Sermon Illustrations on Spiritual Hunger

Aspiration, Universal

Human aspiration is like tendrils climbing upward, seeking spiritual growth and fulfillment.

Every man is born with aspiration. It does not develop in every man: neither do half the buds in trees blossom; but they are there. And there is aspiration in every man, whether you suspect or not, and though it may not blossom. Aspiration means tendril, twining, or any thing else by which one climbs upward, holding on by the way to whatever will support it. Some plants take hold by winding around, some by little roots, some by tendrils, some by hooks, and some by leaves that catch like anchors. But these things take hold, not for the sake of staying when they take hold, but only that they may climb higher. And so it is with men. We clasp things above by every part of our nature, one after another, not for the sake of remaining when we take hold, but that we may go higher. In other words, when, in the ordinary experience of life, we gain satisfaction, we do it almost only by feeding on each other. When we attain development, we do that in the same way. The soul feeds on soul whether for satisfaction or development. Beecher.

Desires, Power of the

Desires reveal the soul's condition, showing spiritual health or distress.

Desires are the pulses of the soul: as physicians judge by appetite, so may you by desires. A spiritual dropsy or an unsatisfied thirst argues a distempered soul, when, like the horse-leech's daughter, you still cry, "Give, give!" and you are never contented, but must have more.

— T. Manton

God, Longing for

Psalms 42:1

Like thirsty harts seeking water, our souls long deeply for God.

Once, a king, in crossing the desert in a lone caravan, was parched with thirst. Dreadful is that dry and thirsty land where no water is! The sands were strewn with the wrecks of caravans, the skeletons of men who had died of thirst lying in that dread cemetery; and then the cry arose, "Water, water! there is no water!" It was a fearful moment. Parched throats and eyes hopelessly looked up to the all-too-cloudy sky along the plain; overhead, the red-hot copper sun. Then said one, "We must let loose the harts, — the light, fleet harts." They bounded in all directions. Keen in their instinctive scent of water, the spring was found; and then, when they sat to rest beside the beautiful and blessed pool, — then said the king, as he took forth his tablets and wrote, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."

— E. P. Hood

Ignorance, of Religion

Ignorance of religion’s value causes people to reject the true spiritual nourishment it offers.

Ignorance of the price of pearls makes the idiot slight them. Ignorance of the worth of diamonds makes the fool choose a pebble before them. Ignorance of the satisfaction learning affords — that makes the peasant despise and laugh at it; and we very ordinarily see how men tread and trample on those plants which are the greatest restoratives, because they know not the virtue of them: and the same may justly be affirmed of religion, — the reason why men meddle no more with it is because they are not acquainted with the pleasantness of it.

— Anthony Horneck

Knowledge, Desire for

Spiritual thirst grows as we gain more knowledge, like a water-lily rejoicing in rain.

The more we know, the greater our thirst for knowledge. The water-lily, in the midst of waters, opens its leaves and expands its petals at the first pattering of showers, and rejoices in the raindrops with a quicker sympathy than the parched shrub in the sandy desert. Coleridge.

Life, Incompleteness of

Human incompleteness and longing drive us toward God as our true home.

To be weighed down with a sense of our own incompleteness; to long for that which we have not, and cannot gain; to desery noble attainments, as islands in the sea, eagerly sought, but which change to clouds as we draw near; to spend our life in searching for the hidden land (as Columbus for the new continent), and to find only weeds floating, or a broken branch, or, at best, a bird that comes to us from the unknown shore, — this it is to be on earth, to live. And yet are not these very yearnings the winds which God sends to fill our sails, and give us good voyage homeward? Beecher.

Religion, Valuing

Believers delight in communion with God as much as an artist admires fine workmanship.

Ælian reports of one Nicostratus, that being a skilful artificer, and finding a curious piece of art, he was so much taken with it, that a spectator, beholding him very intent in viewing the workmanship, asked him what pleasure he could take in gazing so long upon such an object. He answered, "Hadst thou my eyes, thou wouldst be as much ravished as I am." So may we say of carnal persons, had they the hearts and dispositions of believers, they would be as much delighted with all means of communion with God, as they are, and account that their privilege which now they esteem their vexation. C. Buck.

Soul, Thirsty

Thirst shows the soul's deep need for spiritual satisfaction beyond physical relief.

Artaxerxes, ready to perish of thirst, was constrained to drink of puddle-water, of which he professed that he never drank wine with more delight. Venning.

Soul, Yearnings of the

The soul's deep yearnings are unknowingly cries for God and heavenly home.

Men sigh on, not knowing what the soul wants, but only that it needs something. Our yearnings are homesicknesses for heaven; our sighings are for God; just as children that cry themselves asleep away from home, and sob in their slumber, know not that they sob for their parents. The soul's inarticulate moanings are the affections yearning for the Infinite, and having no one to tell them what it is that ails them.

