel multiplication. Um, this is one of the most, I think, successful church plants probably in the last 40 to 50 years in the state of Kentucky. And it's it's got a great history with that. And so even though most people in this room probably don't feel like they go to a church plant here anymore, uh, maybe some of you were around or have some connections to the early part of that story. Um, but I just want to remind you as well of all the ways that you're currently partnered with church planting in Kentucky. Um, right now, across the state, we have 34 church planters and church plants that are worshiping together this morning. And in all walks of life and even in all languages. Um, of those 34, 16 are in a language other than English. In Northern Kentucky, we have an Arabic-speaking church plant. In Lexington, we have Kentucky's first Japanese-speaking church. Um, it's actually in the basement of my home church, which is Porter Memorial Baptist there in Lexington. Um, Izumi Community Church meets there. In Louisville, we have a Vietnamese-speaking church, and we are even prayerfully hoping and strategizing to see a Bosnian church plant in Bowling Green. Um, Bowling Green, Kentucky, has one of the highest concentrations of Bosnian um you know immigrants and refugees in the entire world outside of the nation of Bosnia. So I can it's fine if your allegiance was to the United States during our World Cup battle, but we've got an opportunity to see the gospel just really ripple through the Bosnian community in Kentucky. And so you're already, you're your cooperative giving, your cooperative partnership, you're already part of those church plants. And I just want to remind you and say thank you for the ways that you're partnering. Um, I enjoyed my drive down last night. I got to come down and I left from central Kentucky. I live just outside of Lexington in Wilmore, Kentucky, with my wife Maria, our three kids, Charlotte, Gwen, and John. And uh it was it's fun to come and preach on a Sunday. It's something that I feel very blessed to do, and I was especially excited to come and to join you. And so um, when when Braden told me that you all were going through the Psalms, this was clear, this was just huge for my heart because when I was pastoring, um, we would always spend summer in the Psalms, and I asked him which ones we had done, and when he told me that he hadn't done Psalm 90, or maybe hadn't done it in a while, I wanted to grab that one up. And so, Psalm 90, if you will, if you're able to stand, and we're gonna read that together. Uh all 17 verses, but we're gonna specifically be looking at verse 14 today. Psalm 90, the word of the Lord. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but yet as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood, they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning, in the morning it flourishes and is renewed, and in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by your anger. By your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins, in light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or by even by reason of strength eighty, yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are gone, they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger and the wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days, that we might get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servants, satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil, let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for just the opportunity to gather as your people, your redeemed people, those even that you desire to save, if they're here today and not in a relationship with you. And God, I just pray that uh you teach and train our hearts how to find our satisfaction in you today. God, I pray uh just for what you have in store for this church, for Westside, from from here in their future. Uh, Lord, I'm grateful for the impact they have both here in Murray and literally around the world because of their faithfulness and ultimately because of your faithfulness. God, I pray today that your spirit preach a more applicable second sermon than anything I could say. Um and as you just give us eyes to see and ears to hear your truth and your word today. It's in your name we pray. Amen. You all can be seated. Psalm chapter 90. It's a bit of a journey. We're gonna not gonna go through this verse by verse. I'm gonna give a little overview and then we're gonna really kind of dig deep at verse 14. But Psalm 90 is the only psalm that's attributed to Moses. You know, most psalms are written by David, or maybe the choirmasters, or perhaps uh a character named Asaph, a guy named Asaph. But this psalm is written by Moses, and it's really a prayer. Um, the context, I don't want to assume that you necessarily know all the details of Moses, but but I have a healthy suspicion that most people in here have heard of Moses before. Moses was, you know, one of the one of the founding characters of our faith. He was the man that God raised up to take the enslaved people from Egypt into the promised land. You know, he was raised, really saved and raised in the Pharaoh's home. God raised him up to lead God's people, the Hebrews, out of Egypt and out of captivity and into the promise. Uh, and Moses had a keen understanding of both sin and the effects of sin. In fact, the people, this was a phrase I used in the first service, Moses led a bunch of people that were just rascals. That's how you can best describe the Hebrews. Like they were just