Today I just want to compare two phrases with you, to get us thinking about this subject in a deeper way. Here are the two phrases:
Question 3. Considering those two phrases, what differences do you see?
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One of the problems of the human race, from the very beginning clear down to our present day, is that we are far too easily satisfied. We can find pleasure too easily. We find happiness and excitement in temporary things, while possibly missing out on the eternal pleasures God has given us in His Son, Jesus Christ.
A man by the name of C. S. Lewis described it like a child content to make mud pies in a slum rather than enjoying a wonderful vacation by the sea.
And yet even that description falls short because the pleasures that are available in Jesus are not like a vacation which is temporary; they are eternal pleasures.
Let’s look at the passage again that we’ve been thinking about for the past couple of days:
Psalms 16:11 NIV You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
So we notice the following things:
Maybe in the past, we’ve thought that God wanted to take something away from us or give us a bunch of rules to live under, or that Jesus and the Bible are just boring in comparison to the “life” we found through media.
But here we see that God makes known to us the path of life! God’s desire is to give us life! Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full!” (John 10:10 NIV). Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6 NIV).
While media addiction can leave us empty and wanting more, there is a fullness that you can experience with God that, once you start to enjoy it you might think, “I didn’t even know what I was missing”. David in the Bible said, “my cup overflows” (Psalm 23:5) because of the fullness He found in God.
So we’ve talked about “life” and “fullness” so far.
We should notice the difference between the temporary pleasure of our media addiction and the eternal pleasures in Jesus. One is here today and gone tomorrow, the other lasts forever. One can provide a pleasure, one at a time, but there are “pleasures”, plural, in Jesus Christ.
Question 4. Sometimes I’ve found it helpful to write out passages that I’m studying. Please take a minute and just write out Psalm 16:11 here, thinking about each phrase as you type it:
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