— Beecher

The Spiritual Beggar

A crippled man gains gospel knowledge by collecting and praying over pieces of God's Word.

Both his hands and his feet had been caten off by a disease, which the natives call kokovi. But he was industrious and raised food sufficient to support his family. He walked on his knees; he dug the ground with an instrument, and then scraping out the earth with the stumps of his arms, he contrived to place the plant in the hole, and to fill in the earth. Mr. Williams once fell in with him as he was walking along, and found to his astonishment that the poor cripple possessed a wonderful knowledge of the gospel, and a truly Christian spirit. Having never seen him at any place of worship, Mr. Williams asked, "But where did you obtain your knowledge?" "Why," said he, "as the people return from the services, I take my seat by the way-side, and beg a bit of the word as they pass by; one gives me one piece, another another piece, and I collect them together in my heart, and by thinking on what I thus obtain, and praying to God to make me know, I understand a little about his Word." Begging the truth piece-meal from the natives who heard it—this poor cripple obtained a knowledge of the Gospel, that would put thousands, in the most favored parts of Christendom, to the

As The Hart Panteth

Psalms 42:1

Like a hart panting for water, the soul longs deeply for God’s presence.

Once a king, in crossing the desert in a caravan, was parched with thirst. The sands were strewn with the wrecks of caravans, the skeletons of men who had died of thirst, lying in that dread cemetery. The cry arose, “Water, water I there is no water!” It was a fearful moment. Eyes hopelessly looked up to the skies along the plain, while overhead was the red-hot copper sun. Then said one, “We must let loose the harts,—the light, fleet harts.” They bounded in all directions. Keen in their instinctive scent of water, the spring was found; and then, when they sat to rest beside the beautiful pool, the king took his tablets and wrote, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”

TASTE—Spiritual, Needful for Heavenly Joys

Unrenewed souls lack spiritual taste needed for heavenly joys and elevated thoughts.

The unfitness of unrenewed souls for heaven, may be illustrated by the incapacity of certain uneducated and coarse-minded persons for elevated thoughts and intellectual pursuits. When a little child, I lived some years in my grandfather's house. In his garden there was a fine old hedge of yew of considerable length, which was clipped and trimmed till it made quite a wall of verdure. Behind it was a wide grass walk, which looked upon the fields, and afforded a quiet outlook. The grass was kept mown, so as to make pleasant walking. Here, ever since the old Puritanic chapel was built, godly divines had walked, and prayed, and meditated. My grandfather was wont to use it as his study. Up and down it he would walk when preparing his sermons, and always on Sabbath-days when it was fair, he had half-an-hour there before preaching. To me it seemed to be a perfect paradise, and being forbidden to stay there when grandfather was meditating, I viewed it with no small degree of awe. I love to think of the green and quiet walk at this moment, and could wish for just such a study. But I was once shocked and even horrified by hearing a farming man remark concerning this sanctum sanctorum , "It' ud grow a many 'taturs if it wor ploughed up." What cared he for holy memories? What were meditation and contemplation to him? Is it not the chief end of man to grow potatoes and eat them? Such, on a larger scale, would be an unconverted man's estimate of joys so elevated and refined as those of heaven, could he by any possibility be permitted to gaze upon them.

Hunger belt

Spiritual hunger cannot be satisfied by philosophy but only by God's provision.

The poor Bushmen, when they have nothing to eat, tie a girdle around them, and call it the hunger belt, and when they have gone a few days they pull it tighter still, and tighter still, in order to enable them to bear hunger: so any man who has to live upon himself will have to draw the hunger belt very tight indeed. A soul cannot be persuaded by philosophy to content itself without its necessary food: eloquence may try all its charms to that end, but it will be in vain.

Starving souls

Faith starves when believers feed their souls with insufficient spiritual nourishment.

The experiment of the Frenchman who had just brought his horse to live on a straw a day when it died, is being repeated among us, faith being literally starved to death. What low diet do some men prescribe for their souls. Marrow and fatness they do not even smell at!

Curiosity, Rationale Of

A child’s persistent questioning reflects a natural desire for deeper understanding.

When the child learns that he can appeal to others to eke out his store of experiences, so that, if objects fail to respond interestingly to his experiments, he may call upon persons to provide interesting material, a new epoch sets in. “What is that?” “Why?” become the unfailing signs of a child’s presence. At first this questioning is hardly more than a projection into social relations of the physical overflow which earlier kept the child pushing and pulling, opening and shutting. He asks in succession what holds up the house, what holds up the soil that holds the house, what holds up the earth that holds the soil; but his questions are not evidence of any genuine consciousness of rational connections. His why is not a demand for scientific explanation; the motive behind it is simply eagerness for a larger acquaintance with the mysterious world in which he is placed. The search is not for a law or principle, but only for a bigger fact. Yet there is more than a desire to accumulate just information or heap up disconnected items, altho sometimes the interrogating habit threatens to degenerate into a mere disease of language. In the feeling, however dim, that the facts which directly meet the senses are not the whole story, that there is more behind them and more to come from them, lies the germ of intellectual curiosity.--JOHN DEWEY, “How We Think.”