rascally people. Have you ever met a rascal? You know a rascal when you meet one. And the Hebrews were that. They were constantly grumbling, they were constantly frustrated, they were constantly annoyed, they thought life was better back in captivity or back in slavery than out in the desert with Moses. It's just one of these, on and on and on. I've heard people say that the 40 years in the wilderness are because it took 40 years to get complaints out of them. For all the complaints and the frustrations to essentially die off, Moses was understanding of people that were prone to wander, as the hymn, Oh, come thou foul, sometimes, you know, we sometimes sing. And he begins this psalm with that as his context. These first 11 verses center on God's judgment and kind of his posture towards what can be a pretty toil-filled or troubled people. He talks at moments about he contrasts, you know, God's eternal being with our temporal being. He contrasts God's holiness with our sinfulness and the things we do in secret. And if you've noticed anything about your journey in the Psalms, you've noticed that the Psalms, while they are packed full of theology, not every phrase is a theological phrase or something we would build our theology on. A lot of the Psalms are pretty emotional. In fact, I've heard a pastor say before that the Psalms are God's evidence that he cares about your feelings too. Because there's a lot in there. There's a lot of messiness in there. Listen, I don't think it's uh, you know, David acts out in a lot of ways in the Psalms and confesses a lot of things that I don't know that we should necessarily apply directly to our life, but we need to hear God meet him in the stirring and in the mess, and in some of the things he's feeling. And you can kind of see this in this psalm as well. It's not that different. And some of the first 11 verses are not particularly rosy. Like, for example, verse 9 for all our days pass away under your wrath. Okay, that doesn't seem like a great thing to say. And then he says this we bring our years to an end like a sigh. I don't know about you, but there are some days that I end that end, the sun sets on my day, and it sets with a sigh. And that's not a good sigh. That's like a like just I'm weary. There's a pastor that I follow and listen, read, listen to, and he often says, if dads are doing it right, if husbands and dads are doing it right, every day should end with a sigh as you fall into bed. You know, like you should be working hard to the point of exhaustion. Maybe not like, you know, overwhelming yourself with frustration, but working hard to the point that you fall into bed exhausted. So I am I am sympathetic with days that end with a sigh. But he's talking about a life that ends with a sigh, and a sigh because it's its brokenness has constantly been depicted and been noticed and been recognized under the wrath of God. God's holiness bringing wrath to our deserving sin. And then verse 11, he says this who even considers the power of your anger? Whoever even considers it. You know, we sometimes will do or think or act in a way that might be prideful or hurtful or demeaning of other people as if there's this invisible, far-off God, and he doesn't really care. And the Bible's like, no, he deeply cares. And his wrath burns against those things. And Moses is saying, like, we don't even consider, we don't even have a fear, healthy fear of your wrath. But then verse 12 kind of turns the corner. This psalm is honest about sin and the brevity of life. You know, the brokenness of sin not only requires a response from God, which we'll talk about, but it also requires a response from us. And verse 12 kind of makes that turn. It's not a woe is me, but it's an act of repentance. Moses says in verse 12, so teach us then. If we're not people that take your anger seriously, that take your holiness seriously, teach us then how to number our days in a way that's wise, that we might get a heart of wisdom. I mentioned that I have three kiddos. I've got two in middle school and one that's nine months old. Um, and I think often about my posture towards my older kids, you know, when I was younger growing with them, and now my posture towards John, our latest edition. And I think of, okay, where am I gonna be when he's 40? Well, I'll be 81 years old, you know, and I'm like, Lord, like I don't want to get too lost in this. I need you to help me learn with wisdom how to make the most of each day, because I know what ultimately that my life has an expiration date on this side of eternity because of sin. I'm aware of that. So teach me to number my days that I might have a heart of wisdom. One of my favorite bands is a band called the Lone Bellow, and they have a song about this. That we number our days, that we might gain a heart of wisdom. We need to learn to be wise with the time that we have, and not just wise like generally, but we need to learn to be emotionally wise. We need to learn to be spiritually wise, we need to learn to be relationally wise. The truth is, the gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus, that he went to the cross to actually take on the wrath that we were due, that he went to the cross to remove that from our life, should turn our sigh, as mentioned in verse 9, into a smile. That we can now live redeemed, not defeated, satisfied, not wounded. Romans 8.28, a verse that many of us know and have applied to our life. Paul writes in Romans chapter 8, he says that God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose, works everything for the good. Listen, that is that is a true statement that everything happening in my life, everything happening in your life ultimately happens for our good, but that's not a promise for everyone. That's a promise for those of us that are in Christ. That in every circumstance God is able to work it for his good. And with so, with this somewhat gloomy preference of these 11 verses, this kind of posture, a little bit of repentance to, in light of people that are deeply toiled and troubled and have angered the Lord, that we learn to number our days and gain a heart of wisdom, Moses prays this interesting request in verse 14, which is where we'll spend the bulk of our time today. