Whenever I am asked to introduce myself, I always start with: “I have met God.” Even back when I was a new recruit starting my first job, I introduced myself this way. I told my colleagues, “I met God in August 1992.” My manager, who had been quietly reflecting on those words, called me into her office the very next day. “What does it actually mean to ‘meet God’?”

Now, it turned out the manager was in her mid-fifties. She had been a Methodist her entire life—over fifty years in the church. But to her, the words of “meeting God” sounded so strange and awkward.

So I told her, “I wasn’t always a believer. I used to be on the side of those who opposed God.” You’ve heard of the philosopher named, “Do-ol Yong-Ok Kim(a prominent critic of Christianity), right? I started reading his books when I was just in junior high. By the time I was in university, my house was full of them. Under his influence, I actually believed that Christianity was a “social evil.” I honestly thought that if Christianity disappeared, world peace would finally come.

But through various events, God made me realize that I was a sinner. And when I knelt down before Him and cried out, “God, if You are really alive, I need Your help,” He truly met me. The promises in the Bible were no longer just old stories; I experienced those words becoming a reality in me. I have a somewhat hardened heart—I don’t easily trust what people say. But I have received the evidence myself. So now, it’s not about me saying, “I learned well about God from someone else.” And it’s not even that I just “came to believe” in God. What I experienced was not just believing—I actually MET God. I experienced Him.

If someone asks me about my wife, I can talk about her all day long. Why? Because I’ve met her! I can answer anything: “What’s her favorite food? What is her personality like? When does she get angry? What makes her happy?” I know it all. But imagine someone trying to get a U.S. visa by faking a marriage. They might memorize answers to expected questions: “What’s your partner’s hobby? Where did you first meet?” They might last for 20 minutes in an interview, but they could never talk about that person all day. Eventually, they’d be caught. However, meeting God isn’t about memorizing or learning facts. Of course, we should learn more to know Him deeply, but the foundation must be meeting Him. This is why I bless you all in the name of Jesus to meet God. Once you meet Him, no one has to tell you, “You must know God!” You just know. You’ve experienced Him. It’s like knowing your own child is yours—you don’t need anyone else to prove it to you. I hope you all meet God in that way.

Today’s scripture says, “God has put eternity in their hearts.” Now, to truly express this word “eternity,” We have to say it with some feeling. We have to say it like this: “E-te-e-e-e-e-rnity!” Even that doesn’t quite capture it, does it? It represents something incredibly long and far-reaching. In short, eternity means having no end. And the Bible records that God has put this eternity in each one of us.

Think about this morning—from the moment we woke up, countless thoughts and feelings have passed through our minds. For example, we know we should get up early, but there’s a part of us that just wants to sleep a little longer. But we overcome that feeling and come out anyway. Even during the early service this morning, I felt a bit cold. So I thought, “I should put on a warm jacket,” and I did right in the middle of the service. Thoughts like these just keep passing by. After the service, I was standing at the back, laying hands on the saints to pray for them. Since I had to keep bending over and standing back up, my back started to hurt. Then, a thought flashed through my mind: “I really want to sit down as soon as this is finished.” A little later, because I was still feeling the chill, another thought drifted in: “I want a nice, hot bowl of soup for breakfast today.” So I went to a restaurant and had a hot meal. And then, not long after that, yet another thought popped up: “Now, I’d love a cup of coffee.”

Anyway, these thoughts keep passing through us. But when you think about it, our minds and hearts are inseparable from our bodies. Our body and mind are stuck together! When my stomach is empty and I get hungry, the thought “I want to eat” pops up in my mind. When my body is cold, the feeling “I want to be warm” keeps passing through. My point is that the mind and body are joined as one. As I mentioned earlier, what happens to that desire once you actually warm up your body? Does it stay with you? No. The very moment your body gets warm, that desire just disappears.

For example, I served my military duty at a “GOP”(General Outpost). There, looking across the 38th parallel, I stood guard in shifts. One team worked from 6 p.m. to midnight, and another from midnight to 6 a.m. But one team couldn’t just stand still in one spot; my team had to keep moving from post to post. The wind was like a knife, and the wind chill would drop to -25 degrees Celsius. I had no heaters, no special winter gear—just a thick coat. When I climbed the mountain to get to the post, I started to sweat. But once I stood still to keep watch, that sweat cooled down and my body got soaked. Then, when that icy wind hit my wet skin, it was incredibly cold. I just stood there shivering for an hour, trying to move anything just to stay alive.

After repeating that for six long hours, only one single thought fills my mind. What do you think it is? It’s “I want to go back to the base, right now.” For those on duty from 6 p.m. to midnight, all they can think about is midnight. Once I finally got back to the base, do you know what I do first? I took a hot shower. I looked forward to it so much! And I was so hungry, too. I felt like I had to eat something before I fell asleep. The thought “I want a sweet bean bun” completely took over my mind. So, the moment I got back to the base, I literally ran straight to the bathhouse.

But I felt something truly amazing. For six hours, I had been desperately praying, “I want a bath! I miss warm water so much!” But the moment I stepped into the shower and turned on the hot water, what do you think happened within just one minute? It completely vanished. It was gone! From that point on, the desire to be warm didn’t even cross my mind anymore. That’s when I thought to myself: “Is this body of ours easy or difficult to please?” It’s incredibly easy! Think about being starving. Here, a sweet bean bun might be nothing special, but in the army, after a long shift, it’s the most delicious thing in the world. You crave it so much: “I can’t wait to eat a sweet bean bun with some milk!” But the moment you eat it, what happens to that desire? It is the most incredible thing—it didn’t even exist anymore.