Literature, Current

Amid overwhelming modern literature, simplicity and spiritual rest nourish the soul's longing.

Current literature is like a garden I once saw. Its proud owner led me through a maze of smooth-trodden paths, and pointed out a vast number of horticultural achievements. There were sixty-seven varieties of dahlias, there were more than a hundred kinds of roses, there were untold wonders which at last my weary brain refused to record. Finally I escaped, exhausted, and sought refuge on a hillside I knew, from which I could look across the billowing green of a great rye-field, and there, given up to the beauty of its manifold simplicity, I invited my soul.

It is even so with our reading. When I go into one of our public reading-rooms, and survey the serried ranks of magazines and the long shelves full of “Recent fiction, not to be taken out for more than five days”--nay, even when I look at the library tables of some of my friends--my brain grows sick and I long for my rye-field.--_The Outlook._

New And Old

Spiritual life dies when appetite for new growth and heavenly things ceases.

See SAFETY VALVES.

NEW, APPETENCY FOR THE

Botanists tell us that when the tree ceases to make new wood it begins to die. Indeed, the only real live part of our northern trees is the part just under the bark. It may be even rotten and hollow on the inside, so long as the sap courses vigorously on the exterior the tree lives, grows and is young. So the mind begins to die when it loses its appetite for things new, when the heavenly hunger for variety ceases. (Text.)--VYRNWY MORGAN, “The Cambro-American Pulpit.”

Surface Lives

Many live superficially, missing the deep spiritual nourishment available beneath the surface.

There is plenty of light and heat in the desert. The occasional oases that cheer the traveler show that the soil is rich enough to grow vegetation. Water is the one thing it needs to make it a fertile garden. Sometimes a few feet beneath the surface there flows a river. If the parched and fainting pilgrim would pause and dig deep enough he might find the cool, clear water that would quench his thirst and help to save his life.

So many a man is content to live on the surface of life and suffer thirst of soul, whereas, if he would “let down his bucket for a draught,” the deeps of better inspiration--a true water of life--might always be reached. (Text.)

Hunger For Righteousness

Amos 8:11

In the Antarctic summer of 1908-9, Sir Ernest Shackleton and three companions attempted to travel to the South Pole from their winter quarters. They set off with four ponies to help carry the load. Weeks later, their ponies dead, rations all but exhausted, they turned back toward their base, their goal not accomplished. Altogether, they trekked 127 days.

On the return journey, as Shackleton records in "The Heart of the Antarctic," the time was spent talking about food - elaborate feasts, gourmet delights, sumptuous menus. As they staggered along, suffering from dysentery, not knowing whether they would survive, every waking hour was occupied with thoughts of eating.

Jesus, who also knew the ravages of food deprivation, said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." We can understand Shackleton's obsession with food, which offers a glimpse of the passion Jesus intends for our quest for righteousness.

The Gift of Hunger

Psalms 107:9

When a recent illness caused me to lose my appetite, it set me thinking about the nature of hunger and the purpose it serves. When one is sick and can't eat, the body grows weaker and weaker. The longer one goes without nourishment, the more one needs it, but the less energy one has to seek and possess it. The healthy body feels hunger, and while hunger is not thought of as a pleasant sensation, it is altogether necessary for our well-being.

There is a vast difference between having no appetite and having one's hunger satisfied. On the surface, the two may appear identical in that they are characterized by a lack of hunger pangs. Yet the satisfaction of hunger leads to nourishment, while the lack of hunger leads to starvation.

The Scriptures recognize this difference; they never praise the lack of hunger, but rather the satisfaction of it. The psalmist writes that God “satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (Psalm 107:9). It is not the satiated who find the Promised Land, but those whose hunger drives them to God:

He turns a desert into pools of water,

a parched land into springs of water.

And there he lets the hungry dwell,

and they establish a city to live in;

they sow fields and plant vineyards

and get a fruitful yield.” (Psalm 107:35-37)

This recognition of the good place of hunger is, I believe, a crucial difference between Christianity and Buddhism. Buddhists seek to eradicate desire so that they cannot feel pain; nirvana is a state emancipated from all desire. Christ taught us to seek the satisfaction of our desire in God, saying, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). And just as a lack of hunger could eventually lead to starvation, the extermination of desire leads to spiritual starvation.