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we might rejoice and be glad all of our days. I'll read it for us again. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we might rejoice and be glad all of our days. It's interesting because this is not a request to lighten the contextual circumstances. Moses doesn't dismiss the first 13 verses. He does not pray for easier days or that a s for the size to be relinquished. He actually prays for a deeper satisfaction in Christ and in the Lord Himself. Um, a pastor in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a guy named Lance Parrot, is a good friend of mine. Every time I come across this verse, I always attribute it to Lance because he puts it in front of me every single time we hang out. But this is always on the tip of his tongue, and we find our satisfaction in Jesus. And so we're going to look at this verse kind of in four phrases. We're gonna look at satisfy us, we're gonna look at in the morning with your steadfast love. That's number three, and then fourth, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days. Let's take a focus to the very first phrase. Satisfy us in the morning. Now the Bible is incredibly personal, but I want to see this plural pronoun here, us. It's an incredibly personal book. Um, some of you might have gone to vacation Bible school when you were young. Do you remember? Did you grow up in a church that did the pledges? All right, like pledge, but first of all, we pledge to the United States, we do the pledge to the flag, the pledge of the Christian flag, and then we do the pledge to the Bible. Now I remember this because I was a preacher's kid, and I always wanted to lead one of the pledges, you know, and so I can I can shout out, I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God's holy word, that he may get a lamp unto my feet, a light into my path, I'll hide his word in my heart that I will not sin against God. I remember that every single vacation Bible school of my upbringing. And when you read that verse, it pulls, for we lead that pledge, it pulls from some familiar passages, mostly found in Psalm 119. Um, but specifically, just to just to bring our attention to it, God's word is a lamp unto whose feet? Mine. Very personal. It's a lamp, it's a light unto whose path? Mine. You know, now I think it's important for us to read this. Like, yes, the Bible is a book that's written to a community, but it's important for us to know that his word is a lamp unto my personal journey. It is a light, it illuminates my personal journey. In Isaiah 41, 10, similarly, fear not, for I am with you, says the Lord. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and help and uphold you. But yet Moses doesn't write, satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love. Although that's true, he writes, satisfy us. And the reason he writes, satisfy us, is because God doesn't just intend for an individual to find a satisfaction in Jesus. He intends for all his people to be satisfied in Christ. I've been in ministry for 20-something years, and there's a tendency sometimes at church to hear sermons and be like, I hope they heard that, right? Have you ever, that was for them, I know what they're going through, you know, like to kind of have that perspective. I hope they were listening up. Sometimes this happens between spouses, right? Like, that's the big whisper. I hope my husband heard that today. You know, like I hope my wife heard that, been trying to win that argument in my house, okay? That happens sometimes even in households. I'm telling you, today you don't need to see this verse as I hope they find their satisfaction. I it's it should be, I hope we do. I hope we do. God absolutely cares about your personal satisfaction in him, he cares about it. But he also intends to form a people whose collective joy is found in him. That's the beauty of even why we take the Lord's Supper. I mean, yes, we take the Lord's Supper because Jesus commanded us to do it. He didn't command us to remember feeding 5,000 people, he didn't command us to remember, you know, like braising Lazarus to life. He said, I want you to remember my body broken and my blood shed for you. I want you to do this in remembrance of me. We take it out of obedience. But in that is a training of our heart to recognize that our satisfaction comes from a source. The grace we need, the salvation we depend upon, it comes from a source, and that source is Jesus Christ. That there's beauty in the collective body of Christ, finding their satisfaction in Him. Now, when it comes to understanding the beauty of the body of Christ, COVID did us no favors, did it? Did us no favors. Did us no favors in lots of arenas, but specifically this one. The subtext to COVID is that you can have an individualized, on-the-go, in-motion faith. That