Intesity Series

This is our second week in our new series that is all about trying to get the most out of the Christian life - rather than just getting the T-shirt - we want the whole enchilada, we want everything! Tonight we are talking about intensity.

We are in the middle of a campaign season. I am already tired of the commercials... I’ll be honest, I’m not voting yet. I will probably vote in the election, but I don’t do primaries. But, you know, in watching the commercials, it amazes me how politicians offer the world. Here are our problems, and here is my ten step solution... Honestly, I think they will say anything to get elected. They’ll change their position, they’ll say anything to make you like them. But tonight I want us to look at a passage of scripture, where Jesus did the opposite...

In John 6 - Jesus has just fed 5,000 people with 2 fishes and 5 loaves. It’s an amazing miracle, and the next day the crowd of people want a repeat - but Jesus saw through them... (read vs.26) Then he starts getting a little over-spiritual (read vs.35) Okay, then he starts going crazy (read vs.53-56) Well you can imagine the outcome... (read vs.66)

This is one of those passages where you begin to see that Jesus is no normal guy - as a matter of fact, you could look at this passage and say, “That guy is nuts...” Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was so passionate about wanting people to experience life with God that he described in the best way that he could... Maybe he’s right. If we really want to know God then we have to hunger after him - and long for him - and get him in us...

Very few of us have really ever been hungry. If we are honest, one of the reason’s we don’t get this passage is that we don’t understand what it really means to be hungry. So maybe for you there is something that will work - something that you have really longed for that is hard to get - maybe it’s sleep. How many of us have been there... Or maybe it’s love. I’ve been there too - wanting a relationship so bad...

A few years ago I took a trip to Bangladesh (the poorest country in the world). It was an amazing trip on a whole lot of levels. I went with a group from Houston, and there were different tasks for the whole group. My team went into some new areas - new villages - and we were looking for the man of peace. When we found that person, then one of us would start testing their water. The other one would start sharing the gospel. The way we did it was to start with the Koran. There are actually verses in the Koran about Isa, or Jesus. So we would start there, and they would be like, “Tell us more.” All week, we ate whatever was presented to us. I ate some pretty scary things. The honest truth though was that they didn’t have a lot of food. Even their chickens were skinny. I remember sitting down at this one house, and they brought out this bowl of meat. Bones sticking out everywhere, and stuff that I didn’t like looking back at me... I ate very little. Kevin had told us that they got meat once a year, so this was a big deal. I met a young man who sums up what it’s like to be hungry. He was a christian. He was probably 14. He had accepted Christ through an online Bible course - and we were the first people he had ever told. We met with him, and gave him some stuff to read, then we were leaving. he handed me a note. It asked me if I would take him. Can you imagine the desperation? Most of us have no idea what it’s really like to hunger...or to want.

Most of us have roving appetites. We have so many options that we just move from one thing to the next trying to get filled. If we don’t like option A, we just move on to option B. It’s actually a pretty big problem, because if you talk with a marriage counselor, they will tell you that they see people all the time who are willing to end a marriage on the hope that the next relationship is better. But that’s not the only place we see it... Americans are looking everywhere for things to fill the void that is within. If we are honest, many of us have tried some pretty wild stuff, just hoping that it would fill us up.

Sometimes we get wanting hunger and being filled mixed up... We get it in our head that if we want something bad enough then it will come. If we focus on it - or if we want it really really bad, then we’ll get it. The truth though is that wanting it is not enough.