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Kicking off the Essentials series, Pastor Hunter Jones preaches from Exodus 34, where God reveals His own name and character to Moses after Israel had distorted Him into a golden calf. The sermon argues that the smallest distortion in our view of God leads to major distortions in how we live, so we must let God define Himself rather than shaping Him into a comfortable idol. God reveals Himself as the self-existent "I Am," triune, overflowing in chesed (loyal, covenant) love, and perfectly just. Rightly seeing God produces the same response Moses had: falling down in humble, overwhelmed worship.

Only Jesus can satisfy the eternity God planted in our hearts, so when we ask politics and government to do that job, they will always fall short. Government has a real, God-given purpose — restrain evil and promote good — but it cannot regenerate a heart; only the gospel can do that.

God has planted eternity in our hearts, so nothing under the sun can ever fill the longing only His presence satisfies. Solomon had every resource to test this and found that pleasure, achievement, identity, and people all fail as substitutes for God. The invitation is to stop demanding the temporary do the eternal's job, and instead sit in Jesus' presence and enjoy His gifts for what they are.

God has planted eternity in every human heart, so nothing under the sun—wealth, relationships, jobs, pleasure—can ever finally satisfy us. The hope is that Jesus offers a rich and satisfying life that holds even in hard circumstances, because He is not a resource we use to reach our goals but the source of the eternal relationship we were made for.