you don't need people, that you can log in, live stream, and get on with your life. And some people even still take that to this day and utilize it to leverage church in a posture of convenience or in a posture of I'm doing it on the go. Um, it's it church became, the body of Christ became something that suits my preferences and what I have time for. And to be honest, that hasn't stopped because the pandemic's over, has it? That still exists. I live in that tension in my family sometimes. It's like we want to go here, we want to do this. And like, what place does the local church play? But this psalm is a reminder that not only do we find our satisfaction in Jesus, but we find it there together. And there's something about beholding and treasuring the beauty of Christ that's truly incredible, and there's something that makes it even more incredible when it's done in a context of community. You see, what binds the body of Christ together is not preference or style or convenience or personality, it's not even denominations. What binds the body of Christ together is a shared dependence on the steadfast love of God. As I have a nine-month-old, I learned a few things. One is I drastically learn how unbabyproofed my house is. I just I found myself at Wits End. I did something yesterday that I'm sure my parents never thought about doing. And here's what I did. I Googled, how do you dog proof a dog dish from your nine-month-old? Okay? Because everything he just wants to go eat the dog food. He wants to go, he'll, I'll hear him silent, and all of a sudden I'll hear ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, and he'll be over there in the dog food. You know, so it's like I'm constantly aware of all the areas of my home, my personal home, are not baby proofed. But you want to know about somebody asked me the other day, like, what's the Lord been teaching you lately? I said, every time I look at my son, I'm reminded of one, how dependent he is on me. He can't really do anything for himself, you know. I mean, other than get into the dog ball. He can do that. Um, he doesn't do anything that helps himself, he doesn't do anything that promotes his flourishing. Left to himself, he'll fall down every stair. He's just walking, so it's a bit of pandemonium in my house right now. He will bump into things, you know, he can't change himself, he can't feed himself, he can't put himself to sleep. I mean, I guess he could fall down in exhaustion, fall asleep, you know. He can't really do any of those things. He is utterly dependent on me and on his mom. And the truth is, I'm not all that different. I'm utterly dependent upon Jesus. And every time I think that I'm not, I think the world, even the even the productivity of America, the maturation of being an American citizen, is this theme of you should be independent. You know, and yes, I'm grateful that we celebrated 250 amazing years. Of independence here not too long ago. But being a mature, not needy, independent person actually runs counterintuitive to following Jesus. The most mature people in the kingdom are deeply aware of their dependence and are deeply aware of how they free they are in Christ to depend on Christ. So similarly, what binds us together is our shared dependence on the love of Jesus. The second phrase we'll look at. In the morning. In the morning. Why doesn't Moses say, as we lie down at night, let's reflect on our day and be satisfied in the things of the Lord? Why doesn't he say at noontime? Why doesn't he even say, why doesn't he even borrow language like what the Apostle Paul had in the New Testament where he says, pray continuously? Wouldn't it have made sense for Moses to say all time, all the time, you should be satisfied in Jesus? Why does he say in the morning? Because before any work happens, before you get good news or bad news that day, before blessings tempt you or suffering shakes you, before the events of your day have yet to unfold, you need to be satisfied in Jesus, lest you be satisfied in something else. This is not a confession that our joy, this is a confession that our joy is not decided by our circumstances, but by our Savior. Before the day decides your joy, Jesus should. Is why Moses writes and why the Holy Spirit writes in the morning. And I want to uh like discuss the things. Not the idea of Jesus, I want to allude to this. Not the idea. I know that one of the things we talk about here, you talk about here at West Side, is treasuring Christ, your head and hands and heart. Um love that language, love Jonathan Edwards, love where it's everything that it pulls from, even historically. But the idea is not that you are conceptually or just in your intellect or just in your cognition being satisfied in Christ. I absolutely believe in the perseverance of the saints. If you know that language, I believe that you wake up every day secure in your salvation, and you don't need to pray every single morning when you wake up in the bed for Jesus to resave you. I don't think your salvation, for those of you that follow Jesus, is up for grabs every day, but I think the alignment of your heart is. I think the alignment of my heart is. It's easy for my heart to misalign itself with worldly passions or success or achievements, or to align myself with trying to accommodate my worry or my anxiety or my fear or try to control the things that I don't want to happen, it's easy for my heart to align in one of those lanes, which is why I have to be satisfied in Christ in the morning. In the morning. I've seen this