Living a Good Life: Making Sense of Your Appetites, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In a well-known quote, Augustine tells the Lord, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee. The created can never satisfy a heart meant for the Creator. In Ecclesiastes 6, Solomon bemoans the fact that wealth does not satisfy the soul. In today's message, we consider our appetite for gain as a human race, why it fails to satisfy, and what we can do about it. Let's listen to this message titled, Making Sense of Your Appetites. This is the third part of the message, first preached on May 6, 2018 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. It's part of a series on Ecclesiastes titled, Living a Good Life, Making Sense of the Journey. To hear the whole message, or more messages in this series, you can visit www.delightingrace.com.

God knows. God knows what is good for men. You see, we desperately need that infinite reference point, because I am insufficient in myself to be a reference point for my own life. I cannot determine what is good for me.

That has to be determined outside of me. So to inform your desires means to desire right things. Desire right things. That means to desire what God wants. I love this verse. It's from Psalm 119. Great peace have those who delight in God's self-disclosure.

Nothing causes them to stumble or be offended. Now there's a little bit of Rich Powell translation in there. But that's what the verse is saying. What does God want? Micah 6, 8. Do justly.

Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God. Those are the things God wants. That's what defines success. And when we do those things, we will know a level of satisfaction that is unknown to unregenerate man.

We will start looking for satisfaction in the right places. That's why Jesus gave the parable of the treasure in the field. The kingdom of God is like the treasure in the field.

When a man goes and he finds it, he discovers it. What does he do? He recognizes the immense value of that treasure. What does he do? He goes and he sells everything that he has. Why?

So that he can buy that field. He has gotten rid of the lesser things so that he can have the infinitely greater thing. The apostle Paul said something very similar to that.

What did he say? Remember Philippians? What things were gained to me, I counted them as that I may gain Christ.

Isn't that amazing? Inform your desires. Desire the right things. What are the things that God wants? Because you were made for him.

He designed you. And when you desire the things that God desires, you're going to realize a level of satisfaction that you've never had before. Second, corral your desires. Corral your desires. Because you know your desires can be like a wild runaway horse, right? Verse 9, better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite. The wandering appetite. That's the root problem, isn't it? That's why our desires need to be corralled. The word wandering is words like walking around. And so if informing our desires is desiring the right things, then corralling our desires is desiring real things.

Think about that now. What do I mean by that? Desire is the sight of the eyes. What is that? That which God has given to you.

If you're in your relationship with your spouse, that needs to be your enjoyment, not some other irrational fantasy. That's how that works. The sight of the eyes. Better than the wandering of the appetite. Corral your desires. What you have and what can be known. Truth, information, revelation.

Seek out information. And we can know that, but our desires need to be corralled lest we get carried away by irrational fantasy. Over in Verona, Italy, there is a house. It's called the House of Juliet.

It was built in the 13th century. You all know the story of Romeo and Juliet, right? Did you know that they never actually existed? Did you know that?

Did you know that? But this is called the House of Juliet. You know what else? It has a balcony up there where they ostensibly planned their tragic end. People hoard to this balcony in Verona, Italy. Masses of people down there.

You know what? It's a beautiful old ancient house, but there's one problem. There's this idea that has risen that if you write a note and stick it to the wall there, that you will end up with everlasting love. And so you take a picture, these hordes of crowds down there looking up at this balcony, and then people take their chewing gum and stick right on this little note, their love passion and desire on this little note probably has a name attached to it or something like that, and they take the chewing gum and stick it to the wall. And there are tens of thousands of little notes stuck to this wall underneath that balcony. What's the moral of the story?

If you go to Verona, Italy, you'd make a killing selling gum. Carried away by irrational fantasy, 1 Timothy 6, 6, godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with contentment is great gain. I like what Steve DeWitt says in his book, Eyes Wide Open, Enjoying God in Everything.

I like that title, Enjoying God in Everything. He says, this world and its history are prelude and foretaste. All the sunrises and sunsets, symphonies and concerts, feasts and friendships are but whispers. They are a prologue to the grander story and an even better place, only there it will be.

Only there it will never end. So that leads us then to the third point. Number three, delay your desires.

Inform your desires, corral your desires, delay your desires. Once again, verse 12, end of verse 12. For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

Again, what's the answer to that? God can. God can and He has. Tell man what is after him. See, if our perspective is limited to just under the sun, then we're in despair. We have to give up. But God has made known, and to delay our desires means to desire promised things.

Desire promised things, the things that God has promised. Recognize this, this creation that we live in now is fallen. It is broken. It is corruptible.

It needs to be redeemed. That being true, listen to this, please. Until creation is redeemed, you will always have a life. Until creation is redeemed, you will always have longing. Until creation is redeemed, you will always have a sense of dissatisfaction.

You cannot realize full and complete satisfaction under the sun. But God has promised that creation will be redeemed. You will make all things new. Who is it that said I make all things new?

The one who walked out of the grave. It's pretty cool, isn't it? He said, He has promised that I will be satisfied. He has promised that I will be like Him. He has talked about through the apostle, our glory, our glory.

What is that? Our glory, my glory is when I am just like Christ, forever with Him. That's my glory. I will reach the height of humanity.

That's our glory. And He has promised that to me. And that is why we need to delay our desires by desiring promised things. Again, Jesus said what? Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden. Labor and heavy laden. That doesn't sound like a person at rest, does it?

It sounds like a person with wandering appetites, scurrying and spending and manipulating for satisfaction. But He says, come to me, you who labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. You will find rest unto your souls.

That's what He said. Augustine, theologian, author, who lived a life of debauchery until he knew that he needed to surrender himself to God, writes this in Confessions, one of his well-known books. It's right at the beginning of the book, too. He said, you made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Very, very true. Very true. May God rescue us from wandering appetites and looking for that satisfaction in all the wrong places.

In all the wrong places. Father, thank you for your goodness and your love. Thank you for giving yourself to us in the person of Jesus.

Thank you that you are our soul's great reward. Father, thank you for the things that you have promised us and you've not left us up to our own delusions and despair and our insatiable desires. But Father, thank you that you are the bread of life.

You are the water, the living water. So Father, I pray that you would minister to us this morning through your word and by your Holy Spirit that you would search our hearts. May we be honest before you, Father, to the degree that our appetites are wandering. Draw us back to you, Father, to find our satisfaction in you and to recognize, Father, that in this fallen creation, we will always have a sense of longing and dissatisfaction until we are with you. So thank you for your promise through your grace, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.