I was recently talking to a friend who, because everything in her life was going well, had experienced a slackening of her spiritual appetite. She didn't hunger for God like she had in times less prosperous and found herself feeding on his word less and less. I'm glad that she recognized that this could only begin a vicious cycle, whereby her spirit would grow weaker and weaker unless she disciplined herself to keep feeding it. Just as when we don't feel like eating, we must continue to eat, when we don't feel our need for God, we must continue to seek him.

When my appetite returned and I sat before a nourishing meal, I found myself thanking God not just for the food that He had provided, but for the hunger that drove me to seek it. Likewise, we should bless the desires of our hearts when they make us feel our need of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Him, for they will be filled.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5839]

The Emptiness of Life Without God

Howard Rutledge, a United States Air Force pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam during the early stages of the war. He spent several miserable years in the hands of his captors before being released at the war’s conclusion. In his book “In the Presence of Mine Enemies,” he reflects upon the resources from which he drew in those arduous days when life seemed so intolerable. During those longer periods of enforced reflection it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial, the worthwhile from the waste.

For example, in the past, I usually worked or played hard on Sundays and had no time for church. For years Phyllis (his wife) had encouraged me to join the family at church. She never nagged or scolded - she just kept hoping. But I was too busy, too preoccupied, to spend one or two short hours a week thinking about the really important things.

Now the sights and sounds and smells of death were all around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for a steak. Now I wanted to know about that part of me that will never die. Now I wanted to talk about God and Christ and the church. But in Heartbreak (the name POWs gave their prison camp) solitary confinement, there was no pastor, no Sunday School teacher, no Bible, no hymnbook, no community of believers to guide and sustain me. I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of my life. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God.

Quotes On Worship

Job 1:20

"Let us worship God again in simplicity, instead of making a fool of him in splendid edifices."

-- Soren Kierkegaard, from Jack Nichols website

"Worship is the human response to the divine initiative. Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father."

-- Richard Foster, in his book "Celebration of Discipline," pp. 158-159

"The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great. If men are deprived of the infinitely great, they will not go on living and will die of despair. The Infinite and Eternal are as essential for man as the little planet on which he dwells."

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, SermonCentral.com, contributed by Roger Walterhouse

"To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God."

-- William Temple, SermonCentral.com

"Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God; it whets our appetite."

-- Eugene H. Peterson

"The most critical issue facing Christians is not abortion, pornography, the desintegration of the family, moral absolutes, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality, or school prayer. The critical issue today is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn't change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore, He changes them into "nice people."

-- Michael Yaconelli, Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith

(Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1998)

“Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God — it whets our appetite. Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship — it deepens. It overflows the hour and permeates the week.”

-- Eugene Peterson, SermonCentral.com newsletter, 2/27/06

“We tend to worship our work, work at our play and play at our worship.”

-- Gordon Dahl, 1972 (fuller quote at #33609)

“My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace, nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.”

-- Oswald Chambers

People Are Thirsty

John 4:10

Jeremiah 2:13

“My People have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

People are Thirsty!

* We were designed to enjoy satisfaction available only in God. We all long for what God designed us to enjoy: tension-free relationships filled with deep, loving acceptance and with opportunities to make a difference to someone else.

People are moving in wrong directions in response to their thirst.

* They refuse to trust God to look after their thirst. We long for the satisfaction we were built to enjoy, but we all move away from God to find it.

To be changed from the inside out means to learn how to drink from the living water of God’s unchanging love so our purpose, identity, and joy give us the courage to respond well whether life is smooth or rocky.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #19847]

A Healthy Appetite

1 Peter 2:2

I'm told that many new babies actually lose a little weight between the time they're born and the checkup they have two weeks later. Oh, not when our little granddaughter was new! No, no! And we know why. She was extremely dedicated to eating often and eating a lot. Her mother's milk obviously agrees with her. She has been one happy little girl - until it was time to eat again. At which point she would crank it up and let us know in no uncertain terms, “I'm hungry and I will not be delayed and I will not be denied!” I think that's what she said.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about “A Healthy Appetite.”

Watching my granddaughter's demand for mama's milk has actually helped me understand even more how God uses that example in showing us how to grow in Him. I feel like He's talking about my little darlin' when He says in 1 Peter 2:2, our word for today from the Word of God, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”

I know how our granddaughter was about her milk - insistent on getting it on a regular basis. Is that how you are about the spiritual milk of God's Word, the Bible? Are you insistent on getting into His Scriptures on a regular basis? Or do you consult God's Word when you have time ... when you're in a jam ... when you feel like it?

We're not talking here about some mechanical, grudging fulfillment of my Christian duty to read my Bible. Our granddaughter didn't seem to be saying, “Well, I know I'm supposed to be getting some milk. I guess it's my duty, I'd better stop and eat.” No, no, no - it's not a duty for her - we're talking about an insatiable desire. It's not occasional either - it's regular. Just like our time with the Lord in His Word needs to be. Almost every detour from God's way and God's will can ultimately be traced to neglecting our time with Him.