in my life. I don't want to prescribe it to you, but I bet I'm not far off. If God does not satisfy me first and most, something else will. And it is not as good. It's not as good. It might even be a good thing, but it's not as good as being satisfied in Jesus. Let's talk about those. What we call those things. We call those rival satisfactions, things that we might turn to instead of the satisfaction of his steadfast love for us. In Jeremiah chapter 2, um, the prophet Jeremiah is hearing from the Lord, and he gives this, God laments and warns the prophet to give this message to the people, people of Israel. And so Jeremiah says to from the Lord, or hears from the Lord, that God's people have committed two evils. So it's this in Jeremiah chapter two, two evils. Evil number one is they've forgotten and forsaken a fountain of living water, which is God. And evil number two is they've dug for themselves cisterns or wells that can't hold water. So forgetting God is wrong number one. That was missed that missed that one. But putting all my energy, effort, abilities, resources, all of those things into trying to find the living water I've forsook or forgotten, trying to find it someplace else is wrong number two. Now you might say, now, Pastor, I know you're new here, you're a guest today, you don't know me very well. We've not forgotten God. After all, we're in the room today, aren't we? We're here. If you were to look at my schedule, you would see that I'm at church more times than I'm not. I go to my discipleship group. I'm involved in community, I attend this on Sunday nights or midweek on Wednesday night. Our faith matters to us. You see it in our rhythms. We don't let our kids go see those kind of movies, or we don't let our kids, so we don't let sports be the thing that you know competes for the most or has the throne of their life in the most. Church is part of our rhythm, blah, blah, blah, right? You can easily say that. It's easy to look at that. But I don't want you to confuse activity with abiding. And I don't want you to confuse productivity with understanding God's presence. And I certainly don't want you to think that attendance is the substance of affection. Let me say it this way: my wife does not feel loved because she has this place on my calendar. My wife feels loved because of the quality of the time I spend with her. She doesn't feel loved because I've blocked off certain days and times. She feels loved because I see her and hear her, and she sees me and hears me. She feels loved because we speak to one another, we hear from one another, we share experiences together, we enjoy one another's company, that even our time together is not just coaching one another and parenting. How many of you have turned a date night into a parent coaching session? It's not fun. You know, like you gotta kind of try to leave that stuff somewhere else and experience that level of intimacy and connection with your spouse. There are a lot of things that compete, even in my marriage relationship, for our affection for one another. And they're good things. We could talk, we talk at length about the things we want for our kids and little corrections we want to make or little plans or all sorts of stuff, and those are good things, but if we're not careful, we will confuse activity for affection or abiding. And so I want to offer some questions to you today to just consider what might compete for your heart. Consider these. Where do you turn first for your comfort or joy every day? Where do you turn first? Is it to an inbox? Is it to a portfolio? Is it to make sure everybody's safe and secure? What do you fear losing the most? Fear losing your job, relationships, health, safety, security? What achievement makes you feel the most like you matter or that you're significant? Is it respect from someone? Even a spouse, or even your kids, or the people that work for you, or the people that you work for? What do you spend the most time, money, and energy on? What do you daydream about? If you were to look at your calendars, or if your bank, you were to look at just your bank accounts, you get no other, you get no other commentary. Just your search history, just your chat GPT history, for those in the room that know what I'm talking about. For all these things, what would they say about where you find your satisfaction, where your worries are, where your fears are, where your joy is? And I don't say these things to meddle. What about this one? If Christ were all you had, would he be enough? Now, listen, the Sunday school answer is a resounding yes. I already know that. I already assume that you agree with me here on that. If Christ is all I have, would that be enough? Well, yes, Pastor. Yes, preacher, that would be enough. Let me ask it this way. What's the thing that you want Jesus to do? And if he doesn't do it, is the worship in your heart less? What's this formula look like? Jesus plus the thing I want him to do. However trivial or meaningful that thing might be, does that equal greater worship or less worship? I'll make this as real as I possibly can. This weekend, actually tomorrow, nine years ago tomorrow, I preached the funeral for my brother-in-law, who at 31 years old died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. My sister was widowed at 27. In October of 2016, we learned of his diagnosis. And, you know, it just rocks your family, right? It just rocks. You all, there's probably not a person in here that hasn't experienced cancer or sickness or disease in a really personal