You see, our hearts are so easy to satisfy because they are connected to our bodies. Our bodies don’t actually crave e-te-e-e-r-nal things. They want simple things. They just want to be comfortable. It’s so easy to please the body! But that satisfaction doesn’t last very long. I might take that hot shower I wanted, eat a delicious meal, and go to sleep. But what happens the next day? When I was back on duty, that same desire to be warm came rushing back all over again. This cycle repeats 365 days a year. This is what we call “desire of the flesh”—the mind of the body. It’s what we naturally want because we are tied to our physical forms. And this isn’t a bad thing. As long as we have a body, it’s only natural to feel this way.

Since our hearts are so closely tied to our bodies, we can easily get what we want and feel satisfied quickly. But there is one very strange fact. Here is something truly remarkable! What exactly do we have deep inside our hearts? What is it? It is the desire for eternity. We long for things that are eternal. We don’t just want something that gives us a moment of satisfaction; we desire what lasts forever.

We all want joy, but what kind of joy do we really want? We want it to be eternal. That’s the desire we have deep in our hearts. And what about happiness? Everyone wants to be happy forever. And love—do you want to be loved? Do you really want to be loved? What kind of love are you looking for? A love that lasts for just ten years? No one thinks, “I’ll be fine as long as I’m loved for ten years.” Even if someone knew they only had fifty years left to live, they wouldn’t say, “I just want to be loved for fifty years.” No, we want to be loved for eternity.  We don’t think, “I want to be happy for fifty years.” We want that happiness to last forever.

Does this desire come from our bodies? Is it the flesh that creates this desire? No, it isn’t. As I said, the desires of the flesh are very easy to satisfy, and they don’t long for eternal things. At most, the body just wants warm water, some bread, a place to sit and rest, or to lie down comfortably. That’s all.

But deep within us, there is clearly a longing for eternity. Even if we don’t say it out loud—“Give me eternal love! Give me eternal joy! Give me eternal happiness!”—everyone is still yearning for it. That’s why we suffer so much when things don’t last. Think about two lovers who are deeply in love. But then, one of them has a change of heart. The other person can’t let go so easily. Why? Because they promised to love each other forever. They just can’t accept it: “How could this change? How could it end?” Some people even become so obsessed that they take extreme measures, saying, “If this love won’t be eternal, then I won’t let anyone else have it either!” All of this is the desperate struggle of people who longed for eternity but couldn’t reach it—the cries of those who are disappointed and broken.

Why do we long for eternity so much? Does our body have a desire for eternal things? Yes or no? No, it doesn’t. The body is just flesh. Then where does this longing come from? It comes from within us, but from where exactly? It is because there is an eternal being within us. It’s because an eternal existence lives inside of us that we desire eternal happiness; because an eternal being is there, we long for eternal joy; because we possess an eternal nature, we yearn to receive eternal love. Even when the love we see right in front of us fails and leaves us disappointed, there is still a cry from the deepest part of our hearts: “Please, love me forever.”

Why do we come to church? Why do we seek to meet God and know Him through Jesus Christ? It’s all for one reason: to obtain what is eternal. If you’re just looking for something to satisfy you for a short time, you don’t really need to come to church for that. You might come here and receive some comfort for your heart, but let me ask you: Is that comfort eternal? If it’s only temporary comfort you’re after, the world offers plenty of places that can give you that. But it’s only for a moment. It won’t last. However, what you can receive here at church—what God wants to give you—is something that lasts forever.

Even after having faith in Jesus, many people still try to seek things that are only temporary. Maybe we’ve heard these kinds of words when someone was evangelizing to us: “Believe in Jesus, and your business will thrive!” or “Believe in Jesus, and you’ll be healthy, everything will go smoothly, and your children will find great jobs!” But let’s say your child actually gets that great job. It might look like success right now, but who knows? Later on, it might actually turn out to be a bad path for them. We might be happy for a moment, but eventually, we’ll end up disappointed. We see this everywhere. People were so happy for a while, but now they are filled with deep disappointment. Why? Because the joy the world gives simply cannot last.

The world cannot give you what is eternal. But God is the One who can give us eternal joy. This has been proven throughout human history! People today still believe in the promises God made four thousand years ago, and we are experiencing those very promises coming true in our own lives. But as it turns out, God didn’t just start this four thousand years ago. He has held this purpose since before eternity began, and He is letting us experience it now. And from this point on, we can receive as many eternal things as we want from Him.

So, dear beloved, now that you’ve come to church, do not be satisfied with just getting things that are here today and gone tomorrow. Sure, you can find those things here, too. You can find comfort, you can find joy, and you can have a good time. But on top of that, what is truly important is that you must obtain what is eternal. Eternal joy, eternal happiness, eternal blessings, and eternal health—I bless you in the name of Jesus that you may receive all of these!

God our Father, please pour out Your grace upon every soul gathered here today. Help us to receive and enjoy all the eternal things You provide, so that we may possess that everlasting joy. Just as You, Lord, are eternally happy, we pray that You would help us also to be happy forever. May Your joy become our own. We pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.