Time with Jesus in His Book has to be a commitment - something you insist on, no matter what. It's easy to quote the verse about “seeking first the kingdom of God” - but it's hard to believe you mean it if your time with the King isn't the highest priority of your personal schedule. Is it? Better yet, is He? Because it's all about Jesus. It's all about being with Him, not being with a Book. But like the person you love connecting with you through the love letter that they write to you, our main connection to Jesus is His Love Letter called the Bible.

Frankly, we are so clueless about how to handle this day's challenges without time getting God's perspective and God's direction. God's Word is designed to be your anchor, the one thing that doesn't move when everything else is. God gave you His Word to be your flashlight to illuminate the ground you have to walk on today. It's your harbor where you can find God's peace in any storm. And in His words, God reveals your orders from heaven for this day.

So without the heaven-link of time in God's Word, you are living a day without your flashlight, without your anchor, without your harbor, without your orders. It's time for you to make your time with God in His Word the non-cancelable, non-negotiable of your daily schedule.

It all comes down to appetite. If you've allowed an appetite for TV or sports or music or news or friends or anything else to marginalize your appetite for God's Word, things are just messed up. Ask God to give you - like a baby - a desperate appetite for more of what He has to say. It's the only way to “grow up in your salvation.”

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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #16635]

Harry Potter and the Existence of God: Sehnsucht and the Bookstore

So what’s the buzz among kids these days? A new video game? A spectacular movie? A hip new music CD? Not even close.

The hottest selling phenomenon of the summer is a BOOK. As all of us know, it’s the latest Harry Potter novel by J. K. Rowling.

It’s surprising, but the Harry Potter craze is much more than a marketing phenomenon. It’s more than just a popular page-turner. The fervor surrounding the Potter books is evidence of the human yearning for something beyond the mundane world of our daily experience.

In fact, you could say that Harry Potter is proof of the existence of God.

Kids were so anxious to get their hands on the recently released HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE that millions of the books were pre-ordered over the Internet. Thousands of parents suspended bedtimes to take their kids to the bookstores that opened at 12:01 A.M. last Saturday to sell the book.

Not only did the book smash sales records, it sent the publisher “back to the printing press” immediately for 2 million more copies. That’s in addition to the 3.8 million already distributed in this country. Gallup has found that almost a third of all parents with kids under 18 have children who’ve read a Harry Potter novel. And there are already plans for a Steven Spielberg film version.

What is it about Harry Potter that has kids turning off the TV and devouring books? The latest novel, while easy to read, is not an easy read: HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE weighs in at over 700 pages. So much for marketing experts who tell us kids lack the attention span to read big books!

What the fascination with Harry Potter really illustrates is what C. S. Lewis meant by Sehnsucht — the longing for the mysterious, the wonderful, the other-worldly that our daily experience does not satisfy.

Classical Christian thinking understood that every desire has a corresponding real object. Hunger, for example, indicates that there is such a thing as food. But in our hearts there is a desire for something we will never find in the world. Blaise Pascal called it the “God-shaped” void in the human soul. Similarly, Augustine spoke of the restlessness of our hearts that could only be satisfied by God.

The appeal of other-worldly stories like Harry Potter is that they tap into our hunger for God’s wonder. The banal world of video games, television, the pursuit of wealth, and other diversions can never satisfy this longing. The Potter craze reflects the longing in our kids’ souls for God.

But Harry Potter is not the real thing. Which is why many Christian parents are concerned about it. Nor is it the best way to satisfy our kids’ desire. But you can use the Potter craze to get kids and grandkids into something that leads them to the real thing.

Take this occasion to introduce to them to C. S. Lewis’s THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, J. R. R. Tolkien’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and George MacDonald’s THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN. These books not only recognize this yearning for wonder and magic, they also reflect a well-developed understanding of the majesty and mystery of God.

If you do this — and put your kids on to stories that recognize the real thing we all yearn for — the Harry Potter phenomenon may turn out to be a pretty good thing indeed.

Moving Beyond If

John 4:10

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3, ESV).

I remember a time when it seemed quite obvious to me that God was what I wanted. I understood what Blaise Pascal said about the God-shaped hole in my heart. And I knew Saint Augustine's words to be true: Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him. But what I had grasped cognitively, I had not grasped practically; the hole seemed only partially filled and my heart was not always at rest. I wanted to want God, I knew it was He that I ultimately wanted, and yet I was sickened with the suspicion that I had not found Him fully, because I didn't want Him enough. And so I wrestled: Do I really believe? Do I fully trust in Christ's atonement? Am I truly sorry for my sins? Am I seeking with all my heart? How can I make myself want God more?