way, whether to your family or to someone close to you. And it just, it is the most disordering thing in the world. And um we were all scrambling, scrambling to try to, you know, take in all the news and process and pray and do everything. And so my mom was just who's just a spiritual workhorse in my family and in my life. I mean, my mother, my dad's a pastor, but my mom is maybe the greatest, you know, spiritual former of our family I can think of. I mean, my dad is too. I don't want to paint that picture even hot, but every single morning when I woke up for school, every single morning, not a day went by that there wasn't a post-it note with a Bible verse on it in my bathroom mirror every day. And they would stay there so long that the steam of the shower would fade them away. Um, she always put the word of God in front of her family. Even when my sister and I like would move them so that we could use the mirror, right? Like, somewhat annoyed by these post-it notes. I'm not annoyed anymore. So my mom was a basket case dealing with this. This is her baby girl, you know, her her son-in-law had heard of this. So I'm giving mom a ride. We're we're taking some things over to Laura and Tom's house, and mom just she asked the questions that pastors' families aren't supposed to ask. She's like, Andrew, what are we gonna do if Tom dies? How are we gonna worship Jesus? I I applaud her vulnerability in this question. How are we gonna worship? And I just pulled the car over and I sat there for a minute and I said, I don't know, but I know we have to. Because if we only worship him if we get what we want, then what we worship is actually the healing or the gift and not the giver. And I'm not telling you it's easy to say this. Some of you might be in this right now. I'm just saying that the word of God tells me that even good things can compete for my satisfaction. Even great things. Oh, my sister's marriage was a great thing. But like it, it's it doesn't replace Jesus. So if Christ were really all we had, would he be enough? Or do I look for the blank, Jesus plus whatever's in my blank to increase my worship? And I don't say these things to meddle, I say these things because all of us, all of us, are tempted to find our greatest satisfaction in something else. Probably not a golden calf or a golden idol or statue. Probably a really good thing that you make an ultimate thing. That's something Tim Keller used to say. Idols are when we take good things and make them ultimate things. It could even be my ministry. It could be my marriage. If I make it an ultimate thing, then I run the risk of putting my satisfaction in something less than Jesus. If I'm not careful, I will let my joy, my satisfaction be dictated by the husband that I am, or the father that I am, or my family's health, or my health, well-being, or the work teammate I am, or the pastor or friend I am. Every day, listen, every day. And I don't bat a thousand at this, but every day before my feet hit the floor, I try to center my heart on being satisfied in Christ and what he's done, even before I get out of bed. I don't mean half my quiet time, okay? But I mean just taking a moment and centering my affections on being satisfied in what Jesus has done. And that's not always the first place my heart goes. Sometimes my heart goes to the thing I'm already late for, to the to the busyness that's in my schedule. Which is why we practice spiritual disciplines, right? We don't practice spiritual disciplines to check a box. We practice spiritual disciplines to train our hearts. We put our kids on training wheels on our bikes so that they learn how to ride on just two wheels. And similarly, we practice spiritual disciplines to train our hearts in what it means to find our satisfaction in Jesus. The fourth thing, or the third thing, where do we find our satisfaction? Where do we in the steadfast love of God? And love proven in Christ. Moses is specific: satisfy us, not in your provision, but in your love. Notice he doesn't say satisfy us with improved circumstances or with answered prayers. He shows off, displays a covenant, costly, loyal love from God. And Moses had the Old Testament understanding of this. Now you might say, well, Andrew, Moses didn't know Jesus. Well, if you've ever read the book of Jude, it says Moses does know Jesus. The book of Jude has a verse in it that renovates everything we know about the Old Testament. And in the book of Jude, it says that it was Jesus who led the Egyptians, or the Hebrews, out of Egypt. It was Jesus. It wasn't something else. It was Jesus that did these things. I think it's in verse 5. Jude only has one chapter. That it's Jesus that did these things. So Moses knew, experienced the love of Christ. The first 11 verses, 13 verses, kind of serve as a backdrop for God's wrath, of the somewhat gloomy, despairing context that we talked about. But all of that exists so that it points to the one that takes that wrath away. That was I said in the first part of our talk, that turns our sigh into a smile. All of the wrath and anger of God that Moses kind of describes is intended to point us to the one that takes that from us. And we are tempted to believe that when suffering happens in our life, trial happens. And nobody wants to admit this. Tribulation happens, frustrating things happen. We are tempted to say, I don't know if God's that loving. We're all tempted to do that. And if we don't say it that boldly, we say, I don't know that he loves me as much as he loves them, right? Like that's sometimes