But who can navigate through such a mess of ifs and conditions? If I work harder, if I trust more fully, if I repent more somberly or seek more fervently, then I will find Him. Still for others, the conditions we place before our relationship with God are a matter of hiding: If He really knew me, He wouldn't want anything to do with me.

We do well to digest the “ifs and thens” of Scripture, for often it is the simplest logic that escapes us in our mess of conditions. Peter's words put forth a shining thought: If you don't want God, then why are you so anxious to want to want Him? But if you have indeed tasted that the Lord is good, then why wouldn't you want more? If you have tasted the goodness of the Lord, then hunger for his Word as if a baby crying for milk.

Here, Peter exhorts us to move beyond the “if.” You have tasted the goodness of the almighty God! Let us not prefer our pain, or drag our feet, or self-examine ourselves to sickness. If you have really tasted the goodness of the Lord, then like newborn infants, yearn for what nourishes, long for the Good News of God among us, thirst for his living Word. The psalmist writes, “As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1, NIV). Praising, remembering, and longing for the presence of God, with a taunted and downcast soul, yet hiding not behind the if's of self, the psalmist waited with his eyes upon the Father.

Have you really tasted God's goodness? Then thirst after his Word, remember his goodness, his faithfulness, his attributes. As Habakkuk prayed, “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds” (3:2, NIV).

In reality, my want for God was a real one. And I had in fact found Him, although it was not yet fully realized, as life sometimes goes. In any case, and more importantly, He had found me.

When Jesus stood at the well beside the woman of Samaria, the conversation was about water but the words were about life, though she didn't realize it at first. Shocked that He, a Jew without a cup, would request a drink from her, a Samaritan with a past, she asked if He knew whom He was talking to. For surely, if He really knew her, He wouldn't want anything to do with her. Pointedly, He responded by asking if she knew whom she was talking to. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10, ESV).

Putting down her water jar, and her shame, she ran home and told everyone about the One who found her at the well. Let us taste and see that the Lord is good!

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Crave God

Luke 6:21

Sermon in Beatitudes series. Psalm 107:5-9 and Matthew 5:6

CRAVE GOD

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I. How hungry are you?

II. Hungering and thirsting.

A. Food was an important theme for Jesus. John 4, John 6:55

B. Literal hunger in Luke's version of beatitude.

C. Matthew: hungering and thirsting after righteousness.

III. Righteousness - God's demand and God's gift.

A. God's gift: we can be "made right" by God.

B. God's demand: right-living for God's sake.

IV. Someday we will be satisfied.

A. The aftermath of a Thanksgiving dinner.

B. Until that day arrives, seek him with all your heart.

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Hunger Fix

Joel 2:19

Not long ago I was in a store standing in a line that snaked its way through rows of candy. A young couple waited behind me with their daughter. The little girl seized upon some candy and asked excitedly, “Ooh, can I get this?” She was holding a tube of goo that had been colored fluorescent green. The candy makers had thoughtfully designed it so that kids could squeeze the goo right into their mouths. I have to say it was one of the least appetizing things I have ever seen. Her mother quickly responded, “No way, all that is, is sugar.”

There was a time that the sugar in a tube would have appealed to me. As children we quickly learn that sugar satisfies an appetite immediately and provides a burst of energy, not to mention a pleasing taste. We learn to recognize that sweet things are brightly colored and cleverly packaged. When we are hungry, we want whatever will satisfy us right now. It may confuse a child to hear, “That will spoil your appetite for supper,” because isn't the point of eating to satisfy your appetite? Why not just eat candy and forego supper? Anyone who has done this knows that the quick satisfaction of candy wears off just as quickly, leaving one even more hungry and weak. It is only after we learn the more lasting satisfaction of a healthy meal that we may find candy less appetizing.

But children in a checkout line rarely want to hear this and are likely to accuse their parents of being mean or stingy. I know it is tempting for us to accuse God of the same things when he denies us what we want.

It may be that there is something that you know — absolutely know — would bring you happiness. It may be hard to understand why God is denying you what you want. It may be that although God knows it would bring you a rush of happiness, he also knows the happiness it would bring is not the lasting kind. Ravi Zacharias has said, “The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced what you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has let you down.” (1)

Sometimes God refuses to satisfy our hungers because if we live from sugar fix to sugar fix, we will never learn to hunger for food that satisfies. If a child is allowed to live off of candy, she will never learn to appreciate a steak dinner. That tube of goo would have been as sweet as the little girl expected it to be, but it would probably have left her sick to her stomach. If you are gazing longingly at something out of your reach, it may be that it would only spoil your appetite for the very best that God wants to offer you.

In the 23rd Psalm, we read that God has spread a table before us. Perhaps right now the feast that God has spread before you doesn't look very appetizing. We are promised every spiritual blessing in Christ, but this may not be what you would have wished for. Yet if you will approach God's table in faith, you will “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). There is a French proverb that says, “Appetite comes with eating.” The sustenance that God gives us may not provide a sugar rush, but it satisfies us and makes us strong. You will find the quick fixes you once craved become less desirable when you eat at God's table, dining on the richest of fare.

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1. The Real Face of Atheism (Baker Books, 2004) 85.

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New Saudi King, Old System, Same Spiritual Hunger

Luke 22:25

A new king -– and new custodian of Islam’s most sacred sites -- has taken the throne in Saudi Arabia.

The ailing King Fahd, who inherited the desert kingdom his father founded and saw become the world’s biggest and richest oil producer, died Aug. 1, 2005. Crown Prince Abdullah, de facto ruler since his elder brother Fahd began suffering debilitating strokes a decade ago, now is officially the absolute monarch over more than 25 million people in Saudi Arabia.

Abdullah recently visited the Texas ranch of President Bush, who calls him a friend and ally against global terror. The new king styles himself as a moderate and a reformer, according to Saudi watchers. But he stands between powerful and opposing pressures inside and outside his kingdom: internal threats from radical Islamist forces and international demands that he democratize Saudi society and wipe out the brand of extremism that produced Osama bin Laden.

He allowed local elections (for male voters only) earlier this year and has sponsored some educational reforms. But don’t expect major change any time soon, advises “Jess Martin,”* a Christian who closely observes events in the kingdom.

Why? Because of tradition, a culture that rewards conformity and consensus –- and exclusive Islamic rule. Any other public religious expression is forbidden and punished, even among foreign workers.

Expatriate workers from Asian nations like the Philippines and Bangladesh who dare to worship Christ in home groups usually receive harsher treatment –- including arrest and imprisonment -- than Westerners. Any Saudi Arab who embraces a faith other than Islam will face persecution and possibly death.

In the economic arena, whole industries languish because of over-dependence on oil wealth and “a cultural predisposition to keep people out,” Martin says. “In Saudi Arabia, they build compounds for foreigners -- not to keep the Saudis outside but to keep foreign vices inside. They want people to come (from abroad), but they don’t want them to negatively influence society. That’s partly why the Saudis have been so unaffected by Christianity.”

A rich, essentially closed society built over four generations on the foundation of age-old customs won’t change in a few years. “You’re talking a generation, minimum,” Martin predicts.

“You see money taking great precedence in Saudi Arabia -- having money, getting more money. Having a place of honor. A lot of the current violence is about power. Who will control?”

The quest for power and control drives Osama bin Laden and many other violent Islamists much more than religious zealotry, Martin says: “Anybody who says bin Laden is a ‘puritan’ in his faith is a liar. He is about power” –- which is the real reason he seeks to “purify” the Middle East by overthrowing the Saudi royal family and other regimes in the region.

The extremists pose very real dangers inside Saudi Arabia, but they remain a minority.

“Militancy is not where the average Saudi sits,” Martin observes. “The average Saudi wants many of the same things the average American does. He wants his kids to do well in school. He wants to have a certain standard of living. He wants a good job.”

The average Saudi also knows -– deep down –- that he is spiritually lost.

“They don’t need democracy; they need an encounter with the living God,” Martin stresses. “When you go inside a Saudi’s house, and you sit and talk to him, you’ll see his heart and it is just as sinful as everyone else’s -- and he knows it. The challenge for us is: What are we going to do about it? What are we going to do in obedience to God to take Christ to the people called Saudi Arabs?”

Wherever he goes in the world, Martin challenges Christians to go to Saudi Arabia –- and to quietly share their faith when they get there. Asians keep going by the planeload because they need the jobs offered by the Saudis. But the number of American and European expatriate workers has dwindled since terrorist threats and attacks against foreigners have increased.

“In John 15, Jesus said, ‘If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also,’” Martin reminds. “I look at people who do bungee jumping and say that’s crazy. Yet, the Holy Spirit has set us free in Christ. We can take risks for His sake, knowing He will carry us through to the end.”

You don’t have to go to Saudi Arabia to share Jesus with a Saudi Arab, however. Just walk down the street, drive across town or visit a university campus.

“They’re in Houston. They’re in Orlando. They’re in Los Angeles,” Martin says. “Will we take a look at them and say, ‘They’re Muslim,’ and run away, or will we take the time to befriend them, embrace them as creations of God needing redemption and offer the only hope they have -- Christ? We’ve got to go beyond our church pews. This doesn’t just go for Saudi Arabs. We’ve got to engage all Muslims. You don’t have to go far. You just have to look at who’s around you.”