the way we feel. Why? That didn't happen to them. Why did it happen to me? And under that, under that is this doubt of is God loving? But here's what I want to remind us: that we don't look to our circumstances to be the declaration of God's love for us. We don't look to that. The Bible teaches us this. That every time I am tempted and fall prey into doubting God's faithfulness to me. Every time. If I am only left to look at my circumstances or my scenarios or what I'm facing or what I'm feeling, if I'm only left of that, it could be confusing on whether or not God loves me. But that's not where the Bible tells us to look. He says in Romans chapter 5, verse 8, he said, God demonstrated his love for us in this. He fixed your circumstances? No. He demonstrated his love for us in this world. Is God really for me? God doesn't say, you need to interpret the situation that you're in and learn whether or not I'm for you. He says, look at the cross. Son, daughter, look at the cross. That's how you know that I'm for you. I'm for you because the cross happened and the grave is empty and the throne is occupied. That's how you know that I'm for you. Your circumstances might entice you to believe that you're not loved, but the cross ends all of that speculation. In Romans 8, 31, 32, the apostle Paul says this, what then shall we say? If God's for us, who and what can be against us? And how do we know that God's for us? Because we get what we want all the time? No, because God did not spare his son. That's what he says in verse 32. Because God did not spare his son, he is eternally for us. There is an inseparable link in the Bible between the steadfast love of God and the person and work of Jesus Christ. These are inseparable things. And so for us to be satisfied in the steadfast love of God, it is equally that we are satisfied in the perfect and complete and triumphant work of Jesus. And when we say that, when Moses writes this in verse 14, it is both a proclamation that we should be satisfied in the steadfast love of Christ, and it is also a request. And here's why. Because I need that. I agree mentally, I find my satisfaction in the steadfast love of Jesus. But Lord, my request is to make my heart feel that. We've probably heard the Lord's Prayer before. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I used to think that first line was an imperative, a declaration. Our Father who art in heaven, holy be your name. But when Jesus utters it, the language that he uses is not a command, it's a request. Lord, in what I'm facing, will you remind my heart of the holy glory of your name? Lord, that's a request in the first line of that prayer. And it's the same here. Satisfied in Christ. In the morning, his steadfast love. It's not just a proclamation, it is also a request. Last part, that we might rejoice and be glad all of our days. God's aim for his people. He's committed to your joy and gladness. And here's why. Here's why. Why does God commit it to your joy and gladness? Because grateful people live on mission for Jesus differently than just skilled people or than legalistic people or the people that understand cognitively or even people that feel guilty to it. My team on the Kentucky Baptist Convention leads evangelism trainings all the time in churches. And we can lead some pretty good evangelism trainings. We can tell you really good methods and models to give you skill and to give you training and to give you insight into how to persuade and have meaningful gospel conversations that are impactful. But our best trainings do not give you gratitude. And it takes gratitude to share your faith. It takes gratitude to live life on mission. In Luke chapter 7, Jesus has this interaction with this Pharisee, this religious leader, and this woman of the city. That's a very kind way that the Bible talked about this lady. Do your own research and kind of see what that applies to. She comes in and she is weeping at his feet and washing his feet with her hair and her tears. And he's kind of mocking it. This religious leader kind of wants Jesus to shoe her away. And Jesus looks at him and it says, She has been loved much. And because she has been loved much, what does she do? She loves much. You, friends, have been loved much. What do you do with that gratitude? What do you do with the gladness that you have in the satisfaction of your souls in the steadfast love of Jesus? Last part. All our days. And here's where I want to kind of turn this to be the collective understanding. Westside, I don't know what how you got here. I don't know what brought you here. I do know in Acts 17, the Apostle Paul says that God in his wisdom set the boundaries in which people would live, that they would all end, you would be right where you're supposed to be at the time you're supposed to be it. That there are things that maybe have happened in your rear view mirror that have put you right here, and there are maybe things that you are yet to face that you don't know, but the people that are around you today and the people that are in the community with you are here to face them with you. We're committed to rejoice and be glad all of our collective days, and here's what that means. That means you need to be people that have each other's backs and fronts and sides. That means you need to be people that are in war with one another. I heard a pastor say once that if we viewed prayer less as talking to a butler and more as with like a wartime mentality, that it would change the way that we pray. Like, what does it look like to change that for the people around us? It's more than meal trains and go fund me's and blessing people. It's about being an extra mile person for all the people that we're in community with. And if you've walked through some Something hard, you know when the people stop going the extra mile for you. It's like a heightened experience for like six months, and then it kind of stops. I've got multiple calendar appointments in my phone on days after days of funerals or days of deaths for friends of mine. And I'll text them. Sometimes decades later, I'll be like, hey, I thought of you yesterday. I know yesterday was a hard day. It might not have been hard for anybody else in your world, but I know it was hard for you. Because I think, and to be fair, somebody did that for me yesterday, just for what I've been talked about today. Be an extra mile person. Be someone that goes farther with people all of our days, so that we could be people of joy and gladness. Everyone loves their brother and sister on the easy days, but how do you love them on the hard ones? And then who is the hour? Is it just this church, or is it the people that you work with, or the people that your neighbors with? And maybe the hour even includes future generations that you find your satisfaction in Christ in such a way that it affects the trajectory of your family. Your family will be more impacted by your daily satisfaction in Jesus than anything you can leave them or give them to inherit. Your family will be more impacted. They'll tell more stories, they'll have greater testimony of God's faithfulness by your daily satisfaction in Jesus than anything you can materially leave them. I pray over my girls every, not every day, but probably every week. Psalm chapter 20. And my son, I've just not been in the habit of doing that before he goes to school because he's nine months old. But that God would give them the desire of their heart, make all their plans succeed. When I pray that, I'm like, but Lord, make sure the desire of their heart is you. Make sure it's you. I know you want to give that. But make sure the desire of their heart is you. Because if you're the desire of their heart, all their plans will succeed. I'm not sure where you land in light of this text today. Some of you might need to find satisfaction in the salvation of Jesus, that he died to take away the wrath that Moses talked about, so that your sins not count against you and you can stand before holy God in perfect relationship because of the work of Christ. And you need to say, Yes, I want his work on the cross to speak for my life. But some of us may just need to spend time repenting from some of the things we find satisfaction in, other than Jesus. And because this Psalm is a prayer, I want to kind of frame the invitation as three prayers I'm asking you to pray. Three prayers. I'm asking myself to pray. I want you to pray this verse, Psalm 90, 14, as an invitation for unbelievers. So when it says satisfy us in the morning in your steadfast love, I want you to think of a person's name that needs to find their satisfaction in Jesus that you could pray instead of us. So I'll just say this. Mine would be satisfy Mike in the morning in your steadfast love. I need him to find his satisfaction. A guy that I live among, that I get to share the truth of the gospel with. I'm praying that over unbelievers in my life as an invitation. Lord, would you satisfy them with the beauty of Jesus? Secondly, pray it with believers. When you say the us, make it some, not general, but make it some us. Pray it with believers as commitment and recommitment in your journey of following Jesus. Friends, family, people that you work with, people that you're in accountability with, in my KBC role, I am like more active in ministry than any place, than any time in my life. I'm like more, when I say visible, I mean like I'm like at this church and this church and this meeting and this training and this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I am less known than I've ever been. Because I'm not journeying with a group of people week in and week out. And there's costs to that. And one of the costs is nobody, I have to work hard for people to pray this with me and for me to pray this with people. That we find our satisfaction in Christ. So I have to work hard to put men in my life that we cheer each other on to be satisfied together in Christ. And then I ask you to pray it for this church family specifically, for this us here at Westside Baptist Church as a people. Your satisfaction is not dependent on who your next senior pastor is. Your satisfaction is not dependent on what your offerings look like or what your resources look like or what buildings you build or ministries you get off the ground. Your satisfaction is dependent on the steadfast love of Jesus. For us to pray that together. And then here's how I just will close in a moment of benediction for us today. Westside Baptist Church, may you find your deepest satisfaction. Not in what you've done or in what you accomplished or what your day may bring or hold, but in Christ, in what he's done, and what he's accomplished, and in what he's acclaimed for you. May He be enough for you today, in the good and in the hard, giving you freedom to rejoice and to serve and to love and to endure all things in him. And may this be our collective prayer. Satisfy us in your in this morning. It's still morning, in your steadfast love, that we might rejoice and be glad all of our days. So go in that grace and peace.