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*Name changed for security reasons

For more information on Saudi Arabs, visit www.lovesaudis.com.

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Three Sides of the Story

John 6:35

The most often visited Internet site of the summer of 2001 was reported to be that offering an interview with God. Written by an American Sunday school teacher, the website offered an imaginary question-and-answer session with God. One question was, “What surprises you most about humankind?” The answer was, “That they get bored with childhood. They rush to grow up and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.” An online measuring agency counted an amazing 2.4 million visitors in June alone. The site claimed that six million people around the world had logged on since the end of May 2001, and all this without advertising!

It seems we are still longing for a divine conversation to answer our cry. We are still looking for answers to the basic questions about life and human nature. We are still seeking the other side of the story. We are not merely biochemical machines composed of billions of atoms. There is more to us than the sum of our parts, and we are not just advanced mammals that happen to walk on two legs.

We are aware of three sides to our conscious nature. We are obviously physical beings, with appetites that are met by the physical world, and those appetites demand satisfaction from this source only. We are intelligent beings, capable of knowledge, have a strong desire to know things, and an aptitude for inquiry and long to know “why.” We are also spiritual and moral beings. This last quality is the one I'd like to focus on today.

No matter how hard we try to escape this reality, human beings have an irresistible longing that is correlated to God. This is expressed not only in an innate desire to worship, but in the need to understand what life is about — how we are to live and what we are to live for. In short, what the meaning and purpose of life is and how we can be happy. We therefore raise questions about right and wrong. We find ourselves troubled and uneasy inside because of our behavior and that of others. Sometimes a strange guilt oppresses us, but we cannot easily identify the cause. We have a sense of ultimate accountability for our actions, even when we consider ourselves answerable to no one. These feelings can be summed up in the word conscience, a self-knowledge about good and bad, right and wrong, an internal policeman whom we either ignore or heed. The Bible teaches that God has put this “law” in the heart and that only through obedience to the voice of conscience can we begin to address the spiritual longings of the moral side of our nature.

Keeping these things we know about ourselves in mind, I would argue that we no more need proof of God than a baby needs proof that food is available or that a child needs proof of things to be known. The existence of God, a recognition of accountability, and a sense of moral duty are all assumed as readily as the other categories of appetite. We may seek to escape this or reason it away (and some people resent the implications), but it lingers still.

The truth is, if we trace the problems of our own existence, at every turn our Creator confronts us. The teaching of Jesus in the Bible tackles our struggle head-on. As surely as the stomach rumbles for food and the mind questions after truth, so the soul longs for God and for virtue. Our yearnings are our appetite for God. If we fail to recognize this, unhappiness and a sense of something missing will give way to overwhelming guilt, fear, despair, and moral confusion. These feelings either grow in intensity or disappear altogether, leaving us feeling empty, without any desire for God or moral truth, like a starving stomach unable to hold down food.

The Bible presents a feast for the soul for those who will partake of it. Jesus Christ is the only remedy for our condition. But how fitting and far-reaching is his response, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never thirst” (John 6:35, NLT).

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Quotes On Worship

Job 1:20

"Let us worship God again in simplicity, instead of making a fool of him in splendid edifices."

-- Soren Kierkegaard, from Jack Nichols website

"Worship is the human response to the divine initiative. Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father."

-- Richard Foster, in his book "Celebration of Discipline," pp. 158-159

"The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great. If men are deprived of the infinitely great, they will not go on living and will die of despair. The Infinite and Eternal are as essential for man as the little planet on which he dwells."

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, SermonCentral.com, contributed by Roger Walterhouse

"To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God."

-- William Temple, SermonCentral.com

"Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God; it whets our appetite."

-- Eugene H. Peterson

"The most critical issue facing Christians is not abortion, pornography, the desintegration of the family, moral absolutes, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality, or school prayer. The critical issue today is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn't change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore, He changes them into "nice people."

-- Michael Yaconelli, Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith

(Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1998)

“Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God — it whets our appetite. Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship — it deepens. It overflows the hour and permeates the week.”

-- Eugene Peterson, SermonCentral.com newsletter, 2/27/06

“We tend to worship our work, work at our play and play at our worship.”

-- Gordon Dahl, 1972 (fuller quote at #33609)

“My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace, nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.”

-- Oswald Chambers

Curiosity

The catbird’s curiosity leads it to investigate, showing boldness and eagerness to learn.

The catbird has the courage of his convictions, and one of these convictions is that he has the right to the satisfaction of an ungovernable and enormous curiosity. Bait your bird-trap in the woods with something which strikes a bird as a curiosity that courts immediate investigation and you will catch a catbird. Other birds might start for it, but the catbird would distance them.--WINTHROP PACKARD, “Wild Pastures.”

32 Sermon Illustrations on Spiritual Hunger